6C. Empty Vessel

• In quartets, one person steps out and faces the remaining three. That per­son is called the Empty Vessel. They begin by standing in a neutral posi­tion. The three partners, which we call Messengers, one at a time, bombard the Empty Vessel with different ways, or conditions, of being. As soon as one of the Messengers approaches and presents the empty vessel with a way of being, the Empty Vessel immediately copies the form and intention. Once the Empty Vessel has copied the form and intention of the Messen­ger, the two of them collaborate on an interaction within that mode of behav­ior. They don't change that mode, expand it, shrink it, or do anything else to it. They continue to interact until another Messenger interrupts. This Mes­senger captures the attention of the Empty Vessel and presents the Empty Vessel with a very different condition of being. The next Messenger enters and replaces the first Messen­ger, who fades out. The process repeats. The Empty Vessel copies the form and intention of the next Messenger and the two interact.

• The Messengers enter at random and fairly quickly. There is no turn-taking. Whoever has an impulse approaches the Empty Vessel, driving out the former Messenger.

• The Messenger approaches the Empty Vessel expressing her currently imagined condition using one of the following forms: movement only, movement with vocalization, vocalization only, speech and movement, or only speech. She is completely engaged, mind and body. The spirit and actions are cohesive.

• Messengers, your job is to expand the range of the Empty Vessel. Not just her physical range, but her psychological and expressive range. To do that, you yourselves have to travel into outer boundaries.

• Messengers, from where do you get your inspiration? Experience the interaction of the Empty Vessel and the Messenger right before you. What's your response to that experience? Your response is what you interrupt and move in with.

• After each set, the group stops for a chat. The Empty Vessel tells the Messengers if s/he experienced any patterns going on. In other words, did Messenger One always come in with violent behaviors? Did Messenger Two come in to calm things down? Did Messenger Three come in with material that had dancerly form with little or no intention or feeling? Was there an over-abundance of relationship quibbling, or mechanical movement, or language? What areas of the human psyche were left out? Was there clear contrast in the material presented? You can give yourselves tasks for the next round, so that everybody increases their expressive vocabulary.

• Rotate so that everyone in the quartet has a turn at being the Empty Vessel.

Empty Vessel simulates and stimulates spontaneity. Many students believe they cannot be spontaneous, but as "vessel," they travel through a flow of radical shifts of realities without forethought. They don't have to make it up. That's the job of the Messengers. With multiple messenger approaches, the Vessel quickly copies actions and gets an approximation of a spontaneous experience. Within this approximation, lie clues for self-directed spontaneous action.

Messengers stand on the outside knowing that they will soon approach the Vessel with a condition of being. What do they do while they're standing there? They observe and feel through their bodies the interaction between the Vessel and the current Messenger. They experience that interaction as if it were happening to them right then, right there. They believe its reality, no distractions, no doubts. From their experiences responses spring. Not rationally, but irrationally, because the mind doesn't inhibit the body or the body inhibit the mind. An unsupressed imagination explodes.

The Messengers act as a unit, each responding to the one before, creating a scenario, cohesive chain of events, linked together by a col­lectively embodied imagination.

Parallel play: Two nine-month old humans are in a play pen. They each have a ball. They play with the balls independently, sometimes stopping to watch each other. It doesn't occur to them to share or interact. They are on their own course, in their own worlds.

Interaction: Two twenty-year old humans are in an empty room. They are each given a ball. They independently explore the balls. They will eventually throw and catch the balls to and from each other and even join in a common goal of trying to get the ball in a hoop.

As soon as the Vessel notices the entering Messenger, she joins the Messenger's world by doing what he is doing. The two don't play in this world side by side, unresponsive to each other. They play together, inter­acting, even though, they're doing the same thing. Their relationship is a dialogue. Of course, it's possible that the Messenger may introduce some form that calls for parallel play. Praying, or singing, for example. But, usually, a dialogue is appropriate.

Whether to join as a parallel or interactive partner is always a choice, no matter the form of the improvisation. Here, we're throwing light on behavior that we often perform automatically without awareness.

Does this sound familiar? You're in a locker room, changing clothes in preparation for a workout. Normally people parallel play this phenomena. No one looks at each other directly or addresses one another. Up until now, you've automatically behaved the same way. Today, you consciously see the structure of the situation. Now, you see you have a choice. You can abide by the conven­tions because you think they're reasonable or you can step through them by striking up a conversation with a person nearby. "I really like the new equipment, don't you?"

Subject/Subject and Subject/Object

If the Messenger (subject) says, "How are you?" and the Vessel (object) says, "Fine, thank you," a subject is talking to an object. If the Messenger says "How are you?" and the Vessel says, "How are you?" maintaining the intention of the Messenger, then the subject is being mirrored back to itself. Particularly with language, the Vessel and the Messenger interact not as subject/object but as subject/subject. They may subtly change the inflection to infuse the dialogue with tension and immediacy. They don't just parrot. They may even change the language as long as they maintain the Messengers intention. For example, if the Messenger says "Get out of my office," the Vessel may say, "Get out of my store."

In our daily lives, people approach us all the time with agendas. We get caught up in their agendas and reinforce them. What the other demands, we assume we must respond to; we become objects to their subjects. We take on their reality as ours. They say, "You be my object." We say, "Oh, yes, okay."

A group of people are sitting in a circle together for the first time. They've been instructed to introduce themselves to one another. Someone starts. She says her name, how she feels about being with people she doesn't know, and what inspired her to come. One by one, the rest of the people proceed to follow her lead, say­ing, more or less, the same things—their names, how they feel about being there and why they came. No one thinks of breaking the mold the original person created. They just automatically fol­low. The ninth person does something different. After saying her name, she tells a little story about an event that happened to her that morning. Her story and its recounting gives insight into who she is.

Suppose we find ourselves in disagreement with someone, not accepting their agenda, at loggerheads. If we maintain awareness and see the event from a detached perspective, these possibilities are open to us:

• We identify less with the outcome, thereby more easily adapting if the results are not in our favor.

• We experience the disagreement as an exercise of wits.We experience our seriousness with humor.

• We see our adversary as a partner in the creation of the argument's form and style.

• We see the form and style.

• We're not identified with winning anything, so we can let go of our position and listen.

• We feel comfortable letting opposing views co-exist and see interest in that.

• We're more open to sensing danger to our bodies or psyches.

In the Empty Vessel exercise, students consciously take on another's reality. Because they picked it up from their partner, they don't identify with it. It's not them. They experience this borrowed behavior as a com­bination of energy, feeling, form and belief. A costume to be experienced and released. Because it doesn't touch them personally, expose them in any way, they can get fully into it. There's nothing to lose.

Not identifying with someone else's reality is exactly what's required for students to consciously tune into their own inner experience while observant of another's passions. There's a difference between identifying and being. Suppose a Vessel is offered what appears to be an action of rage. They pick it up. If they identify with the rage, they may not be able to drop it when the next Messenger enters. There'll be a residue. Too much of their personal story gets hooked. If, on the other hand, they pick it up, knowing that this rage is not them, and don't even call it "rage," they can totally immerse themselves into the constellation of behavior that makes up this phenomenon. They become it. They need hold noth­ing back.

We can say that they pretend rage. But it's more exact to say that they pretend to pretend rage. Rage rages through them.

The Empty Vessel has been shifting without worry or thought. Mate­rial has been provided for them. They know what freely moving from experience to experience feels like. They're warmed up, ready for a solo flight.