A Multi-Media Adaptation of the Tibetan Book of the Dead

October 16th, 17th and 18th at Naropa University

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Golden Sun Foundation for World Culture is pleased to announce the upcoming performances of “Luminous Emptiness,” directed by Katsura Kan. The staged multimedia production, based on “The Tibetan Book of the Dead,” is a co-production of the Golden Sun Foundation for World Culture and Naropa University's MFA Theater: Contemporary Performance Program.

PRESS RELEASE

“Luminous Emptiness,” a multimedia performance adapted from The Tibetan Book of the Dead coming to Naropa University

BOULDER, Colo. (September 7, 2009)–Golden Sun Foundation for World Culture is pleased to announce the upcoming performances of “Luminous Emptiness,” directed by Katsura Kan. The staged multimedia production, based on “The Tibetan Book of the Dead,” is a co-production of the Golden Sun Foundation for World Culture and Naropa University's MFA Theater: Contemporary Performance Program.

Public performances will be held from Friday through Sunday, Oct. 16-18 in the Performing Arts Center (PAC) at the Naropa University Arapahoe Campus, 2130 Arapahoe Ave., Boulder, Colo. 80302. For box office info and reservations, contact  (303) 245-4798 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . The cost is $15 for general admission or $8 for seniors and students.

Ken Green, who conceived and designed the overall project, and is co-producing this performance with Wendell Beavers, is currently the executive director of The Golden Sun Foundation for World Culture, a Boulder-based nonprofit cultural organization. He was a member of the original board of directors in the 1970s that founded Naropa, and was a senior student of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche.

According to Green, in the late 1970’s Trungpa asked for the text of the Bardo Thodal to be adapted for film and theater, so it would be accessible to the general public.  Green has previously produced a workshop of the project with Asia Society, NYC in 1997 with Philip Glass composing music. Douglas Penick, a Boulder based writer, librettist and scholar, wrote the text adaptation which is central to the upcoming performance.

Green explains, The Tibetan Book of the Dead is a teaching by Padmasambhava who brought Buddhism to Tibet in the Eighth Century. The text was recovered six hundred years later by Karma Lingpa and was soon adopted throughout the region as one of the principal texts for giving aid and guidance to the dying. It was subsequently passed down through the Trungpa lineage, and presently to us. Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche was the founding director of Naropa University.

Green further explains, the title of this text in Tibetan is 'Bardo Thodol' means 'Great Liberation through Hearing.' Though the general notion of bardos or states of transition covers many of life's changes, those emphasized in this text and production focus upon the passage between the dissolution and rebirth of individual identity. The reason for doing so is that when the nature of even the most disorienting and horrific experiences are realized, liberation is simultaneous. The entirety of the Bardo Thodol is grounded in the teaching that every single moment of life, death and transition contains the seed of complete and immediate enlightenment: complete wakefulness can be realized on the spot. Luminous Emptiness embodies the aspiration and prayer of Padmasambhava that all sentient beings realize the freedom and enlightenment that is already within them, and which can be awakened in all the phenomena of life and death. All adaptations of this text, including this one, are offered with this intent.

Katsura Kan, MFA Associated Artist, will direct Naropa’s Luminous Emptiness performances. Kan is a second-generation artist in the Japanese discipline of Butoh, an avant-garde dance movement that began to develop after World War II in Japan. Wendell Beavers, the head of the MFA Program and co-producer, said Butoh has its roots in ancient Japanese culture, but also has a connection to German expressionism.

According to Beavers, Butoh will be an appropriate form for a work that will present “a very full and deep expression of Buddhist cultural thought about many things.” He said its slow movement style will help illustrate Book of the Dead concepts such as impermanence, decay and a non-dualistic idea of life and death.

The current workshop performance will consist of a core ensemble of 13 actors from Naropa’s second-year MFA Theater; Contemporary Performance Program

The Luminous Emptiness producers will incorporate multimedia technology to further the immersive experience of the journey from death to rebirth.

The performance will also rely on the talents of a number of highly talented local artists, and technical wizards including John Vega, Gary Grundei, Kevin Anderson, Wyndham Hannaway and others.