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6 A Journal of Contemporary Shamanism VOLUME 8 ISSUE 1 SPRINGSUMMER 2015 This is the first of a series of interviews with shamanic prac- titioners who are integrating shamanism into Western culture in interesting and unusual ways that open our hearts and minds to what is possible for spirits healing in our troubled world. In Theater of the Spirits Cecile Carson talks with Virginia Monte a theater director who is aware and intentional about bringing an experience of the numinous to her audience as well as working in that dimension with the actors. During an intro- ductory workshop in core shamanism several years ago she was bowled over by how much of her life and her work in the theater fit into a shamanic framework. CC Tell me a little bit about your background in theater and your hopes when you began your professional training in this. VM I was always just a little different a little off center from most of the people I knew and the theater became the one environment where all those little oddities of who I am became completely natural and completely usable. I did undergraduate work in fine arts art history opera and theater. I remember someone once telling me that I had to choose one of these and couldnt understand why painting was the same to me as storytelling which was the same as singing. They all had the same feel and I really enjoyed playing with their boundaries. Then I spent a few years out in the world doing design work in regional theaters. During my time in Manhattan I found while designing sets that I actually wanted to fix the costumes and work with the actors to fix their lines. And I realized at that point what I really wanted to do was to direct not to design. CC What happened then VM I miraculously got into an overseas program for direct- ing at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. And thats where everything changed. I realized my work started becoming less about me trying to fulfill this need to be acknowledged and more about me opening to the world instead of hiding from it. And I started to look at things with my third eye open which is where shamanism really first began for me. I remember reading a line by Joseph Campbell early in the directors program that compared the works of modern artists to the practices of original shamanic teachings. Campbell posited this idea that these practices for both shamans and artists are for helping peo- ple through big problems and for asking the biggest questions of themselves. And in this very naive moment I wrote in my journal Im going to be a shaman. I knew I wanted that kind of art the kind that brings people to know themselves that has this bigger sense of the world and that can bring us together in a way that most things nowadays cant. CC I think its great that you didnt know any better VM I dont think I would have done it I think that just put a beacon right on my back and suddenly spirit said Okay youve opened the door here we come. It was a really critical moment and both the best and worst experiences of my life followed from it. I found myself in the cataclysm of being torn apart through the extremes of first waking up so completely and then engag- ing with my environment so fully that I self-destructed. In part it was because the program as an institution is not the place to have an awakening like that its more a teaching-technique institution vs. a coming-to-yourself institution. I remember at the worst of it being very angry and question- ing why the faculty couldnt have understood and supported me. And yet there were individuals there who did in their own way. Even though I had to step away from the program for health reasons the Dean and the head of the program let me finish. It took three extra years. I think too of Nadine George a voice instructor there I now know was operating shamanically and who would walk into a room and change things simply by her presence. Lerna Penny was another vocal instructor so acutely aware of the body and of how people were embodying themselves that she would I N T E R V I E W VIRGINIA MONTE Theater of the Spirits by Cecile Carson M.D. Virginia Monte photo by Cecile Carson