Anthroposophical Society in Australia

The Parsifal Project: a community arts project
2022-06-13 - 2025-05-04 | Living Arts Centre, Mt Barker School, 27 Sims Road, Mount Barker, SA, 5251
The Parsifal Project

The Parsifal Project is a community project that aspires towards a contemporary envisioning of the famous medieval legend, one that recontextualises the Parsifal legend for a modern multicultural audience.
What is it about?
Writers, poets, philosophers and artists tell us that myths and legends hold spiritual insights into the sacred wisdom of past cultures, but what about the spiritual insights we need to navigate our current world? Drawing on the cultural heritages we bring with us, the Parsifal Project seeks find meaningful resonance between this medieval myth and contemporary intergenerational audiences.
Using the talents of a diverse cast and a script written by playwright Peter Oswald, the project aims to make a significant contribution to our understanding of the Parsifal legend in light of Anthroposophy, as a cosmopolitan Michaelic impulse and as a metaphor for modern human development. The story is our future; if so, its mythic themes could be critical to today’s youth, to all of us.
Whether your interest is in the spiritual foundations of the legend, the literature, creative writing or performing, there is something here for anyone and everyone fascinated by the whole collection of Grail legends and its interpretations, medieval or modern, book or film.
Timeline for the project
The project has five stages highlighting different arts and media:

June – July 2022: Parsifal Unpacked
Completed. Explored the original story through performance, literary text and thematic discussion.
September – November 2022: Parsifal Reimagined
Completed. A series of writing workshops where we reimagine the story through the lens of current cultural perspectives.
January 2023 – November 2023 : Parsifal Rescripted
Ongoing script development in conjunction with performance-based creative development intensives with on-the-floor exploration on the themes explored in Stages 1 and 2.
February 2024 – February 2025: Parsifal Reinterpreted
Auditions, eurythmy and music workshops from February. Rehearsals begin in April 2024, using the script based on Parsifal Rescripted.
April -May 2025: The Parsifal Project performance
Saturday 26 April at 5.30 pm ACST
Saturday 3rd May at at 5.30 pm ACST
Sunday 4th May at 2.30 pm ACST
Venue: Living Arts Centre, Mount Barker Waldorf School, Mt Barker, SA

Project Director: Jo-anne Sarre, Artistic Director of Ink Pots Arts
Jo-anne Sarre has worked in the performing arts sector as a freelance director, actor, storyteller, playwright and educator since her four-year Speech and Drama training at The Harkness Studio, Sydney in 1986. She has a Diploma of Teaching (Primary 1980-1982), a Diploma of Creative Speech and Drama (The Harkness Studio in conjunction with The Goetheanum School of Spiritual Science 1983-1986) and first-class Honours in Drama (Flinders University 2009). Other trainings include MICHA in the US and various Michael Chekhov practitioners in the UK and Europe (1997-2009).
Jo-anne has performed in local, national and international arenas as an independent performing artist including as a freelance storyteller, with the Aphaia Eurythmy Group (Poetry Recitation), and as an actor with Ink Pot Theatre, The Rose Theatre Company and Portal Productions UK (The Soul’s Awakening). During her career, she has trained Steiner/Waldorf teachers across Australia (Rudolf Steiner College, Sheoak College), in the UK (Emerson College), India and China. This includes supporting teachers in their own artistic development in poetry recitation, storytelling, acting and directing as well as assisting in classrooms, directing plays etc with both primary and high school students. In 2016, she was also Assistant Voice Coach at Flinders University Drama Centre with Dawn Langman.
As co-founder of Ink Pot Theatre (the professional touring company) and founding Artistic Director of Ink Pot Arts Inc (a community arts not-for-profit), she has been actively engaged in bringing high-quality theatre as a catalyst for personal transformation and community cultural development inspired by Anthroposophy.

Feature image credit: Seamus McArdle
Photo credit: Jo-anne Sarre

“Most societies have come to define themselves by their historical myths and national narratives. We are, who we say we are… People grow up believing they live within a story … what is the story we believe we are living within? Where is our narrative going? “
Prof. David Blight, 2009

A Virtuous Journey: Living with the 12 Virtues as a Cycle of the Year
2024-03-21 19:00 - 2024-12-22 20:00 (Australia/Sydney) | Online
Exploring the Virtues
Working with the 12 monthly virtues as an exploration, contemplation and mediation

Rudolf Steiner gave twelve virtues to be worked on for each zodiac. Whilst we have this list from Steiner, he gave very little else directly.
This course takes up his introduction. It will explore each of the virtues more deeply, and what they mean in relation to the zodiac over the cycle of a year. We will be working with a discourse, a contemplative practice of verse and Heart Awareness to bring the virtues to life exploring both the practical and spiritual aspects of each of the virtues.
Find out more
Download the program
When is it?
Starts March 21 with Aries as the theme. The paper and contemplation will be emailed on the 21st of each month related to the virtue and the corresponding zodiac sign. and we will meet online (via zoom) at 7pm AEDT for 1 hour on the 2nd and 4th Thursday of each month to explore,
Cost
$240 for the year donation suggested.
You can register directly or organize an alternative payment schedule for this upcoming course by emailing me here.
Bookings
Buy tickets

Course leaders
Jude Samson and Craig Logan.
Download the flyer or contact Jude for more information

Working with Thresholds
2024-05-24 14:00 - 2024-08-23 16:00 | Online
A online masterclass in painting
with artist Fiona Campbell

Our human life moves and breathes between thresholds: macrocosm and microcosm, waking and sleeping, birth and death. This painting masterclass works with the thresholds in our lives and in nature, with special attention paid to the nature of polarities and the breathing impulse.
This content of this course is complemented with the study of selected lectures from Rudolf Steiner’s Macrocosm and Microcosm
Why painting?
Why study this subject through painting rather than meditation and study?
Understanding comes through the experiential rather than purely theoretical. This means that, rather than a study of texts followed by an illustrative artistic exercise, the study is the artistic exercise, it is the meditative practice, and the texts are complementary readings that inform and guide our practice.
This is a path of inner work through artistic practice.
Who is it for?

For artists, art therapists and students of Anthroposophy who want to deepen their understanding of Steiner’s macrocosm and microcosm model for human existence (PD certificates available).
For anyone interested in exploring the nature of thresholds through painting.

This course is supplementary to the Art as a Path of Schooling for the Soul training.
When is it?
2pm-4pm fortnightly on Fridays AEST
24 May-23 August 2024
How much does it cost?
$280 AUD/$190 USD
$300 for PD certificate or for new participants enrolling only in this course.
How do I register?
Register here
For more information
For more information about this course , please contact Fiona Campbell
For more information about Painted Space Studio courses in general, browse the courses on offer.

About Fiona Campbell
Fiona Campbell is a visual artist, researcher, lecturer and arts educator. She has an interdisciplinary PhD on creativity and cognition and has been a professional artist and arts educator for more than 30 years.
Under the name Painted Space, she runs a schooling course that combines inner work with visual arts training.
You can find out more about Fiona at Painted Space or listen to an ABC Soul Search interview with her about the anthroposophical approach to art.

The Art of Chalkboard Drawing with Van James
2024-07-21 14:00 - 2024-07-28 16:00 | Online
Three workshops with Van James
Waldorf techniques and curriculum for teachers and parents

Blackboard drawing is a vital medium in the art of teaching. From the elementary grades
right through high school the visual storytelling that takes place on the blackboard
allows for a deeper learning that can occur beyond words and numbers; what can be
experienced through colors and forms, in pictures. Pictorial thinking is a critical capacity
for keeping alive and nurturing the imagination throughout childhood and into adult life.
This course will cover the basics of chalk drawing for teachers at the various grade
levels, noting how the board drawings can change with the age and development of the
child. Reviews of participant work on black paper or school blackboards will be
facilitated with a Google Classroom or Padlet link.
When
July 14, 21 and 28 2024
Bookings and fees
Book here

About Van James
Van James is an artist, author, Steiner-Waldorf educator and international advocate for the arts. A longtime teaching-artist in Hawai’i and a mentor for Gradalis Teacher Education. Van is a council member of the Visual Art Section of North America, a mentor with the Academy of Himalayan Art and Child Development, editor of Pacifica Journal, and an award-winning author of numerous books on culture and the arts including Drawing with Hand, Head and Heart, The Secret Language of Form: Visual Meaning in Art and Nature and the recently published Teaching Art History: Engaging Adolescents in Art, Cultural History and the Evolution of Consciousness.
