Review: REGENERATION FESTIVAL makes us all actors, in Taos, Espanola, And Beyond

Writing about the 6th Annual Regeneration Festival that was held internationally through this Labor Day weekend, I know I'm stretching my purview as a 'theater' reviewer. However, 'performance' permeated the pieces of the Festival I saw, in Espanola and Taos (only a fraction of the total events): performance as a procession, a ceremony, a blessing song, a dialogue with youth...and there were conventional performances too, at the afternoon open mic in the park, which led into headliners Frank Waln and Wake Self. Besides, whether conventional or not, the Regeneration festival accomplished the primary goal of performance: To grip us, move us, and leave us changed.

The festival originated in Taos, whose market is saturated with festivals---modern music bonanzas, studio tours, and traditional community gatherings---so one may think the event might have too much competition. But for this gathering, the 'state of the market' is expressly beside the point. The festival tagline: "Not commodified." Everything in the festival, even the food, is free. And there is a virility in this assertion that demands attention, despite the saturation.

As powerful as this assertion may be, that power is merely the logical outcome of the Festival's primary purpose: to actualize the necessary positive response to a tragic global epidemic of hopelessness. The festival was founded by now-27 year old Lyla June Johnston as a response to a spike in an already-bleak trend of youth suicide and drug abuse---the goal of the event is to end this trend.

Avoiding the economic system is simply a method that promotes community strength, compelling individuals to support each other and share their gifts, instead of relying on commodities. I see this as a performative choice-and more effective than any I have found under the proscenium. The festival is theater whose stage is life as it is lived. There is no need to interpolate the 'meaning' of the performance from an abstraction of imaginary circumstances; the example, a fresh and healthy collaborative paradigm in action, is clear enough.

Again, with this statement, I may be pushing the envelope on my reviewer's purview. In my head, I can hear a chorus of angry theater purists, shouting: 'Theater is not supposed to invade our world! We stage imaginary circumstances in order to reflect reality! How can we reflect upon what is amongst us?'

Well, true; and I won't break the old mirror in light of the new---but what the Festival creates is an audience that is able to engage and inform the mirror. To activate, in real time, the effect that the performance has upon them. What other theater can compel two hundred people to fast, then walk eight miles, then pray together---and tie those prayers as flags to the railings of the Rio Grand Gorge Bridge, raising urgent awareness for that site of too many suicides, blessing the souls who have already passed there?

So forgive me, purists, but I gained something from this performance---collaboration of many communities, hundreds of actors---that I have not even seen hinted at in the comparatively static reflections of the stage. In the Regeneration festival, I became an actor alongside all the rest, cast into a meaningful role within a broad drama: the urgent struggle against despair, destitution, and destruction that continues to unfold across our planet.

And what exactly is the role I found? Well, here, I am The Critic. For unconventional as much as for conventional theater, my job is to identify the weak parts of a performance alongside the strong. Particularly, the Festival planners should consider: comedic relief, clearer roles for the audience-actors, and more-strategic direction.

The tragic inspiration for the Festival and the urgency of its purpose cast a shade of tension and gloom over the proceedings, which although at times appropriate, tended to squelch the sense of celebration. A little more humor and silliness---to be fair, there was a water balloon fight---would have gone a long way. Another way to dynamize the experience would have been to offer more venues where participants could engage---there were impactful sweat lodges and ceremonies, but the one of the most active venues for participation, the open mic, was long and quickly-booked. What if audience performance were organized into smaller circles, to preserve the intimacy, increase the involvement, and quicken the pace? Finally, despite the heavy emphasis on heavy themes, there was a lack of clear strategy on how to address those themes---besides attending the Festival. The intense, four-hour youth forum for example---arguably the most participative event, where high schoolers opened up about crucial topics like drug use, abuse, and suicide---ended with a heartfelt catharsis and willingness to meet again soon, but few new skills or methods for how to address these topics into the future.

My criticisms express the complications inherent in a participative performance: Namely, how the whole rehearsal of regular theater---casting, staging, characterizing, and so on---must be conducted with the audience present, condensing an extensive artistic process into just a couple of days. And when the themes of this performance address such weighty matters, this can make the directorial responsibilities inherent in the theatrical process quite unwieldy.

Despite this, Lyla Johnston and the planners of the Regeneration Festival wielded this responsibility well---it was a beautiful weekend. Next year, hopefully they will not need to bear so much responsibility alone. As the Festival grows, the local/global community should begin to realize that there are no real limits to their roles in this performance--at the Regeneration Festival and in the world-at-large. The whole process is theirs, to co-create the result they want to see (and live within).

Photo credit: Joshua Berman

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