{"id":63190,"date":"2025-02-14T10:21:24","date_gmt":"2025-02-14T09:21:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/?p=63190"},"modified":"2025-03-13T11:35:17","modified_gmt":"2025-03-13T10:35:17","slug":"listening-while-acting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/listening-while-acting\/","title":{"rendered":"Listening while Acting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Drama is a red thread running through Rudolf Steiner\u2019s career. He loved it. After all, drama is all about bringing the dramatic dimensions of life, the world, self-knowledge, the expansion of consciousness, and the realities within reality into living artistic forms.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>I am many. Marie Steiner reported that she\u2019d never seen her husband happier than when he was working on his <em>Mystery Dramas<\/em><span id='easy-footnote-1-63190' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/listening-while-acting\/#easy-footnote-bottom-1-63190' title='Rudolf Steiner, &lt;em&gt;Four Modern Mystery Dramas&lt;\/em&gt;, CW 14 (Forest Row, East Sussex: Rudolf Steiner Press, 2023).'><sup>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span> in Munich. The images handed down through the generations depicting the end of his life are rather shocking: the moribund man making his way to the lectern for the so-called <em>Drama Course<\/em><span id='easy-footnote-2-63190' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/listening-while-acting\/#easy-footnote-bottom-2-63190' title='Rudolf Steiner, &lt;em&gt;Speech and Drama&lt;\/em&gt;, CW 282 (Hudson, NY: Anthroposophic Press, 2007), lectures in Dornach from Apr. 10, 1921 and Sept. 5\u201323, 1924.'><sup>2<\/sup><\/a><\/span> using his last ounce of strength, dragging his feet, and then, after making his statements on the art of drama, walking away rejuvenated with a slightly quickened step.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The red thread emerges:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>As a theater critic in his early adulthood, reviewing many performances in Vienna;<span id='easy-footnote-3-63190' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/listening-while-acting\/#easy-footnote-bottom-3-63190' title='Rudolf Steiner, &lt;em&gt;Gesammelte Aufs\u00e4tze zur Dramaturgie, 1889\u20131900&lt;\/em&gt;, GA 29 [Collected essays on dramaturgy, 1889\u20131900], GA 29, 4th edn. (Basel: Rudolf Steiner Verlag, 2014).'><sup>3<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>As director of the three Oberufer Christmas Plays;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>As director of two dramas by \u00c9duard Schur\u00e9;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>With the staging of his four Mystery Dramas in Munich. As is well known, Rudolf Steiner did not continue his work on the Mystery Dramas due to the outbreak of the First World War and his many other priorities;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In the further development of speech formation and eurythmy with Marie Steiner, along with artistic and cultural evenings with great stories and poems from world literature;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>By bringing the \u201cpath of initiation\u201d into close connection with what is revealed in the arts in terms of forms, colors, sounds, words, and movements;<span id='easy-footnote-4-63190' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/listening-while-acting\/#easy-footnote-bottom-4-63190' title='Rudolf Steiner, &lt;em&gt;Art as Seen in the Light of Mystery Wisdom&lt;\/em&gt;, CW 275 (Forest Row, East Sussex: Rudolf Steiner Press, 2010), lectures in Dornach from Dec. 28, 1914\u2013Jan. 4, 1915.'><sup>4<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In regular collaboration with the famous Haass-Berkow acting ensemble, then in Gelsenkirchen, Germany; and with Georg Kugelmann and his ensemble, the New Artistic Stage Plays [<em>Neuk\u00fcnstlerische B\u00fchnenspiele<\/em>] in Rostock, Germany;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In his <em>Drama Course<\/em>, as a foundation of practical-artistic work for the revival of his Mystery Dramas (a fifth drama was planned) at the opening of the Second Goetheanum and for a later production of a play with the Haass-Berkow group.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>From this abundance, a few practical viewpoints will be given below. The first surprising keyword in Steiner\u2019s work with the dramatic arts is \u201clistening.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"683\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/G2025_5_Web_9-683x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-62847\" style=\"width:350px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/G2025_5_Web_9-683x1024.jpg 683w, https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/G2025_5_Web_9-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/G2025_5_Web_9-770x1155.jpg 770w, https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/G2025_5_Web_9.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Listening Opens Deeper Dimensions<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>It was repeatedly reported how at ease people felt and how they seemed to grow beyond themselves as the Master selflessly listened to them, in an unconditionally open way. He gave himself entirely to the other person\u2014without exerting any pressure on them. It was and is a redemptive experience. Such listening opens a listening space that lifts one up in liberation. Such a space makes it possible to express things that could not otherwise have been said. Selfless listening leads to a source of inspiration for both parties involved. This is exactly what artists such as the conductor Wilhelm Furtw\u00e4ngler, the director Gy\u00f6rgy Tabori, and the clown Dimitri have reported. It wasn\u2019t so much through instructions but rather through this unconditional listening that they were palpably able to change entirely the events on stage or in speech, opening up deeper dimensions of the work. This type of listening is much more difficult than one might think and requires constant practice.<span id='easy-footnote-5-63190' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/listening-while-acting\/#easy-footnote-bottom-5-63190' title='Anthroposophy contains an abundance of indications on listening along with \u201cunheard\u201d practices and words of truth on the subject of listening.'><sup>5<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rudolf Steiner practiced listening in an unusual way with actors. For example: In his <em>Drama Course<\/em>, he developed the texts out of movement.<span id='easy-footnote-6-63190' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/listening-while-acting\/#easy-footnote-bottom-6-63190' title='See Christopher Marcus, &lt;a href=&quot;https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/the-body-becomes-word\/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer noopener&quot;&gt;\u201cThe Body Becomes Word,\u201d&lt;\/a&gt; &lt;em&gt;Goetheanum Weekly&lt;\/em&gt; (Aug. 1, 2024).'><sup>6<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Using five Greek exercises,<span id='easy-footnote-7-63190' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/listening-while-acting\/#easy-footnote-bottom-7-63190' title='Running, jumping, wrestling, discus, and javelin throwing.'><sup>7<\/sup><\/a><\/span> he recommended that actors listen to their text from the outside four times while they move to it gymnastically. The word comes to them from the outside! They move silently within it. This is a kind of listening contemplation. The inner dynamic of the word is transformed here into its own gymnastic movement\u2014precise yet free at one and the same time. This turns everything inside-out and leads to the whole body becoming an ear, to speech becoming a movement, and not to the texts being \u201cmerely stamped upon the brain\u201d and then\u2014to quote Steiner\u2014\u201cthe sounds being spat out.\u201d Only with the final exercise, the throw of the javelin, do the protagonists finally speak themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Metamorphosis of Speech into Drama<\/h3>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/G2025_5_Web_12-1024x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-62853\" style=\"width:350px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/G2025_5_Web_12-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/G2025_5_Web_12-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/G2025_5_Web_12-200x200.jpg 200w, https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/G2025_5_Web_12-770x770.jpg 770w, https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/G2025_5_Web_12-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/G2025_5_Web_12-70x70.jpg 70w, https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/G2025_5_Web_12-293x293.jpg 293w, https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/G2025_5_Web_12-390x390.jpg 390w, https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/G2025_5_Web_12-585x585.jpg 585w, https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/G2025_5_Web_12-900x900.jpg 900w, https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/G2025_5_Web_12.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Marc Vereeck<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>Whoever enters into this structure of intensive practice with a selfless self-initiative enters into a dialogue and begins to discover further layers of the roles, the speech, and the drama. But that\u2019s not enough. This movement within the speech must become instinctive, must pass through the instinctual, that layer of the body\u2019s cosmic wisdom, and thereby metamorphose into free intuitions on the stage.<span id='easy-footnote-8-63190' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/listening-while-acting\/#easy-footnote-bottom-8-63190' title='Further developed in Marc Vereeck, &lt;em&gt;100 Years of Rudolf Steiner\u2019s Drama Course. From the caterpillar to the butterfly in the play. The metamorphoses of running, jumping, wrestling, discus and javelin throwing into the art of acting&lt;\/em&gt; (self-published booklet, 2024).'><sup>8<\/sup><\/a><\/span> \u201cMore lives in you than you are able to bring to life solely through the contact of your nerve-sense organization with the world.\u201d<span id='easy-footnote-9-63190' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/listening-while-acting\/#easy-footnote-bottom-9-63190' title='Rudolf Steiner, &lt;em&gt;Art and Theory of Art: Foundations of a New Aesthetics&lt;\/em&gt;, CW 271 (Hudson, NY: SteinerBooks, 2021), lecture on April 9, 1921.'><sup>9<\/sup><\/a><\/span> What is briefly described here contains a huge, dramatic inversion and paradigm shift for theater folk. One \u201cbecomes oneself the annihilator of what has become.\u201d<span id='easy-footnote-10-63190' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/listening-while-acting\/#easy-footnote-bottom-10-63190' title='Rudolf Steiner, &lt;em&gt;Wahrspruchworte&lt;\/em&gt; [True-verse words], GA 40, 10th edn. (Dornach: Rudolf Steiner Verlag, 2019), [from the following undated note: \u201cOne should not want to renounce the drama of knowledge in favor of a grammar of knowledge; nor should fear of such drama prevent one from striking into the abyss of the individual; for, from out of this abyss, one rises in union with many spirits and experiences kinship with them; thereby is one born from the spiritual world: but one has absorbed death, becomes oneself the annihilator of what has become, relives it spiritualized, and is present in its annihilation.\u201d]'><sup>10<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Inversion is not simply transformation, nor illustration. Something completely different emerges in the performance that is not present in the rehearsals. This may be made clear by the example of Marie Steiner reading as a muse for her husband Rudolf as he carved his large sculpture. The listening space was inspiring; what was heard was transformed. The metamorphosis from gymnastics and speech to a deed of artistic acting can be traced in a similar way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This reveals a second keyword for Rudolf Steiner\u2019s theatrical impulse: \u201cmetamorphosis\u201d\u2014of the instinctive, its inversion into artistic intuitions. Every performance is different from rehearsals. In between is a threshold, the Guardian, the dream life, and a journey to Hades, where one re-emerges from the River of Lethe, the river of forgetfulness.<span id='easy-footnote-11-63190' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/listening-while-acting\/#easy-footnote-bottom-11-63190' title='This process contains the renewal of the ancient Mystery of Eleusis, linked to the descent of the god Dionysus into the underworld and his transformation.'><sup>11<\/sup><\/a><\/span> In the deed of acting, in waking-dreaming, in dreaming-waking, a will appears and resounds at the same time; a will that learns to understand and, above all, to experience what is only now beginning to emerge in a much larger soul-spiritual context.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe actor snaps into action,\u201d says Steiner.<span id='easy-footnote-12-63190' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/listening-while-acting\/#easy-footnote-bottom-12-63190' title='CW 282, Apr. 10, 1921 (see footnote 2).'><sup>12<\/sup><\/a><\/span> This must be completely different in every action, in every scene. We see it intuitively, as self-evident, in every different articulation, tempo, tone, gesture, and facial expression of the actors.<span id='easy-footnote-13-63190' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/listening-while-acting\/#easy-footnote-bottom-13-63190' title='These are the metamorphosis of the Greek gymnastics! CW 282, lecture on Sept. 13, 1924 (see footnote 2).'><sup>13<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Within these elements, there is an inner space of soul and spirit, what we can call the expressive power behind the action. Without a change of will, a turn towards listening to this inner space, without this moment of death and resurrection, we see stage performers who always seem to simply act like themselves, sounding always the same regardless of the play or role or dramatic context.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Listening to See the Inner Gesture<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The inner space of soul and spirit leads us to the third keyword: \u201cgesture.\u201d All manifestations of our world contain an inherent gesture. It\u2019s essential to uncover this inner gesture of the role, of the action, of every sentence, of the atmosphere, of the sound. The gesture forms the bridge between the inner space of the scene, the speech, the character, the setting, etc., and one\u2019s own inner space. This inner space actually does something: it ponders and stimulates creativity. Its external forms of existence are gestures.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"683\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/G2025_5_Web_10-683x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-62849\" style=\"width:350px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/G2025_5_Web_10-683x1024.jpg 683w, https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/G2025_5_Web_10-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/G2025_5_Web_10-770x1155.jpg 770w, https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/G2025_5_Web_10.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>This key opens a door called \u201clistening all the way through.\u201d If you recreate a gesture inwardly, a \u201csound mood\u201d can emerge that underlies the event or scene. This inner sound makes it possible to objectify the often abstract, self-reflecting, psycho-subjective subtexts. Many theater artists search for \u201ca second skin\u201d<span id='easy-footnote-14-63190' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/listening-while-acting\/#easy-footnote-bottom-14-63190' title='Quote from the &lt;a href=&quot;https:\/\/www.berlinerfestspiele.de\/en\/theatertreffen\/das-festival\/ueber-die-10-inszenierungen\/jurys\/jury-2024&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer noopener&quot;&gt;Jury for the 2024 Theatertreffen, Berlin&lt;\/a&gt;.'><sup>14<\/sup><\/a><\/span> where something resonates in the performance that\u2019s more than what is seen externally on the stage: the play within the play in the here and now.<span id='easy-footnote-15-63190' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/listening-while-acting\/#easy-footnote-bottom-15-63190' title='The metamorphoses of Greek gymnastics and the sound moods are a novelty in the world of theater. The question of gesture was further developed by Michael Chekhov and Bertolt Brecht.'><sup>15<\/sup><\/a><\/span> In rehearsal, artists process the material until this immateriality can be revealed.<span id='easy-footnote-16-63190' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/listening-while-acting\/#easy-footnote-bottom-16-63190' title='Of course, this also includes learning the \u201ccraft\u201d of acting, speaking, stylistics, etc. This calls for a didactic methodology where listening and inverted will are integrated.'><sup>16<\/sup><\/a><\/span> The inexpressible of the infinite is part of this. One cannot speak about how intuitions work, nor about timelessness. In the <em>Drama Course<\/em>, Steiner repeatedly mentions how these kinds of things are not able to be explained by reason but are able to be experienced in action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Everyone sees this intensity and feels it immediately when it occurs, when acting truly becomes acting. Everyone experiences a self-generating dynamic event. In the play, such a \u201cmagical\u201d event must reinvent itself every time because it seizes something that wants to become, to come into existence, from out of the creative moment of the present (not from some current hype), and with a sense for detail. This creative moment instructs us in how the future is projecting into the present. Repetition and reproduction are of no interest to the spiritual world; all must be created anew every time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Overcoming the Material<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Along with the help of lights and sound, stage performances become imaginative transparencies. Vincent Baudriller, former director of the Avignon Festival, describes how theater is an act of overcoming the material: \u201can act of resistance and of freedom, a sensible experience of beauty, of violence, of the vulnerability of the living, of the complexity and contradictions of human society.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. [Theater] freely finds its proper form, creating tension between words and images, bodies and languages, movement and space, fiction and reality.\u201d<span id='easy-footnote-17-63190' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/listening-while-acting\/#easy-footnote-bottom-17-63190' title='Vincent Baudriller, \u201cThe same air,\u201d in &lt;em&gt;Why theatre?&lt;\/em&gt; (Berlin: NT Ghent, 2020), p. 34.'><sup>17<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Imaginations, inspirations, and intuitions of a transcendent world can be frighteningly true. Directors and stage artists live within them and thereby free themselves from the grip of fate, redeeming themselves by discovering their own destiny beyond the ego through the above-mentioned \u201cinverted will,\u201d the turning inside-out through deep, spiritual listening transformed into acting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When we explore the questions involved with Rudolf Steiner and the art of acting, a spiritual reality must be confronted: \u201cclairaudience.\u201d Christian Morgenstern, as an audience member at the very first Mystery Dramas, asked himself in reference to the mental pictures of the author represented on the stage: \u201cWhat are they? Did the poet see all of this or dream it?\u201d Rudolf Steiner gave the answer: \u201cHe heard everything.\u201d<span id='easy-footnote-18-63190' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/listening-while-acting\/#easy-footnote-bottom-18-63190' title='CW 282, lecture on Sept. 6, 1924 (see footnote 2).'><sup>18<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Steiner\u2019s work includes an inner spiritual hearing. How often does he speak about what the spiritual world said or answered? It is an enormous expansion of consciousness for actors to incorporate this inner clairaudience in a wholly concrete way. What am I listening to when I listen inwardly? Who speaks?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In one of his poignant descriptions in the <em>Drama Course<\/em>, Rudolf Steiner described how, in his first Mystery Drama, he heard the three soul forces\u2014Astrid, Philia, and Luna\u2014beyond the threshold.<span id='easy-footnote-19-63190' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/listening-while-acting\/#easy-footnote-bottom-19-63190' title='CW 14, &lt;em&gt;The Doorway of Initiation&lt;\/em&gt; (see footnote 1).'><sup>19<\/sup><\/a><\/span><span id='easy-footnote-20-63190' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/listening-while-acting\/#easy-footnote-bottom-20-63190' title='CW 282 (see footnote 2).'><sup>20<\/sup><\/a><\/span> With powers of rhythm, sound, and contraction, they weave \u201ca soul-spiritual garment\u201d and hand it to the painter Johannes Thomasius.<span id='easy-footnote-21-63190' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/listening-while-acting\/#easy-footnote-bottom-21-63190' title='CW 271, \u201cGoethe as Father of a New Aesthetics\u201d: \u201cBeauty is not the divine in a sensory-real garment; no, it is the sensory-real in a divine garment.&amp;nbsp;.&amp;nbsp;.&amp;nbsp;. \u2018beauty is a sensory reality that appears as though it were an idea\u2019.\u201d Translated by Dorit Winter and Cliff Venho (see footnote 9).'><sup>21<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Using the same means, Steiner as author, wrote down these words as he heard them. He wrote down the auditory side of language, the night side, with its rhythms, elevations, depressions, intensifications, and \u201cglittering\u201d sounds of German.<span id='easy-footnote-22-63190' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/listening-while-acting\/#easy-footnote-bottom-22-63190' title='Heinz Zimmermann named this the \u201cBeing plane\u201d [&lt;em&gt;Seinsebene&lt;\/em&gt;] of speech. See &lt;em&gt;Vom Sprachverlust zur neuen Bilderwelt des Wortes&lt;\/em&gt; [From the loss of language to the new picture-world of the word], 2nd edn. (Dornach: Verlag am Goetheanum, 2000).'><sup>22<\/sup><\/a><\/span> The spiritual becomes sensible in the soul-spiritual garment that he gives it. Steiner emphasized that not one single thought, not one single mental picture, is contained within the spiritual aspect of language. These elements belong to the other side, the day side of language: the content expressed in words and sentences. We modern human beings constantly strive to understand what is written or what is said\u2014and thereby ignore the night side. The waking day understanding can hardly understand the scene in the Mystery Dramas with the soul forces described above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is art itself (as in the scene of the soul forces) that can offer the field of experience needed to enter into a listening dialog with something conveyed from another perspective. Spiritual listening, through absolute silence, means opening up a much larger space than the earthly one.<span id='easy-footnote-23-63190' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/listening-while-acting\/#easy-footnote-bottom-23-63190' title='Rudolf Steiner, &lt;em&gt;Manifestations of Karma&lt;\/em&gt;, CW 120 (Forest Row: East Sussex: Rudolf Steiner Press, 1996), lecture in Hamburg of May 22, 1910.'><sup>23<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Here, too, it takes some practice to listen all the way through to what is revealed between sounding and fading into silence, between appearing and disappearing.<span id='easy-footnote-24-63190' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/listening-while-acting\/#easy-footnote-bottom-24-63190' title='Anthroposophy contains indications for a listening dialog with the spiritual world, including those who are \u201cacross the threshold.\u201d \u201cWe human beings need the right hearing&amp;nbsp;.&amp;nbsp;.&amp;nbsp;.&amp;nbsp;.\u201d'><sup>24<\/sup><\/a><\/span> In the experience of listening, this kind of spiritual listening becomes an interpreter, a translator. Of what? Of an immaterial substance, a presence, of both good and evil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One encounters this in the play. Strangely enough, the environment, the preparations, and the post-production work are all an essential part of this. It\u2019s part of the warming-up, the tuning not only of body and voice but also of the space of the stage to what will be present there, right down to the technical aspects of acoustics. It\u2019s also exciting to feel what\u2019s physically, soulfully, and spiritually present within yourself before you perform. And the reverberation, the echo, of practicing\u2014of practicing to hear the silence within the silence\u2014is an essential part of this.<span id='easy-footnote-25-63190' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/listening-while-acting\/#easy-footnote-bottom-25-63190' title='This is part of the culture of Michael.'><sup>25<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Over time, this inner hearing makes possible direct inspirations that the reflecting brain, the eye of mental picturing, could never have imagined. Rudolf Steiner even says in the <em>Drama Course<\/em>: \u201cBecause that which is thought-like is actually the death of art, the moment the revelation of some essence passes over into thought, art is already passed by.\u201d<span id='easy-footnote-26-63190' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/listening-while-acting\/#easy-footnote-bottom-26-63190' title='CW 282, lecture on Sept. 12, 1924 (see footnote 2).'><sup>26<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Could it be, perhaps, that through what appears inwardly, between the moving pictures in the play, we gradually become able to hear all the way through and only then understand the meanings, motives, and ideas in the play? Can it be that meaning is revealed in the listening-seeing and seeing-listening of the dynamic movements, gestures, and activities?<span id='easy-footnote-27-63190' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/listening-while-acting\/#easy-footnote-bottom-27-63190' title='\u201cIf the banal&amp;nbsp;.&amp;nbsp;.&amp;nbsp;.&amp;nbsp;can reflect something wider in the very moment when it happens, the present moment opens up, beyond what would have been without the action.\u201d Peter Brook, &lt;a href=&quot;https:\/\/youtu.be\/ORIBcoQ5dWc?feature=shared&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;noreferrer noopener&quot;&gt;\u201cWhen the Present Moment Opens Up,\u201d&lt;\/a&gt; Nov 26, 2019, Text und B\u00fchne, YouTube, 5 mins. 22 sec.'><sup>27<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Can it be that a Mystery play occurs in encounters between human beings that overcomes the separation of \u201cI here\u201d and \u201cyou there\u201d?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The \u201cinner ear\u201d opens the door to the unimagined, opens up what is not yet words, but will become word, opens for the essence that wants to become form, and opens to the presence of the present moment. \u201cAnd the reality is that it is only when you have this\u2014this inner, soul listening\u2014that you really become aware of what it means to see a role created by the stage artist out of this kind of intuition.\u201d<span id='easy-footnote-28-63190' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/listening-while-acting\/#easy-footnote-bottom-28-63190' title='CW 282, lecture on Sept. 23, 1924 (see footnote 2).'><sup>28<\/sup><\/a><\/span> What happens when we see this kind of acting? Let\u2019s put ourselves before a well-known classical performance. I sit in a theater. In front of me is a stage or, even more classical, a closed curtain. The house lights go out, the stage lights come up, and the curtain rises. Who appears, what happens? What do I hear? One thing is immediately clear: in the theater, I enter into a completely different world. The drama (Greek for \u201caction, deed\u201d) begins immediately. \u201cWho\u2019s there?\u201d<span id='easy-footnote-29-63190' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/listening-while-acting\/#easy-footnote-bottom-29-63190' title='The first line in Shakespeare\u2019s &lt;em&gt;Hamlet&lt;\/em&gt;.'><sup>29<\/sup><\/a><\/span> What layers of feelings, thoughts, and actions are revealed in the play of senses, in the sounds, in the movements, in the changing colors of the lights?<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"683\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/G2025_5_Web_11-683x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-62851\" style=\"width:350px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/G2025_5_Web_11-683x1024.jpg 683w, https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/G2025_5_Web_11-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/G2025_5_Web_11-770x1155.jpg 770w, https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/G2025_5_Web_11.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Threshold between Performer and Spectator<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Are we always conscious of the fact that when we actually watch or listen to the musical and performing arts, we are invited to cross a threshold, to overcome our reflective consciousness, to see through it, to hear all the way through it? When it \u201copens up,\u201d space and time change, and we see and hear how everything is connected with everything else, everyone with everyone else, even our inner essences: beings with beings. We experience how soul spaces open up and how we suddenly realize how we owe our very existence to other human beings, even other times and other spirits. We see, or better, we hear inwardly how destiny works.<span id='easy-footnote-30-63190' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/listening-while-acting\/#easy-footnote-bottom-30-63190' title='Rudolf Steiner, &lt;em&gt;The Arts and Their Mission&lt;\/em&gt;, CW 276 (Hudson, NY: SteinerBooks, 2023), lecture of June 9, 1923: \u201cHowever, tragedy will only be able to blossom when human beings experience karma.\u201d'><sup>30<\/sup><\/a><\/span> It is like waking up in a \u201cbeautiful glow,\u201d<span id='easy-footnote-31-63190' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/listening-while-acting\/#easy-footnote-bottom-31-63190' title='For Schiller, the secret of beauty lies in overcoming the material through form; cf. Friedrich Schiller, &lt;em&gt;Kallias, or, On the Beautiful&lt;\/em&gt; in &lt;em&gt;Fidelio&lt;\/em&gt; 1, no. 4 (Winter 1992).'><sup>31<\/sup><\/a><\/span> like a waking dream\u2014or nightmare. In the characters in the Mystery Dramas, portrayed by actors who are not themselves these characters, we actually see the truth of the characters\u2019 entelechies through the real, living people who are acting. What an interplay of multiple dimensions where veils are lifted! We enter a realm of \u201cpolarity between understanding-through-hearing and hearing-through-understanding.\u201d<span id='easy-footnote-32-63190' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/listening-while-acting\/#easy-footnote-bottom-32-63190' title='CW 282, lecture on Sept. 10, 1924 (see footnote 2).'><sup>32<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Additionally, the exciting moment occurs anew each time (hopefully), when the boundary between performers and audience is dissolved. All becomes one. Zen Master Daito (1282\u20131337) said: \u201cOne who sees with their ears and hears with their eyes has no doubt. How naturally the raindrops fall from the leaves.\u201d<span id='easy-footnote-33-63190' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/listening-while-acting\/#easy-footnote-bottom-33-63190' title='Quoted from Georg K\u00fchlewind, &lt;em&gt;Licht und Leere&lt;\/em&gt; [Light and emptiness] (Stuttgart: Freies Geistesleben, 2011).'><sup>33<\/sup><\/a><\/span> The performers and the spectators slip into this experience. And one can increasingly see how many theater productions reveal \u201cManichean\u201d insights in the play of forces between good and evil within the \u201cpotency of a crisis.\u201d<span id='easy-footnote-34-63190' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/listening-while-acting\/#easy-footnote-bottom-34-63190' title='Cf. Christine Gruwez, &lt;em&gt;Die Wunde und das Recht auf Verletzlichkeit&lt;\/em&gt; [The wound and the right to vulnerability] (Stuttgart: Verlag Urachhaus, 2023).'><sup>34<\/sup><\/a><\/span> These are truths and they are relentlessly mirrored to the audience under the motto: Wake up! This is part of the exoteric, wild side of Dionysus upon the Earth. It\u2019s important to follow the traces of the inner transformations occurring within oneself through our experience of art. Every person goes out differently than they came in\u2014swallowed up again by the noise of the world. \u201cBut, in the mute silence, ripens,\u201d<span id='easy-footnote-35-63190' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/listening-while-acting\/#easy-footnote-bottom-35-63190' title='Rudolf Steiner, &lt;em&gt;Verses and Meditations&lt;\/em&gt;, CW 40 (Forest Row, East Sussex: Rudolf Steiner Press, 2004): \u201cThe Stars Spake Once to Man .&amp;nbsp;.&amp;nbsp;.&amp;nbsp;.\u201d'><sup>35<\/sup><\/a><\/span> something of the higher self that forms and awakens the soul to a new understanding of the world and an understanding of itself. This is the hidden, esoteric side of Dionysus \u201cin his spiritual form.\u201d<span id='easy-footnote-36-63190' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/listening-while-acting\/#easy-footnote-bottom-36-63190' title='Rudolf Steiner, &lt;em&gt;Wonders of the World, Trials of the Soul, Revelations of the Spirit&lt;\/em&gt;, CW 129 (Forest Row, East Sussex: Rudolf Steiner Press, 2021), lecture of Aug. 24, 1911.'><sup>36<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We are living in a dramatic time of transformation with daily occurrences of boundary experiences. Rudolf Steiner\u2019s Mystery Dramas are gaining long-term significance because he developed scenes that show in detail what affects us on this side of the abyss and beyond. This will soon make Steiner\u2019s work even more timely. At the same time, the noise of the waking, knowing understanding in us initially rejects his language. With drama, do we lag behind dance, music, and the visual arts? Whoever allows the Mystery Plays to have an effect on them\u2014especially those with a listening praxis\u2014can experience that here the processes beyond the threshold find an artistic-linguistic expression for what many so often say they cannot put into words. Present-day experiences in the etheric, countless invisible experiences and transformations in humans and nature, approach people every day\u2014and \u201cIf ever he goes by me, I don\u2019t know him.\u201d<span id='easy-footnote-37-63190' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/listening-while-acting\/#easy-footnote-bottom-37-63190' title='Job 9:11.'><sup>37<\/sup><\/a><\/span> The Mystery Dramas provide the opportunity to find living, artistic forms for the unspeakable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>How did Steiner stage the Mysterium of his dramas back then? The first ensemble in Munich was actually a mixture of amateurs with a few professional actors (like Marie Steiner). How did Rudolf Steiner proceed? It can be described as a path from <em>mimesis<\/em> (Greek for \u201cimitation leading to internalization, individualization\u201d) to <em>poiesis<\/em> (Greek for \u201cproduction, doing\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Mimesis<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The first thing Rudolf Steiner did was to open the actors\u2019 ears to the new, to the not-yet-heard, by giving a lecture in the morning on the scene to be rehearsed (newly written down during the night) and elaborating every conceivable nuance. When actors don\u2019t read the difficult text but initially only hear it spoken, the text becomes experienceable to the senses in an entirely different way: I heard it, it resonated within me, it\u2019s possible. For the amateur actor playing Ahriman, Rudolf Steiner recited the text in such a way that people\u2019s blood froze in their veins. Oskar Schmiedel reported on the long, potent silence after Rudolf Steiner read out the dramatic scene where Strader stands in front of Thomasius\u2019 painting of Capesius for the first time (Scene 8, <em>The Doorway of Initiation<\/em>). Why did Steiner make such an intense impression as an actor or speaker? He heard the scene spiritually, and what he heard, he didn\u2019t just write down, but\u2014as he put it\u2014\u201csnapped into it,\u201d<span id='easy-footnote-38-63190' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/listening-while-acting\/#easy-footnote-bottom-38-63190' title='See footnote 12.'><sup>38<\/sup><\/a><\/span> and so what he heard spiritually was able to be made audible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thus is the trail laid, and the mirror neurons have to pick it up. The waking day understanding that thinks it has to speak exactly the same way is now trapped and screams: \u201cI\u2019ll never do it!\u201d A speech artist once told me: \u201cIn order to do this, one needs at least seven incarnations!\u201d Still, for the artist\u2019s soul, freed from preconceived notions, what is heard resounds deeper and continues to have an effect. Rudolf Steiner\u2019s indications on the path of schooling are of great help, because along this path\u2014just as in art\u2014one deals with the unknown, the unforeseen, with threshold experiences. To quote Steiner: \u201cThe spiritual researcher&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. lets [his object of investigation] live in his own soul as an effective force. He lets it sink, as it were, as spiritual germ into the mother soil of his soul life and waits in perfect peace of mind for its effect on the life of the soul. He can then observe how, with repeated application of such a practice, the constitution of the soul does indeed change.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. Then it awakens inspiration in the soul by way of its own force.\u201d<span id='easy-footnote-39-63190' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/listening-while-acting\/#easy-footnote-bottom-39-63190' title='Rudolf Steiner, \u201cThe Psychological Foundations of Anthroposophy,\u201d &lt;em&gt;Esoteric Development: Selected Lectures and Writings&lt;\/em&gt;, excerpts from GA 35, etc. (Great Barrington, MA: SteinerBooks, 2003), lecture of Apr. 8, 1911.'><sup>39<\/sup><\/a><\/span> In the lecture on the drama <em>The Guardian of the Threshold<\/em>,<span id='easy-footnote-40-63190' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/listening-while-acting\/#easy-footnote-bottom-40-63190' title='Rudolf Steiner, &lt;em&gt;Initiation, Eternity, and the Passing Moment&lt;\/em&gt;, CW 138 (Spring Valley, NY: Anthroposophic Press, 1980), lecture on Aug. 25, 1912.'><sup>40<\/sup><\/a><\/span> he added: \u201cAnd what the individual acquires is worth the disappointments&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Poiesis<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>It must be understood that it never could have been Steiner\u2019s intention to remain at mimesis when he was reciting, and that everyone would simply repeat what he did. The poiesis of his directorial approach was precisely the inverse. After the ensemble heard the scene, he distributed the text, still wet with ink, to the various actors and then directed the rehearsals without interrupting or correcting the actors, but just having them play the same scene over and over again until they all had come together on their own initiative, through the rhythms, sounds, and actions. The sense of coherence is an inner hearing. The actor Max G\u00fcmbel-Seiling was flabbergasted that Steiner hardly gave any stage directions. The amateur actor Lutz Kricheldorff could \u201cnot remember with the best will in the world that Rudolf Steiner corrected him even once.\u201d<span id='easy-footnote-41-63190' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/listening-while-acting\/#easy-footnote-bottom-41-63190' title='Anthroposophische Gesellschaft, Zweig M\u00fcnchen [Anthroposophical Society, Munich Branch], ed.,&lt;em&gt; Rudolf Steiner in M\u00fcnchen. Zu seinem 100. Geburtstag&lt;\/em&gt; [Rudolf Steiner in Munich. For his 100th birthday] (Munich: self-published, 1961).'><sup>41<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe professional actor, who\u2019d seen the premieres in Munich and was to play Ahriman in Marie Steiner\u2019s production twenty years later, said that he\u2019d never be able to play Ahriman as impressively as the amateur actor did in Munich.\u201d In the <em>Drama Course<\/em>, Steiner adds a description by the actor Josef Lewinski from the Vienna National Theater [<em>Burgtheater<\/em>]. \u201cActually, I\u2019m always three people on the stage: one is the small, hunchbacked, croaking human being, who\u2019s very ugly; the second is someone who\u2019s completely outside the hunchbacked, croaking one; who\u2019s purely ideal, a completely spiritual being; and I must always have this second one in front of me; and then, then I\u2019m the third: I crawl out of the two and am the third; and with the second, I play upon the first, on the croaking hunchback.\u201d<span id='easy-footnote-42-63190' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/listening-while-acting\/#easy-footnote-bottom-42-63190' title='See footnote 12.'><sup>42<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Here it becomes clear how concrete the spirit becomes in the art of acting. Here, the audience adds something. Through perceptions, through listening \u201cfrom outside,\u201d the \u201cunheard\u201d becomes possible. The actor brings what is outside into the character on the stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thus, it is clear that today\u2019s art of acting cannot be separated from a path of suprasensible schooling and our daily suprasensible experiences of life. The path of acting goes through the human being himself. And that is a deeply individualized process! Steiner again: \u201cPrecisely in the moment when the actor is an individuality, then we\u2019ll always accept him; when he\u2019s an actual real, inwardly, experienced instinct&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. in that he shapes his role as an individual, just as the piano player plays as an individual. And we will see how the audience looks at the stage full of understanding when roles are acted in this way, that they\u2019re not rehearsed intellectually, not through so-called immersion in the content, but through a prior forming and shaping (<em>e.g., pentathlon, speech formation\u2014or acting etudes. M. Vereeck<\/em>), so that, through what was formed previously, one can hear what is really to be formed on the stage through one\u2019s own individual person. There are no certainties as professors and philistines like to have, but there are all possible, different opinions for which you can then give your reasons. But the reason why one has the opinion, if one has it in the justified sense, is that one <em>hears the form<\/em>.\u201d<span id='easy-footnote-43-63190' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/listening-while-acting\/#easy-footnote-bottom-43-63190' title='See footnote 28. Italics by the translator.'><sup>43<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The doorway is and remains listening. Each person can only do this for themselves. \u201cSpeech formation is not achieved by saying, \u2018shape this like this, shape this sound like this, shape this syllable like this, shape this sentence like this,\u2019 but by practicing the right transitions&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.\u201d<span id='easy-footnote-44-63190' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/listening-while-acting\/#easy-footnote-bottom-44-63190' title='CW 282, lecture on Sept. 8, 1924 (see footnote 2).'><sup>44<\/sup><\/a><\/span> said Steiner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Listening has actually become essential today for survival. The reason why we have so many problems and so many catchphrases everywhere is that we\u2019re no longer a society that listens. Each person stays in their own cocoon. Not listening always leads to misunderstandings, to arguments, to divisions, to war. Can the performing and musical arts contribute to peace in a completely different way by developing a genuine culture of listening? The chemist and Nobel Prize winner Illya Prigognine said: \u201cWhen a complex system is far from equilibrium, small islands of coherence in a sea of chaos have the capacity to shift the entire system to a higher order.\u201d<span id='easy-footnote-45-63190' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/listening-while-acting\/#easy-footnote-bottom-45-63190' title='This quotation is often quoted and credited to Prigognine, but the actual source remains unconfirmed\u2014Trans.'><sup>45<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Here is our task. It can thus become Michaelic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><em><em>This year we bring you a series of articles titled \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/steiner-as\/\">Rudolf Steiner as\u2026<\/a>\u201d to honor the 100th anniversary of Rudolf Steiner&#8217;s death\u2014sometimes an essay, sometimes simply a thought or reflection\u2014always, an aspect of his being.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Translation <\/strong>Joshua Kelberman<br><strong>Illustration <\/strong>Graphics team of the Weekly<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Drama is a red thread running through Rudolf Steiner\u2019s career. He loved it. After all, drama is all about bringing the dramatic dimensions of life, the world, self-knowledge, the expansion of consciousness, and the realities within reality into living artistic forms. I am many. Marie Steiner reported that she\u2019d never seen her husband happier than when he was working on his Mystery Dramas in Munich. The images handed down through the generations depicting the end of his life are rather [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16166,"featured_media":62846,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11614,8818],"tags":[11615,8798,11616],"class_list":["post-63190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-steiner-as","category-theatre","tag-ausgabe-5-2025-en","tag-deepening","tag-english-issue-7-2025"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16166"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}