How Does Oracle Work?
WAKING THE ORACLE is an immersive healing activation experience for all-ages that can be set in cities, organizations, schools and more. Oracle blends contemplative and reflective spaces, collaborative and participatory creative innovation, and shared meaning making and learning in social creative settings with song, dance, myth, poetry, participatory art, community building, and site specific social content that needs attention and healing.
THE FIVE ORACLE INGREDIENTS
1) Oracle Songs & Soundtrack. Oracle weaves a continuous electronic sound and musical foundation, which includes recordings of the natural world, with a set Oracle songs that appear in each Oracle event. The set Oracle songs include: Sparksong, Listen, Reciprocity, Now Now, and Snooze some of which were developed as part of Firerock (go to www.firerockmusical.com to learn more about the project that informed Oracle and learn about the Firerock team).
2) Local Expressions, Myth & Current Issues of Concern. Each site has different issues that are critical to address as well as unique expressions and participants. In DC the premiere included giving George Washington’s bust (there are many statues of just his head) another chance at living a life with empathy in harmony with others and the planet. George got the help of Tawret, the Egyptian Goddess of Fertility, inspired by another statue - this one of a hippo on George Washington campus. Founder Molly Sturges and her team worked with local participants over six weeks to identify, sculpt and include this content into the piece. The cultural flavors of each site are woven into the experience in surprising, highly creative and whimsical ways. Something to note- statues in any location are often a great indicator of areas of focus for social healing in that community/area/city.
3) Oracle Helpers. Oracle helpers appears in each show and new ones are added for each specific site and created through participatory workshops. Core Oracle helpers/characters included: The Breath of Life, The Blessing Angels, Gaia (spirit of the earth), The Crow, Queen of the Wildwood (a majestic tree), Courage, Fear and Love (the great duality), Queen Bee, The Truth Teller, The Sun and more. Local helpers in the DC/GWU premiere included The Red Cardinal and Tawret the Hippo Goddess. Local helpers might even include local heroes or even dancing foods (for example people around GWU love tater tots- we could have considered dancing tater tots for the premiere ).
4) Oracle Moveable Environment. Oracle will always center around a light pool much like a fire pit fundamental to human culture and how we have always gathered.
5) Community Engagement & Education. Oracle develops the local add-in materials through participatory creative workshops that can be light on their feet, only a few hours long, or in longer week/s long residencies. They can even be developed over semesters through on-site courses. Sturges works with participants to include creative voices based upon who is present and if there is call for actual performance roles - for any number of performers. The piece is scaleable and can be done with as few as 4 imported core Oracle performers and up to hundreds of community members of any level of experience. The piece also rests upon meaningful community partnerships that take time and cultivation to care for.
How the ORACLE premiere was developed:
Waking the Oracle is a new creative catalyst that brings people together into an inspirational creative activation for the health of our beautiful planet.
This world premiere was developed over the first two months of William Corcoran Visiting Professor, Molly Jane Udaya Sturges’ year as a visiting professor at GWU. First Molly Sturges and long-time collaborator Luis Guerra built the electronic sonic foundation of Oracle including recordings of the natural world. Then, new live musical elements were written by Professor Sturges, developed with students, and arranged by musical director, Rod Demmings. The Oracle songs also included new arrangements of songs from the project that informed Oracle, Firerock (www.firerockmuscal.com). Through devised creative sessions with students over six weeks mythical materials were developed specific to DC and George Washington University.
On-site Molly identified two local characters and an approach to local myth making at GWU that could be connected to climate change. What better inspiration than the bust statue of George Washington and the hippo statue on campus? The myth was conceived of the re-birth of George with a body connected to a heart because of the earth with the guidance of Tawret, a real hippo goddess widely worshiped in ancient Egypt as the goddess of fertility. The mythical element explores the theme of disconnection from our living body of the earth and takes the stance of actively healing, protecting, serving and loving our world towards balance.
GWU Students worked in rehearsals over two months to sculpt the piece, developing characters for the wide-range of student actors and musicians in the class. Angels, Courage, the Breathe of Life, The Living Questions, Gaia, Queen of the Wildwood, Queen Bee, Cardinal, Crow, Otter, Sun, Duality (fear & love), and more were brought to life by the company!
Molly Jane Udaya Sturges (composer, social practice artist/director, performer, educator) has created with individuals and communities around the globe for over twenty-five years with a focus on creativity, healing, contemplative practice and social transformation. Molly is currently the William Wilson Corcoran Visiting Professor in arts and community engagement at the Corcoran School of Art and Design. She is a United States Artist Fellow in Music and works globally on a range of projects. www.mollysturges.com.