This is part 2 of my draft treatise on ideas expressed in Planet Narnia.

I have a confession on this one. In a well-written paper, this section would be modified into part 3. I wrote this to help figure out my thoughts and ended up writing the links afterward. However, I’m not done writing that so you guys get the raw process.

‘Donegality’ can be described as the attempt to compress Experiences into the selected recreations within artistic enterprise. I wrote the above poem in response to standing in the midst of a large tropical storm, attempting to describe the every detail that assimilated, related and merged into that Experience. I failed. Similes and metaphors could have taken me down avenues of comparison and association. Yet, those avenues would have only circumscribed the Experience, not defined it. They would have connected many of the correct feelings, sensory perceptions, and thoughts together but they would not have done so in a way that mirrored the Experience. The Experience would have to be changed in order to be transmuted to the page.

Aside: This could be one reason the live stage maintains itself in the modern age. The stage (along with its viewing) is already an Experience of sorts. Theatre presses upon the whole human being in a way that emulates everyday experiences.

PUSH’s work “Galileo” springs to mind as a good example of donegal and contemplative merging. The piece centers around the human embodiment of the heliocentric solar model. Performers run around each other, partner with each other (analogous to mutual gravitational spins), and recreate the tugging and pulling of gravitational events with choreographed movements. These are the things that can be Contemplated as the work progresses. However, at the same time that these particular actions are taking place, the performers are also aware of a separate mode of performance, the Donegality.

In “Galileo”, every movement is defined by some form of ‘circle’ or ‘curve’, imitating the shape of planets, the curve of orbits, etc. Reaching for another performer is not accomplished in a straight line, the reach is accomplished by sweeping the arm through space only meeting the partner at the end of a curved path. For another example the performers are constantly focused on the emotional extension of their movements; meaning the projection of their emotions, along the lines of movement, into a larger, imaginative space than their physical mobility allows. Finally, there is the application of weight as the driving force of movement initiation throughout the work

Without the less obvious application of movement within the framework of the ‘contemplative’ movements “Galileo” would fail as a performance piece. The larger movements, running around each other for example, would jar if the performers simply stopped to violently grab their partner and begin spinning around their mutual center of gravity. Instead the performers slow down, arc their bodies and curve their arms through space as they transition between one movement and the next.

I also want to mention that this concept is readily apparent in studies into design concepts for the theatre. Sets, lights, costumes, sound, etc… have for years been supplying this donegal element in the theatre. A scene can be thoroughly defined by its trappings and accouterments just as easily as its dramatic content.