In addition to the traditional teachings and practice of Buddhism, one of the Venerable Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche's interests was to take elements of the existing North American culture, and transform them so that they would serve as a suitable vehicle for Buddhist teaching. An early step in this direction was the establishment of the Mudra Theater group.
In 1972, Trungpa Rinpoche developed a series of mantra-like "sound cycles" for the training of mind and speech. In the winter of 1972-1973, Trungpa Rinpoche and some of his students hosted a theater conference in Boulder, which brought together members of experimental theater groups from across the United States, including the Open Theater, the Byrd-Hoffman, and the Provisional Theater. Prominent participants at this conference included Lee Worley, Jean-Claude Van Itallie, and Robert Wilson. Following the conference, Trungpa Rinpoche presented a group of his students who had participated with a series of "mudra theater exercises" ("mudra" refers to a symbolic gesture), based on traditional Tibetan monastic dance and Tibetan yoga, which focused on principles of center and space and their mutual intensification and diffusion. This reflected Trungpa Rinpoche's emphasis on training body, mind, and speech rather than staging conventional theatrical performances.
The Mudra group's first director was David Rome, who was quickly succeeded by Andrew Karr, who led the group, along with Trungpa Rinpoche, until 1976. When Trungpa Rinpoche established the Nalanda Foundation in January, 1974, Mudra Theater was designated as one of the foundation's main divisions. At about this time, Trungpa Rinpoche also presented the Mudra group with the script for their first perfomance, entitled Prajna, which he based on the Heart Sutra, an important collection of Mahayana Buddhist writings. Mudra premiered this piece at the second Mudra Theater Conference, and also performed it at the "Dharma Art Festival" in San Francisco in October, 1974 and at the Naropa Institute.
In addition to Prajna, Mudra staged or worked with a number of plays by Trungpa Rinpoche, including Sandcastles and Kingdom of Philosophy (1972), and Water Festival (1976). While Mudra Theater and the Naropa Institute were formally distinct divisions of the Nalanda Foundation, both were based in Boulder and used many of the same facilities. In addition, many Mudra members were also active with Naropa, most notably Lee Worley, who created Naropa's theater program, and was also a founding member of Mudra.
Naropa's own theater training program was based on "mudra" principles, and the Mudra Theater group occasionally performed at Naropa. It is probable that this close working relationship led to some of Mudra's work being recorded by the Naropa Institute's video project. Although productions from Mudra's repertory are now rarely performed, the training exercises are still being taught, especially in Europe, as "mudra space awareness training". The Naropa Institute's Theater program also continues to use elements of "mudra training". The video recording of the Venerable Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche conducting theater exercise at Tail of the Tiger was made by Mr. Jeff Krouk, who donated the recording to the Vajradhatu Archives (now Shambhala Archives) in 1992.
All of the other video recordings in this fonds were maintained in the custody of their creating agency, the Naropa Institute, until the late 1970s. At this time, the recordings came into the possession of the Vajradhatu Office of Publications. Volunteers cleaned, packed, and inventoried the video recordings, and Vajradhatu Recordings (now Kalapa Recordings) stored them until 1988, when, following Vajradhatu's move from Boulder to Halifax, N.S. and the establishment of a formal Vajradhatu Archives (now Shambhala Archives), the recordings were housed in the climate-controlled vaults of the Public Archives of Nova Scotia to stabilize their fragile condition. At this time, the video reels were reboxed, and a new inventory was prepared by the Shambhala Archives.
The Naropa Institute donated the recordings to the Shambhala Archives in 1992. Between 1992 and 1994, the Shambhala Archives, in partnership with the Naropa Institute and the Public Archives of Nova Scotia, implemented a Video Recovery Project, in which some of the recordings in this fonds were transferred to more stable video formats. Fonds consists of video recordings of several theatrical performances and workshops conducted by the Mudra Theater group in Boulder in the mid-1970s.
One of the performances recorded is the Boulder debut of Trungpa Rinpoche's play Prajna, directed by Andy Karr, and one of the workshops was recorded with Trungpa Rinpoche acting as camera operator. There is also an interesting video of Trungpa Rinpoche leading a group of students in mudra theater exercises at Tail of the Tiger in Vermont in July, 1973. The video recordings in this fonds provide what may well be the only surviving audio-visual record of the early years of the Mudra Theater group.
Title based on the contents of the fonds.
Video reels show evidence of the problems inherent to the 1/2 inch
reel to reel video format, notably deterioration of signal, loss of lubricant
or binder, and oxide shedding.
Video reels transferred in Video Recovery Project were vacuum cleaned
during transfer.
Video reels donated to the Shambhala Archives by the Naropa Institute
or by Mr. Jeff Krouk in 1992.
Videocassette copies, in S-VHS, 3/4inch-SP, and VHS formats, are available
for transferred videos in the Shambhala Archives.
Due to preservation concerns, access is permitted to videocassette
copies only.
Copyright for all recordings in which the Venerable Chögyam Trungpa
Rinpoche (VCTR) appears is held by Shambhala Archives and Diana J. Mukpo.
[For all recordings in which VCTR does not appear, copyright is held by
the Naropa Institute and the artist(s) appearing in the recording.]
Inventory accompanies description.
Associated materials may be found in the Naropa Institute Allen Ginsberg
Library.
Further accruals are not expected.
Related materials may be found in the following fonds of sound recordings:
Nalanda Foundation fonds. These are described in: The Guide to the Sound
Recordings of Vajradhatu Recordings: Volume Three.
Photographic records relating to portions of this fonds also exist,
and are described in: Vajradhatu and Nalanda Foundation Information Office
Photographic Fonds: Finding Aid.
In addition to Born in Tibet (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 1985),
there are several unpublished sources of information on the early days
of the Mudra Theater Group.
A binder of newspaper clippings compiled by the Nalanda Foundation
Information Office covering the years 1974 to 1980 is now held in the offices
of the Shambhala Archives.
Most of the clippings relate to the Naropa Institute and its faculty,
but there are also some articles on the Mudra Theater group.
The Shambhala Archives holds manuscripts for most of Trungpa Rinpöche's
plays, along with audio recordings and transcripts of some of his classes
on mudra theater principles, and guide sheets for mudra workshops.
The Archives also holds some textual records relating to a Mudra Theater
Conference. Some of this material, which has not yet been arranged or described,
was donated by David Rome, while the remainder was donated by Mr. Andrew
Karr in 1991. Mr. Karr also gave an interview in April, 1997 to assist
in the preparation of this finding aid, and his time and insight are gratefully
acknowledged.
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