Bull of Heaven

Gilgamesh and Enkidu fight the Bull of Heaven - what is the bull? scale, ability, figure, proportion, figurative or literal? It splits the earth several times so deeply people fall into the crevices. The heros fight it, kill it, quarter it and throw the tail at Inanna. How does the bull break the earth? How does it fly down from heave? How do Inanna and her father fly?

Gilgamesh swims

Gilgamesh swims to the bottom of the river and pulls a flower from the rocks - swimming, water, beach, breath

Gilgamesh drags a corpse

Gilgamesh carries Enkidu's dead body around for weeks in varying stages of decay.

The Heros Fight the Mighty Humbaba

Gilgamesh and Enkidu fight the mighty Humbaba - what is Humbaba? He is seven shields, seven layers of protection. He is a Chimera made of seven animals protected by seven "spirit" shields. Yes, think Anime. Thats the closest understanding I have of him. His misery is what gives him power. And he's miserable because he is an immortal creation who can not find joy because none of his parts serve any purpose other than defense. Never love. And so he is eternally miserable. His voice is a bellow so great when it rolls through the forest it kills those within a day's journey, a wind that sucks all hope from you (Harry Potter, can you name a few more?), specifically the moment when Gilgamesh has been struck hopeless and Enkidu saves his life, killing Humbaba.

Gilgamesh Meets Enkidu

Gilgamesh meets Enkidu - they fight then fall in love, puppet combat, stylized fighting a la bunraku, anime, etc. How do they maintain gravity? later, what does this overlap with? Ninsun asking Aruru for help? Is Gilgamesh speaking to Utnapishtim about what he does while he does it with Enkidu? juxtapositions Fighting without looking silly unintentionally. Intentional control, happy accidents. I would prefer no slap dancing but I'll go there if we're stumped.

Urshanabi and Death's Deep Lake

I am totally fascinated with the physicality in this passage. It will be a puzzle, but should be a lot of fun to figure out. Slashing through the jungle, crushing the stone pillars, crossing death's deep lake in a canoe made of bundled poles pushed across a lake full of death and decay - speed, hands, boat, poles, scale, dynamics.

The text for this passage:

Death's Deep Lake

Gilgamesh:

Urshanabi, the Boatman?

Urshanabi: (Inspecting Gilgaemesh for signs of life and purpose, he finds clues on Gilgamesh's person. he speaks mostly to himself)

Hmmm, you have not seen your home in a very long time.

Gilgamesh:

I’ve come to see Utnapishtim, great father of us all who survived the flood.  




Urshanabi:
No bed, no roof, wandering aimlessly in the wild. You passed through Mashu like a champion, did you not? Yes, we saw you. Yes, hell itself is part of how you look. 

Gilgamesh:

You are the boatman, aren’t you? I can smell the sweet sick of death on you. 

Urshanabi:
Hmmm, an overlord, king... perhaps.

Gilgamesh:

I am Gilgamesh. Take me across this sea of the death. 

Urshanabi:
Ah, yes... you are two parts Anunnaki, one part Adamu. 

Gilgamesh:

I am not a refugee wandering aimlessly. I am High Council of our creator, Enki, and King of his city Uruk. 


Urshanabi:
You have grief dripping from your shoulders. You wreak of despair. 

Gilgamesh:

I grieve for Enkidu,  my companion and true friend. Death has reached him first and left me to weep and wail for his shriveling corpse which scares me. Death now scares me. I’ve wandered so long... I can’t stop pacing and crying.

Urshanabi:
Definitely broken. Hell is definitely a part of you. Your face is pinched and your eyes do not look right... jumping about like a mad man!

Gilgamesh: (grabbing Urshanabi by the clothes)

I am mad. I bleed from weeping. My breath burns with agony. I seek my way to Utnapishtim who lives free, beyond the grasp of death’s deep lake. Now, tell me how to get there so I may learn his secrets and I will bother you no more.

Urshanabi:

All right then. If you seek Utnapishtim, you must activate the portal that carries my ship over the ocean. Just retrace your steps through the jungle until you reach the valley. There you will find a large ring of stones. The instructions are on the stone. Go now and we will be transported to the other side. (Gilgamesh sets him down. Straightening himself...)

Perhaps you saw the stones on your way here. Oh, wait! That’s right. On your rampage through the jungle your axe felled each one of them. (he points) Without the Anunnaki' portal, there is no safe passage. Your blasphemy has undone your purpose. 

Gilgamesh: 

My purpose hasn’t even begun. I am no fool, boat-man. You will take me across in your boat!

Urshanabi:

(aside) Ah... what to do with the living?  

I am the "Ferry-man" if you must.  My vessel travels over the ocean, not in it. Without that portal, you are lost. 

Giglamesh:
Enkidu! (Gilgamesh falls to his knees unable to cry)

Fine. Pick up your ax, broken king. Cut a thousand poles and bind them together to build a boat. And then cut a hundred extra poles to push you across. Be forewarned, do not let the water touch your hands. You can never use the same pole twice. 

Gilgamesh sets sail in a reed boat with nothing but the clothes on his back and his war ax on his belt. Each pole he presses into the water becomes lodged in a mire of hands and spray. With all his superhuman strength he gives the poles, one after the other, a mighty shove before they are swallowed into the water. He skims across the waves of reaching hands, slapping against the hull, fingers grasping at the reeds. Ninety nine, one hundred... with one mighty push he sails toward the shore. Slowing in the greedy tide, Gilgamesh stands and opens his arms, his robes becoming a sail in the wind. 

Gates of Mashu and the Scorpion Guards

Gilgamesh climbs his way to the top of mount Mashu - deliriously cursing his way up the mountain to the gate protected by scorpion guards. Scale, surface to climb, earth moving below, Scorpion guards abilities limitations and scale, character and physiology...

Scene 1  Mashu - the sun’s passage from dusk to dawn through the blackness of night. It is a razor thin ridge across the deepest pit through the internal world of the mind.

Wandering through the wilderness dressed in the skins of animals he has killed along the way, Gilgamesh comes to the sacred mount Mashu, which guides the path of Shamash, the sun. It is the gate into night and tomorrow. We hear his mutterings as he approaches the scorpion guards. 

At the gates on mount Mashu

Gilgamesh:

Curses on the gate that smashed his hand.

Scorps:

One comes toward us.

Scorp 1:

Yes, one comes toward us.

Gilgamesh:

Curses on the Kashiwho discovered him. 

Scorp 2:

But one is partly divine, dear.

Scorp 1:

One partly divine, dear. I would know what brings one on so long a journey before one is devoured. 

Scorps:

Devoured one.

Gilgamesh:

Curses on Shamhat who stole his innocence. Curses on Humbaba who injured him.

Scorp 2:

Subside! One has traveled a great distance and climbed a great height. I am curious. One who looks so near death, what brings one to us? Speak now.

Scorp 1:

Why has one come to Mashu?

Gilgamesh:

Curses on me who brought him to fame. Curses on Inanna for having him killed. 

Why does he lie  dead in the underworld while I live? My brother. My twin. 

Scorp 2:

One’s brother has died?

Gilgamesh:

Kings and Queens kissed the ground he walked upon. The aged men and women of Uruk mourn for him and turn their palms toward heaven in prayer for him. The animals of the wild who were his mother and father weep for him. The rivers Ulay and Euphrates swell with their tears. Everywhere that is touched by the light of Shamash knows of my brother Enkidu. Rugged men and tender children alike shed tears at the loss of his inspiration. And yet I wander alone through the step where he was found through the desert and mountain alike. And now I cry for you Enkidu. Now I scream like some mad woman for you were my family. You were the ax on my belt, the sword in my scabbard, my shield in battle. What devil came and took you from me?

Scorp 2:

  One is quite wretched with grief.  But what brings one to mount Mashu?

Scorps:

Wretched one.

Gilgamesh:

Why? When we met we fought and loved and, with the blessing of Shamash, we humbled the beast Humbaba. My people were joyous. Enkidu was my brother and now he lies in some sleep like spell. And the voice of grief, like a blanket, covers the land. 

Scorps:

Wretched one.

Gilgamesh:

I must find a way to wake Enkidu from this spell. I must save my people from the darkness that poisons their dreamless sleep. I come seeking passage to the lands beyond where I might find Utnapishtim. He is both the master of eternal life and death eternal. His answers will free my people from this plague of grief. He will know how to awaken Enkidu.

Scorp 1:

No mortal has ever come to know what one seeks here. No one has come so far, and none have made this passage through the eternal darkness of night. While Shamash sleeps, the light of his sun shines no where. 

Scorp 2:

The bosom of this mountain rests on the bowels of the underworld. If One fell one would fall all day and all night into the pit before reaching hell! 

Scorp 1:

To where I let no one go, to where I forbid anyone to enter, there is no light and there is no heat. 

Scorp 2:

One passes through eternal freezing night. 

Scorps:

Shamash sleeps.

Scorp 2:

One is quite dejected. Pitiful. 

Scorp 1:

Near death already.

Scorps:

Pitiful one. Dejected. Wretched.

Sorp 1:

Gilgamesh I command one to go and cross the razor ridge of this mountain. I grant you passage. May the Anunnaki  guide you. 

We see him passing through eternal freezing night along a narrow path to the other side of the mountains and then down into lush green valleys. After the chanting has faded out we begin to hear Siduri signing her song about the cool waters of her well and the relief they bring of all that troubles life. 

Crossing Mashu

Mashu - literally a razor thin passage the sun takes through darkness from dusk til dawn, figuratively a psychological passage through the space between the hemispheres of the brain... don't lean to either side or you'll lose your balance. What and how much of his psychological state does the audience get to explore during this passage?

Mashu - the sun’s passage from dusk to dawn through the blackness of night. It is a razor thin ridge across the deepest pit through the internal world of the mind. 

We see him passing through eternal freezing night along a narrow path to the other side of the mountains and then down into lush green valleys. After the chanting has faded out we begin to hear Siduri signing her song about the cool waters of her well and the relief they bring of all that troubles life. 

Until then he climbs along this razor ridge being sure not to lean to far to one side or the other lest he fall into that blackness that takes all day and night and the next day to reach the bottom. 

A List

This is a list of elements, ideas, moments, actions, emotions during the story that I find interesting and want to investigate.

topics:

performance skills

exercises and training in perception and projection - concepts of active versus passive action when translating movement into animation

using actors as set: mountains, alters, boats, aircraft, other technology, water, wind

projection, cutouts, action tracking? 

shadow play surfaces: tent,  costume 

puppet prototypes 

costumes for puppets and performers

challenges:

always... gravity, focus and breath

sky - stars, clouds, air traffic 

temple interactions - cerimonial actions vs. literal communications

antigravity - aircraft, magic or what?

"godliness"
tropes/tropic evasion

characters

Enkidu - animal movement/style vs. man movement, shadow? interactions w/ hunters vs. Shamhat vs. 

Gilgamesh - brooding/selfish/closed/indifferent then bright-eyed/adventurous/driven/in love then sullen/stricken/morose then compelled/agonized/blind then drugged and seduced then rageful rampage then wild/demanding/challenging death then exhausted/collapsing/weak then lost/hopeless/desperate then hopeful

Huwawa - scale, scope, sound, projection, combat

bull of heaven - scale, scope, sound, projection, combat, tail, hoof legs, Centaur?  Minotaur? Flying?

Urshanabi’s boat - crossing the deep lake of death, boat, puppet, poles black light? arms on poles, timing

Mashu - the passage through darkness from dusk til dawn, the space between the hemispheres of the brain

Siduri’s ale house - fabric, costume?, body parts, building structures?, furniture? dream state/seduction/drunkenness relationship dynamics, physicality of emotional dynamics and power dynamics


Ut-Napishtim - like a healthy middle aged man, but 900+ years wise.  speaks with Anunnaki, talks and guides Gilgamesh. Is he serious or also humorous?

Anunnaki-ism - anatomy/physiology/kinesiology, powers, strengths/weaknesses, technology/magic, presence & communications at altars via presence/projection/possession/surrogate? i.e. conversation between Mami (Aruru in Akkadian), the Anunnaki (goddess) of Creation, and her priestess Ninsun. Or between Gilgamesh and Shamash, Anunakki (god) of the Sun. What is the reality of the "gods" and how does it interact with ours? or not?

At Janie's suggestion I am selecting images, snapshots, moments of the story that I want to focus on, moments of the story that have emotional significance. Text will follow at a later time. In the stead, I'll post dialogue or story descriptions, should none exist. This is a logical next step to me since it requires me to communicate in images, both from research and sketches I'll make,  what I see in my head. I'll post research images below, or above, as is the case with blogger, in different posts separated by topic/story moment. We can then each post images and comments and view it all in the lab on my ipad or with a projector.
I'll always be able to record images and actions in workshop so I can post those daily too for everyone's convenience.

Obviously the list of ideas and images grows quickly so I'll prioritize a short list and we can focus on them in order moving ahead as we progress and adapting as we make discoveries.
I've dropped the class I had after lab so I can immediately respond on here to what we do in lab.

I am more interested in process than product as I am learning for myself new approaches to generating material. I have a huge bag of thea-tricks. The real trick is not using them. For me that means learning to, essentially, feel my way through the process this year. For me the workshop/production weeks will be a time to test the theories we come up with. Until then it's time to play.



Gilgamesh climbs his way to the top of mount Mashu - deliriously cursing his way up the mountain to the gate protected by scorpion guards. Scale, surface to climb, earth moving below

Mashu - literally a razor thin passage the sun takes through darkness from dusk til dawn, figuratively a psychological passage through the space between the hemispheres of the brain... don't lean to either side or you'll lose your balance. What and how much of his psychological state does the audience get to explore during this passage?

Urshanabi's boat - crossing the deep lake of death in a boat mad of bundled poles pushed across a lake full of death and the dead. Speed, hands, boat,  poles. I am totally fascinated with the physicality of this passage. It will be a puzzle but should fun to figure out.

Gilgamesh meets Enkidu - they fight then fall in love, puppet combat, stylized fighting a la bunraku, anime, etc. How do they maintain gravity? later, what does this overlap with? Ninsun asking Aruru for help? Is Gilgamesh speaking to Utnapishtim about what he does while he does it with Enkidu? juxtapositions Fighting without looking silly unintentionally. Intentional control, happy accidents. I would prefer no slap dancing but I'll go there if we're stumped.

Gilgamesh and Enkidu fight the mighty Humbaba - what is Humbaba? He is seven shields, seven layers of protection. He is a Chimera made of seven animals protected by seven "spirit" shields. Yes, think Anime. Thats the closest understanding I have of him. His misery is what gives him power. And he's miserable because he is an immortal creation who can not find joy because none of his parts serve any purpose other than defense. Never love. And so he is eternally miserable. His voice is a bellow so great when it rolls through the forest it kills those within a day's journey, a wind that sucks all hope from you (Harry Potter, can you name a few more?), specifically the moment when Gilgamesh has been struck hopeless and Enkidu saves his life, killing Humbaba.

Gilgamesh carries Enkidu's dead body around for weeks in varying stages of decay.

Gilgamesh swims to the bottom of the river and pulls a flower from the rocks - swimming, water, beach, breath

Gilgamesh and Enkidu fight the Bull of Heaven - what is the bull? scale, ability, figure, proportion, figurative or literal? It splits the earth several times so deeply people fall into the crevices. The heros fight it, kill it, quarter it and throw the tail at Inanna. How does the bull break the earth? How does it fly down from heave? How do Inanna and her father fly?

URUK

Gilgamesh as he is typically depicted

His city, Uruk (or Erech depending on who's language recorded the history) lies between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. 

Remains of Uruk and the ziggurat  exist today and may even be seen on Google Maps 

Several people have built models of what they imagine the ziggurat to have looked like. 

Temple of Inanna (Ishtar)

goddess Inanna

clay cylinder of the heros fighting Humbaba

Virgin Sacrifice

The virgin sacrifices leading to the death of the chaste and, eventually, non-virgins as well, only became deadly when once the Anunnaki left the planet en mas. Prior to that, the Adamas were accustomed to regularly volunteering their best and brightest to go with the Anunnaki not to be murdered, but to become one of them living on the tenth planet, Niburu.

It would stand to reason that the ziggurats, the flat topped pyramids were built as docking platforms or transportation ports for the smallest of ships or devises. Whereas the larger ships would occupy, say,  the top of a mountain surrounded by sacred forests guarded by a Moreauvian beast named Huwawa. A port of this type on a planet occupied world wide by the same advanced technology would be visited by many ambassadors and business emissaries on a regular basis. These would be the officials and messengers and leaders of the Anunnaki. And so the towers of babel would have good reason to house so many official translators traveling about doing daily business on a planetary level. Once the powerful "gods" were gone, the desperate Adamas would be vulnerable to all the failures of a kingdom that define our written history including the re/misinterpretation of oral and pictographic history and the actions of their forefathers leading eventually to violent bloodletting in most societies. The best and brightest being sacrificed to the organic symbols for technology they didn't understand. A transport beam is described and painted as a pillar of fire and years later substituted by real fire. A flying/sub machine that fires projectiles or ray technology or uses rockets is described as a flying reptile that rules the water and spits fire in the rediscovery of technology would be shrugged off as mythological  mysticism created by the uninformed.

Niburu travels in a solar elipse equal to 3600 earth years. This elipse has a particularly strong impact on earth's polarity and tectonic stability effecting drastic tidal shifts and occasionally causing a rapid ice age. To combat this, each time a seed ship is loaded with all the DNA required to repopulate the planet, Adama caretakers are chosen and they secure the future investments of Earth against gravitational damage from Niburu leaving the solar system. The subsequent recession of oceanic water exposes great cities now sealed in stone. When Niburu is in range of the sun, Earth becomes their home base while they mine the other planets for their resources and replenish their gene pool with healthy sun-drenched bodies for the next 3600 year cycle into deep space. 

After the exodus of the Anunnaki, along with their knowledge, technology and care taking, the Adamas were left with only Enki and his empire to protect the planet. Most of their focus and energy are spent inside Earth keeping it a stable and functioning life producing satellite around the sun. They work with the governments to keep the planet's needs as well as the Adamas evolution in line with the needs of the Anunnaki. 

Where is Enki now? If we were made from his DNA and some junk ape DNA. According to the texts, we look like them. We are made so much in their image that they find us sexy. So Enki and the rest are likely right here with us. Perhaps they are vampiric in a sense that they travel through space in stasis and require the pure blood of a youth not yet defiled by the dirt of lustful pursuit to transfuse life into their space-weary flesh. Regardless, I take the stance that the Anunnaki were not slave owners, but creaters/caretakers of the Adamas who play an important part in their lives. From our perspectives we are our bodies and our lives begin when we are born. We amass an identity from our catalogue of experiences and our lower reptilian/ape brain functionality convinces us that's what we are. If we transcend this mind, and activate the higher brain, the pineal gland and open the conscious awareness enough we realize that while this life is the perspective of this body, this consciousness is also that of our Enki, on Niburu, creator of us all, including Ut-Napishtim (aka Noah) whose name means "father of us all who survived the flood."

Another train of thought involves transit portals/wormholes beneath the oceans and/or cities associated with them may still be the homes or bases of operation for the Anunnaki who continue to manage the human element. The rapid increase in technology over the past couple of centuries could indicate the return of Niburu.

At this point I ask IF Gilgamesh lived about 3600 years ago during a time when the Anunnaki were around and if the Anunnaki left on Niburu which ravels a 3600 year cycle, then has our rapid technological advancement and our subsequent presence in space this past century developed in direct relation to the impending elliptical return of Niburu, the Anunnaki and God the Creator, in all his glory, come to judge the quick and the dead.

To be a sacrificial virgin would needs be an initiate into the heavenly guard, to become god's messenger, an immortal who stands to lose their ignorance and transcend their physical lives as they know it in order to travel thousands of years into deep space. They would have to give up this life in order to gain it. They would have to be reborn into a new understanding of reality. 

So in this production the telling of the story is part of an initiation, the sacrifice of the ignorance of the player of Gilgamesh, the innocence of the virgin player of Enkidu as he is  He has discovered the temple of Enki and he wants in. Once he is in, the only way out alive is to pass through the ritual... to "die" and be reborn. To gain truth, innocence must be sacrificed or there is no change and a callous is developed. The audience and the virgin represent the innocence of humanity in our infantile understanding of the universe and our position in it.