UNDERSTANDING PERSONAL COMPLEXITY USING MASK

In 1974 when Bill Roberts was envisioning and creating the Initiation Rite for adolescents at First Church in Middletown, he researched the practices of peoples from all over the world in creating a Rites de Passage to empower the transition from childhood to adulthood. One of the common themes of those ancient rites was the Masking Exercise. In his 1982 book he wrote this:

I was surprised to see how widely the mask was used in many different cultures. The Greeks used the mask o portray different personae - characters - in their theater. The Romans picked up this custom and developed it further. The Latin word for mask is LARVA, which means not only mask but also ghost, mad or insane - a case of demoniacal possession. LARVA is also "the immature form of animals characterized by metamorphosis" in the grub state before their transformation into a pupa or pupil. The parallel to young persons passing through initiation is self-evident. Marcus Aurelius used to advise, "carve your own mask,' meaning "develop your character, become yourself."

In the Italian theater, masks were used to represent stock characters from different regions of ITALY. The same characters appeared in numerous plays, living through a variety of experiences - gathering to themselves more and more life, a personal history, and a set of possibilities for the future. The mask was more important than the actor who wore it. That lifeless thing had attained a life of its own.

In Africa, both the making and the wearing of the mask are activities partaking of the holy. Consequently, they are protected with rites and taboos…

Somehow, masking, by enabling humans to be other than what they normally are, allows them to be more of what they can be. The masks summon us to leave behind the conventions, the norms, the restrictions of the society, and enter the liminal world where we are given license to explore the wider dimensions of the self.

In two unusual and unbelievably powerful ways we at Roberts Consulting, Inc. have brought this ancient custom of using masks into our work with clients.

Matthew Roberts is the primary leader of one of these two masking exercises. Perhaps we need to remind you that Matthew was a Dance and Religious Studies double major at Wesleyan University. He then went to the West where he was on the faculty of Berkeley Repertoire Theater and a student at Dell Arte School in Blue Lake, California. At Dell Arte he studied Physical Theater, which includes disciplines such as clowning, mime, stage combat, melodrama and, very importantly, MASKING.

The exercise that he designed and led has several parts. It begins with asking the participants, who have been asked to come to the retreat dressed all in black, to put on black masks - the type that might be worn by bank robbers - and then begin to interact without one another without the benefit of any facial gestures. He then moves to a more complex stage in which he has the persons choose a mask from a collection of stock masks that he has brought - and perhaps a wig or a hat to top it off - and take on the life of a character. Then he has the characters interact with one another in a brief "play of pairs."

Finally, he divides the group into improvisation teams of five or six persons, and instructs them to create a drama that will highlight some of the "stock characters" in their offices and how they as leaders transform them into an effective team. The dramas, which generally only last a few minutes, tend to be hilarious. People are amazed at their own humor. But even more important, as we debrief the experience - and the debriefing can take hours - the folks are similarly amazed at their wisdom and skill as leaders.

Bill Roberts is the primary leader of our other masking experience. This is called the Masking Ritual and is an adaptation of a Transformation Rite for Adult Leaders of the Kwakiutl people, a Native American tribe in British Columbia (Canada) and the Pacific Northwest of the United States.

This ritual begins by reminding the participants that Masking Rituals always partake of the holy. So we approach the process with both humility and humor - in our effort to unmask our true humanity (All words, by the way, are derived from the same word - HUMUS - which means, of the earth.) When we are sufficiently humbled we approach tables, just big enough for kindergartners, and find some bags and all types of papers and magic markers and sparkles and paints (including face paints) and …… you name it. And we start to make not just one mask, but a mask within a mask, and then within that inner mask, some of the participants even paint on the natural contours of their own face as they try to both conceal and reveal what is distinctly human about them.

We have no doubt that, as you read these descriptions of these most unusual experiences, you may be wondering how anyone could possibly do this type of thing in the workplace.

Two additional words might address your wonderings.

1. First, we would never try these exercises with a team unless they were ready for them - trusting and daring and creative.
2. Second, teams that go through either of these Masking Exercises will always be transformed by the experience.