The Words
Concept and script by Melissa Axel, incorporating the concepts of Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell, and NSU's Interdisciplinary Arts Program, featuring the quotes and writings of Hunbatz Men, Joseph Campbell, Karlfried Graf Durckheim, David Kantor, Daphne Rose Kingma, Karen Korp, Andrew Johnson, Isibel Moreno, Theodore J. Nottingham, Terrence Real, and Wayne Wirs
The Visuals
Visual/Multimedia Direction and Video Animations by Yvette Navarro
With art and photography by Melissa Axel, Joe Bianco, Francesca Billi, Teresa Clune, Courthon ..Casey.. Estriplet, Jr., Yvette Navarro, Sandee Lewin Nye, Vanessa Orlarey, Ilaria Paoletti, Mercedes Shope, Wayne Wirs, and THA cast and crew
Performance and "making of" photography by Simona Damiano, Randy Garcia, Margarita Gonzalez, Daniele LaManna, and Alice Sorrenti
The Crew
Creative Direction by Melissa Axel
Technical Direction by Cassie Allen Barrett
Visual/Multimedia Direction by Yvette Navarro
With assistance from Brian Barrett (assistant stage management), Carrie Gilchrist (assistant direction), Robert Goodbar (production assistance), Lowell Halpern (lighting), Maria Halpern (sound), LeThesha Harris (reception coordination), Jamie Johnson (assistant stage management), Benjamin Loeb (technical coordinator, Rose and Alfred Miniaci Center), Roger Predmore (technical director, Rose and Alfred Miniaci Center), and the University School stage crew: Molly Adler, Brenden Blase, Michael Hacker, Jenel Lawson, Ragnar Magnuson, Rory Roseman, and Adrianna Zak (coordinator)
Videography by Ray Ratliff and Patrick Sammon, Jr.
With assistance from La Sapienza University of Rome Graduate Students Francesca Billi, Simona Damiano, Serena Ferraioli, Daniele LaManna, Vanessa Orlarey, Paola Orrico, Silvia Pacifico, Giada Palmerino, Ilaria Paoletti, Alice Sorrenti, Deborah Vendramini, and Laura Ventura, coordinated by Carla Pagani
Thanks to all of our supporters: Aaron Taylor & Associates, The Allen Family, Mark and Beverly Axel, The Barrett Family, Bingo and Spaghetti Productions, Conservatory Prep Senior High School, Fantasia's of Boston, James Evan Jacoby, Lovewell Institute for the Creative Arts, Main Street Players Community Theatre of Miami Lakes, The Navarro Family, Nova Singers, NSU Copy Services & Mail Services, NSU Dining, NSU Fischler School of Education and Human Services, NSU Office of Publications, NSU Office of Student Affairs, NSU Office of Student Activities & Leadership Development, NSU Office of Community Education & Diversity Affairs, NSU Office of University Relations, NSU Office of Special Events & Projects, NSU Fischler School of Education and Human Services, Office Depot on University Drive, Papa Sauce Kitchen and Catering, Planet Printing, Premier Printing, Ruby Tuesday's on Nova Drive, Target on Broward Boulevard, Wayne Wirs: Fading Toward Enlightenment, WJNA AM 640, and WNSU Radio X 88.5 FM
And special thanks to our IAP mentors Dr. David Spangler, Dr. Gioia Gabellieri Bargagli, and Dr. Norm Fedder
The Human Adventure is not a story.
Any likeness to a real person, living or deceased, is not only possible, but highly probable and definitely encouraged.
The Human Adventure is not a play or musical.
Any likeness to other theatrical pieces is purely coincidental, non-intentional, and rather exasperating.
The Human Adventure is not performance art.
If you don't get it, nothing is wrong with you.
We just need to do six more rewrites.
Or 42..
All music, choreography, written and visual materials copyright original creators as credited.
Concept and script copyright Melissa Axel.
Original songs copyright Melissa Axel (Melissa Axel Music/ASCAP).
All songs and written material included in this production used for educational purposes only, by permission under fair use of United States Copyright law.
No commercial gain or profit was obtained through the production of this performance or its commemorative recordings.
Everyone involved in our graduate production last fall donated their time and talents, and the results were bountiful, enabling several students to attend Lovewell Institute for the Creative Arts who otherwise would not have had the opportunity.
Meanwhile, The Human Adventure limited release DVD of our October 15, 2005 performance debuted at the April 2006 screening party at the awesome Lumonics Light Museum. We look forward to re-staging a not-so-new but very improved version of the show next year in Colorado - do get in touch if you're in the Denver/Boulder area and would like to be involved on any level!
Through original and familiar music, stunning multimedia visuals, intuitive dance, and interactive dramatic performance, The Human Adventure opens your eyes, ears, mind, and heart to the very personal journey that great thinkers like Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell have built careers exploring on behalf of all humankind -- today's modern "hero story" within us all.
The Human Adventure is an original artistic production featuring live music, multimedia visuals, dramatic expression, and dance all centering around our personal search for self-actualization. For graduate students Melissa Axel, Cassie Allen Barrett, and Yvette Navarro, the presentation of this show on October 14 & 15, 2005 in NSU's Rose and Alfred Miniaci Performing Arts Center was the final component of their studies in NSUs Interdisciplinary Arts Program (IAP).
The show highlights key concepts of humanity made powerful, artistic, inspiring, and at times even humorous, by a host of creative intellectual talent, with original songs and script by Melissa Axel (Berklee College of Music, Heavy Rotation Records/Epic), professional technical production by Cassie Allen Barrett (NBC, ESPN, former Nightly Business Report director) and stunning visuals by broadcast graphics designer and artist Yvette Navarro (Univision, WPBT).
The mission of NSU's Interdisciplinary Arts Program is to educate, nurture, and facilitate visionary and conceptual artists by offering a nurturing learning environment, resources, and tools to expand their knowledge, skills, experience, and entrepreneurship in the arts. The co-directors selected the Lovewell Institute for the Creative Arts Scholarship Fund, to which all proceeds from the show are donated -- making it possible for youth to find their creative voices through the nationally recognized Lovewell Method used in its summer and after-school programs.
I connect in this now
to my crown, to my divinity
And open up a channel to
transcendence and cosmic unity
I am pure energy being,
all consciousness creation
I am knowledge beyond words,
I am song beyond vibration
I envision a vortex of love
open up into the night
As a violet diamond orb
becomes brighter with the light
Of Divine imagination,
expressed in a matrix of experience
So I rest in the beauty
and the bliss of this awareness
feel compassion for the world but don't let your passions turn into rage..see the problems and imperfections but know that it's just a passing phase..stop trying to fix the whole world and work on your own soul and self..and when you have changed enough my love o then you'll see those changes everywhere else.
when describing one thing in terms of another
music is the best metaphor i have discovered
to accurately capture the melody im humming,
and show me exactly what strings I am strumming.
the music i write is the music i live
i hear what i see, and then mold it to give
it back to the inspiration from which it was derived
in hopes that it carries to where it arrives
i strive to be clear in the phrases i choose
and sometimes i stumble over syllables that loose
sense of the meaning i felt at the root
i throw up my arms in a twisted solute
to the words that are mounting my tongue with a plan
to gallop straight into the sunset of man
this journey im on is making its way
taking me through the mysteries relayed
as messages, simple to read IF i look
away from the mirror, outside of the hook
and DEAD INTO THE CENTER,
the eye of the storm
and watch clearly the image that comes into form
a symbol of life, an explanation of love
a lens to make sense of this world i dream of
i look through it and show myself the solution
to all of the problems ive set as conclusions
to the imbalanced maladies which best describe
the music washing over my mind, self-prescribed
if this is the key, tell me, Where's the lock?
its not where i thought it would be.... what a shock
not really, what's shocking is that which is hiding
and so i dance on the line that's dividing
the love, the sound, into two pieces of a whole
question marks interlocking at the center of the soul
and out into the void shines the light
painting whatever story i might
be singing... "the light and, or course, the darkness; her lover"
describing one thing in terms of another....
'the secret' is out
tell everyone you can
the law of attraction
is the master plan
lets focus on the good
and be greatful for what we have
realizing dreams
as we create our path
cause reality is only what
we make it out to be
lets focus on what we want
it will come if we believe
that there is no destination
we can be happy where we are
celebrating each moment
as love's joy takes us far
You see, like THA, I dont want to be tagged by a name, we are too much to be described with a couple of words, and is always good to let something for the imagination ;)
I miss THA! Now that I am done with school I may start singing to keep my self busy. When is the next show?
The TV is for the masses. Artists would rather be the center of the attention than being on the other side, specially with so much junk going on.
this is the life, we are the living
this is the dawn, we are the day
we hold the light, we dance the rhythm
let yourself shine, sing as you pray
open your heart to a love thats within
open your mind to see what comes in
open your arms to the love all around
open your eyes and see what youve found
be who you are, say what you feel
this is your life, embrace that its real
create the way you think it should be
dont let anybody say differently
pray to the spirit of the song
put out vibrations, set the pace, you can't go wrong
manifest your dreams, and sing them where you live
weaving love into the songs of life will surely lift us to a new vision
of beauty, unity, music
of harmony, truth and peace
i am one with everything i see
i am love, i am light, i am eternity
i am earth and sky and sun and moon and stars
i am music everywhere, i feel the rhythm come straight from my heart
and it sings
this is the life, we are the living
this is the dawn, we are the day
we hold the light, we dance the rhythm
let yourself shine, sing as you pray
Another Inconvenient Truth
www.eatkind.net/inconvenient.htm
[Animals] were not made for humans any more than black people were made for whites or women for men.
Alice Walker
The time will come when people such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look upon the murder of people.
Leonardo da Vinci
The average meat eater is responsible for the deaths of some 2, 400 animals during his or her lifetime. Animals raised for food endure great suffering in their housing, transport, feeding and slaughter.
J Motavalli, So You're an Environmentalist; Why Are You Still Eating Meat?
I feel very deeply about vegetarianism and the animal kingdom. It was my dog Boycott who led me to question the right of humans to eat other sentient beings.
Cesar Chavez, United Farm Workers
I encourage the Tibetan people and all people to move toward a vegetarian diet that doesnt cause suffering.
Dalai Lama
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.
Mohandas Gandhi
The human appetite for animal flesh is a driving force behind virtually every major category of environmental damage now threatening the human future: deforestation, erosion, fresh water scarcity, air and water pollution, climate change, biodiversity loss, social injustice, the destabilization of communities, and the spread of disease.
World Watch
Nothing will benefit health and increase the chances for survival of life on Earth as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.
Albert Einstein
The most political act we do on a daily basis is to eat.
Jules Pretty
There is a direct relationship between eating meat and the environment. Quite simply, you can't be a meat-eating environmentalist. Sorry folks.
Andrea Gordon, If You Recycle, Why Are You Eating Meat?
If anyone wants to save the planet, all they have to do is just stop eating meat. That's the single most important thing you could do.
Paul McCartney
