By Rita Grimaldi
The Transformation
Experience
My Body
“As soon as I entered the water I began to change.”
This is the sentence that came at the end of the Mouse
mask portion of the story. After Mouse says this, she goes behind a screen
while a musician plays water music on the harp. When the music is finished the
Princess comes out in mask, headdress and costume to finish telling the story.
Of course I could not see my Princess mask face or my headdress.
And I could see only a small part of my dress. But I knew and had experienced
the beauty of these things. I had crafted them with all the skill I possess. They
had been hanging in my studio for two weeks.
When I re-emerged as the young maiden, wearing the Princess
mask, headdress and costume, it produced a feeling of beauty in me. I belonged
to the transformation from Mouse to Princess.
Here are two pictures from the first performance of the
story. See how the physicality of Mouse and Princess are different.
Mouse is a solid animal while Princess is graceful and
delicate. This is what I had wanted - what I felt deep in my body.
My Voice
It’s true that Mouse and Princess gave me a real and
deeply felt experience of the feminine. But equally true for me was how deeply
I experienced the masculine in this story.
The men were not experienced through mask but through
changes in my voice. Each male had his own cadence, tempo and tone of voice.
The negative males – Jukka’s brothers and the bullying peasant boy who kicks Mouse
into the river – all had a taunting quality to their voices. And in the case of
the bully boy, a loud dominate shout.
Jukka, the younger positive male, who promises to marry
the mouse, had a driven quantity to his voice - as if he did not know how
things would turn out but would keep going forward regardless. Jukka’s father,
the elder positive male, had a deep and steady voice.
Without thought, all these different male voices
automatically emerged during the storytelling.
Each distinct voice was like a mask identity in itself.
As if each identity could be known by its sound. It is no doubt true that in
reality we do know a great deal about a person by how they sound. Emotion pours
out of the sound of person’s voice.
My Learning
So here is what I have brought back out of mask and into
my core being from telling ‘The Mouse Bride’.
1. No matter what your size or
life position, you can always believe in a positive future. Telling in Mouse
mask taught me this.
2. Inside, beauty and youth
are still part of me. Making the second Princess mask and performing the story
of the Mouse Bride in that mask and costume taught me this.
4. Finally,
there are always friends who will help you. The 1,000 little mice dancing on
their toes coming to help the Mouse-Princess taught me this.
Rita welcomes your
comments on her series about
‘The Mouse Bride’
She can be
contacted at:
peterboroughstorytellers@cogeco.ca
