0:00:01.889,0:00:07.828
(Music)

0:00:07.852,0:00:11.798
["Oedipus Rex"]

0:00:15.397,0:00:18.605
["The Lion King"]

0:00:22.485,0:00:26.917
["Titus"]

0:00:37.727,0:00:43.580
["Frida"]

0:00:53.751,0:00:58.225
["The Magic Flute"]

0:01:00.197,0:01:06.358
["Across The Universe"]

0:01:15.710,0:01:20.238
(Applause)

0:01:20.262,0:01:22.445
Julie Taymor: Thank you.[br]Thank you very much.

0:01:22.469,0:01:25.162
That's a few samples of the theater, opera

0:01:25.186,0:01:28.504
and films that I have done[br]over the last 20 years.

0:01:28.528,0:01:30.542
But what I'd like to begin with right now

0:01:30.566,0:01:32.445
is to take you back to a moment

0:01:32.469,0:01:34.910
that I went through in Indonesia,

0:01:34.934,0:01:37.047
which is a seminal moment in my life

0:01:37.071,0:01:39.127
and, like all myths,

0:01:39.151,0:01:41.382
these stories need to be retold

0:01:41.406,0:01:43.881
and told, lest we forget them.

0:01:43.905,0:01:46.905
And when I'm in the turbulent[br]times, as we know,

0:01:46.929,0:01:49.293
that I am right now, through the crucible

0:01:49.317,0:01:51.484
and the fire of transformation,

0:01:51.508,0:01:54.102
which is what all of you do, actually.

0:01:54.126,0:01:57.226
Anybody who creates knows[br]there's that point where

0:01:57.250,0:02:02.335
it hasn't quite become[br]the phoenix or the burnt char.

0:02:02.359,0:02:04.433
(Laughter)

0:02:04.457,0:02:07.338
And I am right there on the edge,

0:02:07.362,0:02:09.315
which I'll tell you about, another story.

0:02:09.339,0:02:10.768
I want to go back to Indonesia

0:02:10.792,0:02:14.452
where I was about 21, 22[br]years, a long time ago,

0:02:14.476,0:02:15.676
on a fellowship.

0:02:15.700,0:02:18.606
And I found myself, after two years there

0:02:18.630,0:02:21.955
and performing and learning,[br]on the island of Bali,

0:02:21.979,0:02:25.782
on the edge of a crater, Gunung Batur.

0:02:25.806,0:02:28.799
And I was in a village where there was

0:02:28.823,0:02:31.591
an initiation ceremony for the young men,

0:02:31.615,0:02:33.155
a rite of passage.

0:02:33.179,0:02:35.707
Little did I know that it[br]was mine as well.

0:02:35.731,0:02:38.166
And as I sat in this temple square

0:02:38.190,0:02:41.166
under this gigantic beringin banyan tree,

0:02:41.190,0:02:46.003
in the dark, there was no[br]electricity, just the full moon,

0:02:46.027,0:02:48.059
down in this empty square,

0:02:48.083,0:02:50.209
and I heard the most beautiful sounds,

0:02:50.233,0:02:52.040
like a Charles Ives concert

0:02:52.064,0:02:54.083
as I listened to the gamelan music

0:02:54.107,0:02:56.132
from all the different villagers that came

0:02:56.156,0:02:59.530
for this once-every-five-years ceremony.

0:02:59.554,0:03:03.125
And I thought I was alone[br]in the dark under this tree.

0:03:03.149,0:03:05.956
And all of a sudden, out of the dark,

0:03:05.980,0:03:07.840
from the other end of the square,

0:03:07.864,0:03:11.748
I saw the glint of mirrors[br]lit by the moon.

0:03:11.772,0:03:15.307
And these 20 old men who I'd seen before

0:03:15.331,0:03:20.609
all of a sudden stood up in these[br]full warrior costumes

0:03:20.633,0:03:23.094
with the headdress and the spears,

0:03:23.118,0:03:27.456
and no one was in the square,[br]and I was hidden in the shadows.

0:03:27.480,0:03:29.817
No one was there, and they came out,

0:03:29.841,0:03:33.456
and they did this incredible dance.

0:03:33.480,0:03:37.148
"Huhuhuhuhuhuhuhahahahaha."

0:03:37.172,0:03:40.321
And they moved their bodies[br]and they came forward,

0:03:40.345,0:03:43.123
and the lights bounced off these costumes.

0:03:43.147,0:03:46.539
And I've been in theater[br]since I was 11 years old,

0:03:46.563,0:03:49.753
and performing, creating, and I went,

0:03:49.777,0:03:51.896
"Who are they performing for

0:03:51.920,0:03:54.243
with these elaborate costumes,

0:03:54.267,0:03:56.270
these extraordinary headdresses?"

0:03:56.294,0:04:01.057
And I realized that they were[br]performing for God,

0:04:01.081,0:04:03.768
whatever that means.

0:04:03.792,0:04:07.356
But somehow, it didn't[br]matter about the publicity.

0:04:07.380,0:04:09.607
There was no money involved.

0:04:09.631,0:04:12.827
It wasn't going to be written down.[br]It was no news.

0:04:12.851,0:04:14.973
And there were these incredible artists

0:04:14.997,0:04:18.474
that felt for me like an eternity[br]as they performed.

0:04:18.498,0:04:20.559
The next moment,

0:04:20.583,0:04:24.619
as soon as they finished[br]and disappeared into the shadows,

0:04:24.643,0:04:27.125
a young man with a propane[br]lantern came on,

0:04:27.149,0:04:29.376
hung it up on a tree, set up a curtain.

0:04:29.400,0:04:32.837
The village square was filled[br]with hundreds of people.

0:04:32.861,0:04:35.375
And they put on an opera all night long.

0:04:35.399,0:04:37.635
Human beings needed the light.

0:04:37.659,0:04:40.272
They needed the light to see.

0:04:40.296,0:04:43.920
So what I gained and gathered[br]from this incredible,

0:04:43.944,0:04:46.532
seminal moment in my life[br]as a young artist

0:04:46.556,0:04:49.855
was that you must be true

0:04:49.879,0:04:53.927
to what you believe as an artist[br]all the way through,

0:04:53.951,0:04:57.466
but you also have to be aware

0:04:57.490,0:05:00.955
that the audience is out there[br]in our lives at this time,

0:05:00.979,0:05:02.360
and they also need the light.

0:05:02.384,0:05:04.523
And it's this incredible balance

0:05:04.547,0:05:06.272
that I think that we walk

0:05:06.296,0:05:09.605
when we are creating something[br]that is breaking ground,

0:05:09.629,0:05:12.259
that's trying to do something[br]you've never seen before,

0:05:12.283,0:05:13.945
that imaginary world

0:05:13.969,0:05:17.322
where you actually don't know[br]where you're going to end up,

0:05:17.346,0:05:20.088
that's the fine line[br]on the edge of a crater

0:05:20.112,0:05:22.718
that I have walked my whole life.

0:05:22.742,0:05:25.266
What I would like to do now is to tell you

0:05:25.290,0:05:27.072
a little bit

0:05:27.096,0:05:29.929
about how I work.[br]Let's take "The Lion King."

0:05:29.953,0:05:32.181
You saw many examples of my work up there,

0:05:32.205,0:05:34.126
but it's one that people know.

0:05:34.150,0:05:36.825
I start with the notion of the ideograph.

0:05:36.849,0:05:40.200
An ideograph is like a brush[br]painting, a Japanese brush painting.

0:05:40.224,0:05:43.709
Three strokes, you get[br]the whole bamboo forest.

0:05:43.733,0:05:46.240
I go to the concept of "The Lion King"

0:05:46.264,0:05:48.308
and I say, "What is the essence of it?

0:05:48.332,0:05:49.944
What is the abstraction?

0:05:49.968,0:05:53.205
If I were to reduce this entire story

0:05:53.229,0:05:55.946
into one image, what would it be?"

0:05:55.970,0:05:58.900
The circle. The circle. It's so obvious.

0:05:58.924,0:06:02.877
The circle of life. The[br]circle of Mufasa's mask.

0:06:02.901,0:06:07.417
The circle that, when we come[br]to Act II and there's a drought,

0:06:07.441,0:06:08.896
how do you express drought?

0:06:08.920,0:06:12.055
It's a circle of silk on the floor

0:06:12.079,0:06:16.109
that disappears into the hole[br]in the stage floor.

0:06:16.133,0:06:18.738
The circle of life comes in the wheels

0:06:18.762,0:06:21.186
of the gazelles that leap.

0:06:21.210,0:06:22.908
And you see the mechanics.

0:06:22.932,0:06:26.286
And being a theater person, what I know[br]and love about the theater

0:06:26.310,0:06:27.981
is that when the audience comes in

0:06:28.005,0:06:29.775
and they suspend their disbelief,

0:06:29.799,0:06:32.610
when you see men walking or women walking

0:06:32.634,0:06:34.507
with a platter of grass on their heads,

0:06:34.531,0:06:36.123
you know it's the savanna.

0:06:36.147,0:06:37.667
You don't question that.

0:06:37.691,0:06:40.151
I love the apparent truth of theater.

0:06:40.175,0:06:43.748
I love that people are willing[br]to fill in the blanks.

0:06:43.772,0:06:45.768
The audience is willing to say,

0:06:45.792,0:06:48.768
"Oh, I know that's not a real sun.

0:06:48.792,0:06:51.076
You took pieces of sticks.

0:06:51.100,0:06:53.171
You added silk to the bottom.

0:06:53.195,0:06:56.875
You suspended these pieces. You[br]let it fall flat on the floor.

0:06:56.899,0:07:01.278
And as it rises with the strings,[br]I see that it's a sun.

0:07:01.302,0:07:05.685
But the beauty of it[br]is that it's just silk and sticks.

0:07:05.709,0:07:10.237
And in a way, that is what makes[br]it spiritual.

0:07:10.261,0:07:11.682
That's what moves you.

0:07:11.706,0:07:15.898
It's not the actual literal[br]sunrise that's coming.

0:07:15.922,0:07:17.429
It's the art of it.

0:07:17.453,0:07:22.789
So in the theater, as much[br]as the story is critical

0:07:22.813,0:07:24.694
and the book and the language,

0:07:24.718,0:07:29.345
the telling of the story, how it's told,

0:07:29.369,0:07:32.963
the mechanics, the methods that you use,

0:07:32.987,0:07:35.562
is equal to the story itself.

0:07:35.586,0:07:38.900
And I'm one who loves[br]high tech and low tech.

0:07:38.924,0:07:40.699
So I could go from --

0:07:40.723,0:07:43.200
For instance, I'll show you[br]some "Spider-Man" later,

0:07:43.224,0:07:45.776
these incredible machines[br]that move people along.

0:07:45.800,0:07:48.142
But the fact is, without the dancer

0:07:48.166,0:07:50.895
who knows how to use his body[br]and swing on those wires,

0:07:50.919,0:07:52.682
it's nothing.

0:07:52.706,0:07:55.591
So now I'm going to show you

0:07:55.615,0:07:59.909
some clips from the other big[br]project of my life this year,

0:07:59.933,0:08:00.951
"The Tempest."

0:08:00.975,0:08:05.044
It's a movie. I did "The[br]Tempest" on a stage three times

0:08:05.068,0:08:08.281
in the theater since 1984, '86,

0:08:08.305,0:08:10.485
and I love the play.

0:08:10.509,0:08:13.011
I did it always with a male Prospero.

0:08:13.035,0:08:14.673
And all of a sudden, I thought,

0:08:14.697,0:08:16.759
"Well, who am I gonna[br]get to play Prospero?

0:08:16.783,0:08:20.481
Why not Helen Mirren?[br]She's a great actor. Why not?"

0:08:20.505,0:08:23.741
And this material really did work[br]for a woman equally as well.

0:08:23.765,0:08:26.836
So now, let's take a look[br]at some of the images

0:08:26.860,0:08:28.829
from "The Tempest."

0:08:28.853,0:08:33.836
(Music)

0:08:45.220,0:08:49.459
(Video) Prospera: Hast thou, spirit, performed[br]to the point the tempest that I bade thee?

0:08:49.483,0:08:54.991
Ariel: I boarded the king's ship.[br]In every cabin, I flamed amazement.

0:08:57.664,0:09:00.596
Prospera: At first sight,[br]they have changed eyes.

0:09:00.620,0:09:01.791
Miranda: Do you love me?

0:09:01.815,0:09:03.167
Ferdinand: Beyond all limit.

0:09:03.191,0:09:05.759
HM: They are both in either's powers.

0:09:05.783,0:09:10.890
Trinculo: Misery acquaints[br]a man with strange bedfellows.

0:09:10.914,0:09:14.132
(Music)

0:09:14.156,0:09:17.609
Looking for business, governor?

0:09:17.633,0:09:19.681
Caliban: Hast thou not[br]dropped from heaven?

0:09:19.705,0:09:22.166
Stephano: Out of the moon,[br]I do assure thee.

0:09:22.190,0:09:24.163
Prospera: Caliban!

0:09:24.187,0:09:26.428
Caliban: This island is mine.

0:09:26.452,0:09:29.973
Prospera: For this, be sure,[br]tonight thou shalt have cramps.

0:09:29.997,0:09:33.482
Antonio: Here lies your brother no[br]better than the earth he lies upon.

0:09:33.506,0:09:35.281
Sebastian: Draw thy sword.

0:09:35.305,0:09:38.890
And I, the king, shall love thee.

0:09:38.914,0:09:44.300
Prospera: I will plague[br]them all, even to roaring.

0:09:46.133,0:09:50.706
Ariel: I have made you mad.

0:09:56.874,0:09:59.895
Prospera: We are such stuff[br]as dreams are made on.

0:09:59.919,0:10:04.106
and our little life[br]is rounded with a sleep.

0:10:04.130,0:10:09.431
(Music)

0:10:09.455,0:10:12.281
JT: Okay.

0:10:12.305,0:10:16.255
(Applause)

0:10:16.279,0:10:18.683
So I went from theater,[br]doing "The Tempest"

0:10:18.707,0:10:21.007
on the stage in a very[br]low-budget production

0:10:21.031,0:10:22.645
many years ago,

0:10:22.669,0:10:25.090
and I love the play, and I also think

0:10:25.114,0:10:27.114
it's Shakespeare's last play,

0:10:27.138,0:10:30.794
and it really lends itself,[br]as you can see, to cinema.

0:10:30.818,0:10:33.342
But I'm just going to give[br]you a little example about

0:10:33.366,0:10:35.247
how one stages it in theater

0:10:35.271,0:10:39.308
and then how one takes[br]that same idea or story

0:10:39.332,0:10:42.300
and moves it into cinema.

0:10:42.324,0:10:45.396
The ideograph that I talked[br]to you about before,

0:10:45.420,0:10:47.507
what is it for "The Tempest"?

0:10:47.531,0:10:50.333
What, if I were to boil it down,

0:10:50.357,0:10:52.646
would be the one image that I could

0:10:52.670,0:10:54.893
hang my hat on for this?

0:10:54.917,0:10:57.181
And it was the sand castle,

0:10:57.205,0:11:00.321
the idea of nurture versus nature,

0:11:00.345,0:11:02.776
that we build these civilizations --

0:11:02.800,0:11:05.731
she speaks about it at the end,[br]Helen Mirren's Prospera --

0:11:05.755,0:11:11.204
we build them, but under nature,[br]under the grand tempest,

0:11:11.228,0:11:16.699
these cloud-capped towers, these[br]gorgeous palaces will fade

0:11:16.723,0:11:20.922
and there will -- leave not a rack behind.

0:11:20.946,0:11:23.551
So in the theater, I started the play,

0:11:23.575,0:11:26.613
it was a black sand rake, white cyc,

0:11:26.637,0:11:29.538
and there was a little girl,[br]Miranda, on the horizon,

0:11:29.562,0:11:32.206
building a drip castle, a sand castle.

0:11:32.230,0:11:35.646
And as she was there[br]on the edge of that stage,

0:11:35.670,0:11:39.007
two stagehands all in black

0:11:39.031,0:11:43.511
with watering cans ran along the top

0:11:43.535,0:11:48.138
and started to pour water[br]on the sand castle,

0:11:48.162,0:11:50.908
and the sand castle[br]started to drip and sink,

0:11:50.932,0:11:52.307
but before it did,

0:11:52.331,0:11:56.547
the audience saw[br]the black-clad stagehands.

0:11:56.571,0:12:01.134
The medium was apparent. It was banal.[br]We saw it.

0:12:01.158,0:12:04.117
But as they started to pour the water,

0:12:04.141,0:12:07.849
the light changed from showing[br]you the black-clad stagehands

0:12:07.873,0:12:11.163
to focusing, this rough magic[br]that we do in theater,

0:12:11.187,0:12:14.716
it focused right on the water itself.

0:12:14.740,0:12:18.938
And all of a sudden,[br]the audience's perspective changes.

0:12:18.962,0:12:22.444
It becomes something magically large.

0:12:22.468,0:12:25.076
It becomes the rainstorm.

0:12:25.100,0:12:28.720
The masked actors,[br]the puppeteers, they disappear,

0:12:28.744,0:12:31.920
and the audience makes[br]that leap into this world,

0:12:31.944,0:12:36.243
into this imaginary world of "The[br]Tempest" actually happening.

0:12:36.267,0:12:37.672
Now the difference

0:12:37.696,0:12:40.275
when I went and did it in the cinema,

0:12:40.299,0:12:42.659
I started the actual movie

0:12:42.683,0:12:47.941
with a close-up of a sand[br]castle, a black sand castle,

0:12:47.965,0:12:49.779
and what cinema can do is,

0:12:49.803,0:12:53.235
by using camera, perspective,

0:12:53.259,0:12:55.977
and also long shots and close-ups,

0:12:56.001,0:12:58.296
it started on a close-up[br]of the sand castle,

0:12:58.320,0:13:00.179
and as it pulled away,

0:13:00.203,0:13:03.213
you saw that it was a miniature[br]sitting in the palm

0:13:03.237,0:13:05.116
of the girl's hands.

0:13:05.140,0:13:06.944
And so I could play with the medium,

0:13:06.968,0:13:09.896
and why I move from one medium to another

0:13:09.920,0:13:11.379
is to be able to do this.

0:13:11.403,0:13:13.810
Now I'm going to take you to "Spider-Man."

0:13:13.834,0:13:17.670
(Music)

0:13:44.794,0:13:47.597
(Video) Peter Parker: ♪[br]Standing on the precipice,

0:13:47.621,0:13:52.076
I can soar away from this. ♪

0:13:52.100,0:13:54.434
JT: We're trying to do[br]everything in live theater

0:13:54.458,0:13:56.353
that you can't do in two dimensions

0:13:56.377,0:13:58.879
in film and television.

0:13:58.903,0:14:02.809
PP: ♪ Rise above yourself[br]and take control. ♪

0:14:02.833,0:14:06.310
George Tsypin: We're looking at New[br]York from a Spider-Man point of view.

0:14:06.334,0:14:08.455
Spider Man is not bound by gravity.

0:14:08.479,0:14:11.613
Manhattan in the show is not[br]bound by gravity either.

0:14:11.637,0:14:15.832
PP: ♪ Be yourself and rise above it all. ♪

0:14:15.856,0:14:19.935
Ensemble: ♪ Sock! Pow! ♪

0:14:19.959,0:14:22.520
♪ Slam! Scratch! ♪

0:14:22.544,0:14:24.721
Danny Ezralow: I don't want you[br]to even think there's a choreographer.

0:14:24.745,0:14:25.847
It's real, what's happening.

0:14:25.871,0:14:28.720
I prefer you to see people moving,

0:14:28.744,0:14:30.906
and you're going, "Whoa, what was that?"

0:14:30.930,0:14:43.127
(Music)

0:14:43.151,0:14:45.390
JT: If I give enough movement[br]in the sculpture,

0:14:45.414,0:14:48.402
and the actor moves their head,[br]you feel like it's alive.

0:14:48.426,0:14:51.352
It's really comic book live.[br]It's a comic book coming alive.

0:14:51.376,0:14:58.553
(Music)

0:14:58.577,0:14:59.715
Bono: They're mythologies.

0:14:59.739,0:15:03.341
They're modern myths,[br]these comic book heroes.

0:15:03.365,0:15:09.304
PP: ♪ They believe. ♪

0:15:09.328,0:15:12.981
(Screams)

0:15:13.005,0:15:18.523
(Music)

0:15:30.766,0:15:33.010
(Applause)

0:15:33.034,0:15:37.620
JT: Ohhhh. What was that?

0:15:37.644,0:15:39.891
Circus, rock 'n' roll, drama.

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What the hell are we doing[br]up there on that stage?

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Well, one last story, very quickly.

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After I was in that village,[br]I crossed the lake,

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and I saw that the volcano was erupting

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on the other side, Gunung Batur,

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and there was a dead volcano[br]next to the live volcano.

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I didn't think I'd be[br]swallowed by the volcano,

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and I am here.

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But it's very easy to climb up, is it not?

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You hold on to the roots,

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you put your foot in the little rocks

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and climb up there,[br]and you get to the top,

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and I was with a good[br]friend who was an actor,

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and we said, "Let's go up there.

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Let's see if we can come close to the edge

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of that live volcano."

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And we climbed up and we got[br]to the very top,

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and we're on the edge, on this precipice,

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Roland disappears into the sulfur smoke

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at the volcano at the other end,

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and I'm up there alone

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on this incredible precipice.

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Did you hear the lyrics?

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I'm on the precipice looking down

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into a dead volcano to my left.

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To my right is sheer shale.[br]It's coming off.

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I'm in thongs and sarongs.[br]It was many years ago.

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And no hiking boots.

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And he's disappeared, this[br]mad French gypsy actor,

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off in the smoke, and I realize,

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I can't go back the way that I've come.[br]I can't.

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So I throw away my camera.[br]I throw away my thongs,

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and I looked at the line[br]straight in front of me,

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and I got down on all fours like a cat,

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and I held with my knees to either side

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of this line in front of me,

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for 30 yards or 30 feet, I don't know.

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The wind was massively blowing,

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and the only way I could[br]get to the other side

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was to look at the line[br]straight in front of me.

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I know you've all been there.

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I'm in the crucible right now.

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It's my trial by fire.

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It's my company's trials by fire.

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We survive because our theme[br]song is "Rise Above."

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Boy falls from the sky, rise above.

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It's right there in the palm[br]of both of our hands,

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of all of my company's hands.

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I have beautiful collaborators,[br]and we as creators

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only get there all together.

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I know you understand that.

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And you just stay going forward,

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and then you see this extraordinary thing

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in front of your eyes.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)