The recent production of A LION IN WINTER at the Victorian Theater in Denver thrilled full houses. The proprietors, hopefully, took in about $4000 each weekend. That will easily service the mortgage. Other expenses will be covered easily and there might be something left over for cast and crew. Responding to popular demand, an additional weekend was added. That additional weekend will really squeeze cast and crew of the next production, STONES IN HIS POCKETS. Striking LION's set and building of STONE's set will run right into each other. Cast and crew for STONES will have to work more in a compressed time frame familiarizing themselves with the set before opening as scheduled (months ago) on February 22. Cast and crew committed themselves (months ago), clearing their schedules. LION cannot be extended any further without completely screwing all involved with STONES. The proprietors of the Vic - and the public - will never know how long LION might have run. There will never be A LION IN WINTER poster placarded with a banner reading, "Now, in it's 58th smash week!" That only happens in London or New York, cities where tourists flock to see theater.
And Denver could never be a destination for theater lovers. Perish the thought! Theater could never reach deeply enough here to sustain extended runs. Drab, humdrum Denverites could never be transformed into theater lovers. Not on a mass scale! Certainly not!
But why not? We are the largest metropolis, centered in a huge geographic region. There is a tremendous amount of talent and an adequate stock of performance space. Much of that space is first rate and underutilized (the Lakewood Cultural Center, for instance). Much of that space is quaint and intimate. There are a handful of fine playwrights (one of extraordinary natural gifts). Our climate and scenery would be most congenial to the motion picture industry. A lively theater scene would serve as a pipeline for a motion picture industy. A motion picture industry, inevitably, would boost tourism. All reinforces all and all would benefit from a thriving theater scene.
The two most significant obstacles local theatrical producers face when pondering extending a run are: 1) the necessity of scheduling space well in advance, in 4-6 weeks blocks of time; and, 2) The inability of local actors to make open-ended commitments of their time. The second problem can be solved easily enough by the producers themselves. All local producers have a list of actors in their heads that they can call on in an emergency. That list in their heads must be better systematized - and shared among each other. The first obstacle is the big one. All producers face rents or mortgages which must be serviced. They must schedule runs in 4-6 blocks with a minimal amount of dark time, hopefully less than two weeks between the closing of one show and the opening of the next.
There is plenty of underutilized performance space in the metro area. The City and County of Denver (and most of the suburban municipal governments) own much of that space. Why not use that space, especially that which is municipally owned? Why not move A LION IN WINTER to city owned space, rent free? Just charge a conservative percentage of the profits? Let the theater owners, cast and crew reap the windfall. It seems such a cheap and simple thing to do which might bring plenty of bang for the buck.
Showing posts with label theater. Show all posts
Showing posts with label theater. Show all posts
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Saturday, January 19, 2008
A Stroll to the Theater with President Lincoln
One day, while sitting for his portrait, President Lincoln chatted with the artist, Frank B. Carpenter. He described the Cabinet meeting of July 22, 1862, when he decided upon emancipating the slaves.
"Things had gone from bad to worse until I felt that we had reached the end of our rope on the plan of operations we had been pursuing, that we had about played our last card, and must change our tactics or lose the game. I now determined upon the adoption of the emancipation policy, and without consultation or knowlege of the Cabinet, I prepared the original draft of the proclamation, and after much anxious thought, called a Cabinet meeting upon the subject. I said to the Cabinet that I had resolved upon this step, and had not called them together to ask their advice, but to lay the subject matter of a proclamation before them, suggestions as to which would be in order, after they had heard it read. Secretary Chase wished the language stronger in reference to the arming of the blacks. Mr. Blair deprecated the policy, on the ground that it would cost the administration the fall elections.
"Nothing, however, was offered that I had not fully anticipated and settled in my own mind, until Secretary Seward spoke. He said, in substance, 'Mr. President, I approve of the proclamation, but I question the expediency of its issue at this juncture. The depression of the public mind, consequent upon our repeated reverses, is so great that I fear the effect of so important a step. It may be viewed as the last measure of an exhausted government; the government stretching forth its hands to Ethiopia, instead of Ethiopia stretching forth her hands to the government.'
"His idea was that it would be considered our last shriek, on the retreat.
'Now,' continued Seward. 'While I approve the measure, I suggest, sir, that you postpone its issue, until you can give it to the country supported by military success, instead of issuing it, as would be the case now, upon the greatest disasters of the war.'
"The wisdom of the view of the Secretary of State struck me with great force. It was an aspect of the case that, in all my thought upon the subject, I had entirely overlooked."
I am a playwright. I often attend public readings of new works. These readings are usually followed by an audience critique. I have seen wonderfully useful criticism utterly ignored by aspiring playwrights. So many of them - keenly aware that no member of the audience has thought as deeply upon the plot, theme, and characters of their play as they have - dismiss the criticism. They would do well to consider President Lincoln's close attention to the input of his Cabinet. No doubt, he was the moral and intellectual superior of his several Department Secretaries. He had thought much more deeply upon emancipation than any of them. Yet, in all that deep thought, he had missed a huge piece of the puzzle - picking the best time for publication. Had he gone forward full steam ahead, Emancipation would have failed.
A great playwright, determined to pen a masterpiece, must have both qualities possessed by President Lincoln - moral autonomy and purposive humility. And a finely tuned ear to the input of others.
"Things had gone from bad to worse until I felt that we had reached the end of our rope on the plan of operations we had been pursuing, that we had about played our last card, and must change our tactics or lose the game. I now determined upon the adoption of the emancipation policy, and without consultation or knowlege of the Cabinet, I prepared the original draft of the proclamation, and after much anxious thought, called a Cabinet meeting upon the subject. I said to the Cabinet that I had resolved upon this step, and had not called them together to ask their advice, but to lay the subject matter of a proclamation before them, suggestions as to which would be in order, after they had heard it read. Secretary Chase wished the language stronger in reference to the arming of the blacks. Mr. Blair deprecated the policy, on the ground that it would cost the administration the fall elections.
"Nothing, however, was offered that I had not fully anticipated and settled in my own mind, until Secretary Seward spoke. He said, in substance, 'Mr. President, I approve of the proclamation, but I question the expediency of its issue at this juncture. The depression of the public mind, consequent upon our repeated reverses, is so great that I fear the effect of so important a step. It may be viewed as the last measure of an exhausted government; the government stretching forth its hands to Ethiopia, instead of Ethiopia stretching forth her hands to the government.'
"His idea was that it would be considered our last shriek, on the retreat.
'Now,' continued Seward. 'While I approve the measure, I suggest, sir, that you postpone its issue, until you can give it to the country supported by military success, instead of issuing it, as would be the case now, upon the greatest disasters of the war.'
"The wisdom of the view of the Secretary of State struck me with great force. It was an aspect of the case that, in all my thought upon the subject, I had entirely overlooked."
I am a playwright. I often attend public readings of new works. These readings are usually followed by an audience critique. I have seen wonderfully useful criticism utterly ignored by aspiring playwrights. So many of them - keenly aware that no member of the audience has thought as deeply upon the plot, theme, and characters of their play as they have - dismiss the criticism. They would do well to consider President Lincoln's close attention to the input of his Cabinet. No doubt, he was the moral and intellectual superior of his several Department Secretaries. He had thought much more deeply upon emancipation than any of them. Yet, in all that deep thought, he had missed a huge piece of the puzzle - picking the best time for publication. Had he gone forward full steam ahead, Emancipation would have failed.
A great playwright, determined to pen a masterpiece, must have both qualities possessed by President Lincoln - moral autonomy and purposive humility. And a finely tuned ear to the input of others.
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Writings
I should post a resume for my creative works.
SCREENPLAYS
Vinegar Joe
This dramatizes one of the great adventure stories of World War II. In 1942, U.S. Army General Joseph W. Stilwell was sent to China to "increase the combat efficiency of the Chinese Army." The mission turned sour, failing to turn the tide of the Japanese onslaught in Burma. Stilwell's headquarters command was forced to escape through the worst malarial district in the world into British India. Stilwell was the only person to lead a group out with no fatalities. On other trails, 30,000 people perished.
The Peanut and I
A sequel to Vinegar Joe, taking the story through the Cairo Conference of December 1943. General Stilwell, the fightingest General in the United States Army, was placed in a very sensitive political mission. This script dramatizes all the obstacles to the great General's fulfillment of his mission.
* I plan at least two more scripts dramatizing the Stilwell saga.
Lyon of Missouri
This tells the story of Nathaniel Lyon, a General who saved Missouri for the Union in the early months of the war. Lyon was the first Union hero of the war. Had he survived the Battle of Wilson Creek, he might have been lifted up to command the Army of the Potomac rather than McClellan. This might have shortened the war by two years. The designers of the Civil War game rate Lyon on a par with Stonewall Jackson, in terms of the significance of their deaths.
Lyon was an extraordinary character. The first five pages of this script will make the best actors drool for the part.
Cycling to Paradise
This romantic comedy tells the story of a group of rank amateurs in Denver trying to produce a movie. It is set around my job as a school bus driver.
Rumsfeld's Folly
For this script, I simply imposed a linear structure on Kurt Vonnegut's, The Sirens of Titan, and substituted luminaries of the Bush Administration: i.e. Noel Constant = Bush, Sr.; Malachi Constant = Bush, Jr.; Salo, the cloven-hoofed Tralfamadorian = Cheney; etc.
You can get an idea by scrolling down to the entry "Rumfoord's Pocket History..."
At Summer Solstice with the Ancient Ones
The plot line for A Midsummer Night's Dream set in Mesa Verde during the 12th Century. Sounds pretty dreamy, don't you think?
I have made it through the last scene, but this script is far from finished. The names for the immortals must be changed. Anything indicating ancient Greece must be squeezed out of the script. Almost anything too intrusive upon the religion of the Puebloan peoples must be squeezed out. Etc. A lot of work still to do.
The Love Bubble Man
This is a fictional story worked around a peculiar tangent of the JFK assassination. Two reporters, Bill Hunter and Jim Koethe, spent time in Jack Ruby's apartment on the evening of November 22, 1963 (hours after the shooting in Dealey Plaza, and before Ruby shot Oswald in the Dallas police station).
At present, this is a confused script, but, if thinned down, it might work well as a Cold Case episode
The Graven Images of Nationalism
Incomplete, about half finished. A fictional story set around the catastrophe in Iraq. I'm just too angry to contain long soliloquies condemning the war.
STAGE PLAYS
Czar Reed and the Punk
I call this a dialogue between the 19th and 20th Centuries. It is a two man play, minimal set. The historical personage is Thomas B. Reed, a United States Speaker of the House, 51st and 55th Congresses. Speaker Reed was a wonderful character. A simple quote from one of his contemporary opponents across the aisle (Champ Clark, a Democract from Missouri), should suffice. "Speaker Reed ruled the House by the brutality of his intellect. Sometimes he rubbed the skin off. Sometimes he cut to the bone. And sometimes, he crushed in a skull as though it were an eggshell."
Reckoning with Marlowe
This play was conceived as a companion piece to Shakespeare in Love. It is structured around the production of a play. In this case, the play within the play is Tamburlaine, the first play employing blank verse. It made a sensation in Elizabethan London.
This play makes a perfect evening of theater. Despite the serious theme and the depth of the tragedy, there is an amazing amount of humor (thanks, in large part, to Thomas Nashe).
Worcester v. The State of Georgia
Two cases reached the Supreme Court challenging the Indian Removal Act of 1829, the legislative crime which enabled the Trail of Tears. The second case, Worcester v. the State of Georgia, proved a victory for the Cherokees. Unfortunately, a genocidal maniac, Andrew Jackson, occupied the White House at the time. President Jackson refused to implement the Court order. The Trail of Tears followed.
This play dramatizes both Supreme Court cases.
The Humblest Individual
In Charleston, South Carolina, in 1823, a remarkable civil rights case reached the Federal Circuit Court. 131 years prior to Brown v. Topeka Board of Education, William Johnson, a State's Rights Supreme Court justice, citing the commerce clause to the Constitution, decided a case in favor of the plaintiff, a person of color.
This case swirls around the Denmark Vesey slave revolt of 1822. The play is quite a window into the times. Unfortunately, the swift pace of the story is completely broken by the actual court proceedings. This defect might not be so noticeable in a screenplay.
TELEPLAYS
The Gold Conspiracy
Beginning in 1949, the gifted Dutch diplomat and Sinologist, Robert H. van Gulik, began writing the Judge Dee mysteries. Taking a hero of Chinese folklore, Judge Dee, a Tang Dynasty official legendary for his rectitude and sleuthing, van Gulik created a series of very entertaining books celebrated by scholars and mystery fans alike.
Van Gulik made creative use of a key feature of ancient Chinese administrative practice, the rule of avoidance. Mandarin officials seldom stayed more than three years in any post, especially if they were doing a great job. They did not want anyone to build up an independent power base. So van Gulik sets his stories in several different places, following the career of Judge Dee.
The Gold Conspiracy dramatizes van Gulik's book, The Chinese Gold Murders. Judge Dee travels from Beijing to his first post at Penglai, in Shandong Province, where he exposes a plot of one of his classmates to manipulate the gold market.
Three Penglai Puzzlers
This script dramatizes three of van Gulik's short stories.
The Willow Pattern
A dramatization of another van Gulik story, the last set in Judge Dee's first post, in Shandong Province.
Obviously, the Judge Dee series would make a wonderful addition to the Mystery series on PBS. There probably would be another 12-15 scripts taking Judge Dee through his entire career.
Aussie Aviators
Afer the Armistice in 1918, the Australian government sponsored an air race from London to Fanny Bay, Darwin, despite the fact that the infrasructure supporting flight did not exist east of Calcutta. All of the aviators involved experienced a unique adventure. However, the team of Parer and McIntosh, flying a dilapidated, war surplus DeHavilland DH9 endured, perhaps, the greatest adventure of the 20th Century. Eight of the twelve episodes envisioned have been written.
"The Armistice and a Peacetime Folly"
In November 1918, John McIntosh began pilot training. After just a few days in the course, the war was over and training ceased. Raymond Parer, on the other hand, was the finest test pilot of the day. This episode dramatizes their meeting and the announcement of the Race.
"Inquest, Sabotage, Espionage, and Death"
Episode two tells the story of the failed teams. The Alliance team crashed into a Surbiton orchard and died 8 minutes after take-off. There was an inquest. The Blackburn Kangaroo team crashed at the gate of an insane asylum in Crete. An oil return hose suspiciously failed, causing the crash. The Sopwith Wallaby team, taking a more northerly route than the other teams, landed in the middle of a revolution in Serbia. They barely escaped execution as spies. The team of Howell and Fraser crashed off the coast of Corfu and drowned in 8 feet of water.
"Dodging Redcaps"
In episode three, our heroes, Parer and McIntosh, depart London in early January 1920, one month after the Smith Brothers, in their state of the art Vickers Vimy, had arrived in Darwin, winning the Prize. Parer and McIntosh did not have clear permission to fly. Technically, they were away without leave and subject to capture by the British military police, the Redcaps.
"Aflame over Forti di Marmi"
Episode Four. After two weeks in Paris repairing the plane, Parer and McIntosh continued on toward Rome. Above Forti di Marmi, a little town in northern Italy, a wing caught fire. Only a rapid descent of 5000 feet averted doom.
"Vented by Vesuvius"
Episode Five. The leg from Rome to Cairo was highlighted by a near crash into Vesuvius when a vent of gas out of the crater created a draft sucking the plane down thousands of feet in a few seconds.
"A Mills Bomb in the Assyrian Desert."
Episode Six. The leg from Cairo to Baghdad was punctuated by a daybreak raid of marauding Arabs on the shores of a lake somewhere near Ramadie.
"Friendly Cannibals"
Episode Nine. The leg from Calcutta to Rangoon included an emergency landing on an island in the middle of a tributary of the Irrawaddy River. The flight would have ended there without the help of a tribe of primitive people.
"Upside Down in the Land Down Under"
In episode twelve, Parer and McIntosh take a victory lap south and east from Darwin, destination Melbourne. The flight ends not far from Melbourne when a gust of wind flips the plane over. Parer saves McIntosh from a firy death, getting him out of his harness and gasoline spills all over the Great Scot.
SCREENPLAYS
Vinegar Joe
This dramatizes one of the great adventure stories of World War II. In 1942, U.S. Army General Joseph W. Stilwell was sent to China to "increase the combat efficiency of the Chinese Army." The mission turned sour, failing to turn the tide of the Japanese onslaught in Burma. Stilwell's headquarters command was forced to escape through the worst malarial district in the world into British India. Stilwell was the only person to lead a group out with no fatalities. On other trails, 30,000 people perished.
The Peanut and I
A sequel to Vinegar Joe, taking the story through the Cairo Conference of December 1943. General Stilwell, the fightingest General in the United States Army, was placed in a very sensitive political mission. This script dramatizes all the obstacles to the great General's fulfillment of his mission.
* I plan at least two more scripts dramatizing the Stilwell saga.
Lyon of Missouri
This tells the story of Nathaniel Lyon, a General who saved Missouri for the Union in the early months of the war. Lyon was the first Union hero of the war. Had he survived the Battle of Wilson Creek, he might have been lifted up to command the Army of the Potomac rather than McClellan. This might have shortened the war by two years. The designers of the Civil War game rate Lyon on a par with Stonewall Jackson, in terms of the significance of their deaths.
Lyon was an extraordinary character. The first five pages of this script will make the best actors drool for the part.
Cycling to Paradise
This romantic comedy tells the story of a group of rank amateurs in Denver trying to produce a movie. It is set around my job as a school bus driver.
Rumsfeld's Folly
For this script, I simply imposed a linear structure on Kurt Vonnegut's, The Sirens of Titan, and substituted luminaries of the Bush Administration: i.e. Noel Constant = Bush, Sr.; Malachi Constant = Bush, Jr.; Salo, the cloven-hoofed Tralfamadorian = Cheney; etc.
You can get an idea by scrolling down to the entry "Rumfoord's Pocket History..."
At Summer Solstice with the Ancient Ones
The plot line for A Midsummer Night's Dream set in Mesa Verde during the 12th Century. Sounds pretty dreamy, don't you think?
I have made it through the last scene, but this script is far from finished. The names for the immortals must be changed. Anything indicating ancient Greece must be squeezed out of the script. Almost anything too intrusive upon the religion of the Puebloan peoples must be squeezed out. Etc. A lot of work still to do.
The Love Bubble Man
This is a fictional story worked around a peculiar tangent of the JFK assassination. Two reporters, Bill Hunter and Jim Koethe, spent time in Jack Ruby's apartment on the evening of November 22, 1963 (hours after the shooting in Dealey Plaza, and before Ruby shot Oswald in the Dallas police station).
At present, this is a confused script, but, if thinned down, it might work well as a Cold Case episode
The Graven Images of Nationalism
Incomplete, about half finished. A fictional story set around the catastrophe in Iraq. I'm just too angry to contain long soliloquies condemning the war.
STAGE PLAYS
Czar Reed and the Punk
I call this a dialogue between the 19th and 20th Centuries. It is a two man play, minimal set. The historical personage is Thomas B. Reed, a United States Speaker of the House, 51st and 55th Congresses. Speaker Reed was a wonderful character. A simple quote from one of his contemporary opponents across the aisle (Champ Clark, a Democract from Missouri), should suffice. "Speaker Reed ruled the House by the brutality of his intellect. Sometimes he rubbed the skin off. Sometimes he cut to the bone. And sometimes, he crushed in a skull as though it were an eggshell."
Reckoning with Marlowe
This play was conceived as a companion piece to Shakespeare in Love. It is structured around the production of a play. In this case, the play within the play is Tamburlaine, the first play employing blank verse. It made a sensation in Elizabethan London.
This play makes a perfect evening of theater. Despite the serious theme and the depth of the tragedy, there is an amazing amount of humor (thanks, in large part, to Thomas Nashe).
Worcester v. The State of Georgia
Two cases reached the Supreme Court challenging the Indian Removal Act of 1829, the legislative crime which enabled the Trail of Tears. The second case, Worcester v. the State of Georgia, proved a victory for the Cherokees. Unfortunately, a genocidal maniac, Andrew Jackson, occupied the White House at the time. President Jackson refused to implement the Court order. The Trail of Tears followed.
This play dramatizes both Supreme Court cases.
The Humblest Individual
In Charleston, South Carolina, in 1823, a remarkable civil rights case reached the Federal Circuit Court. 131 years prior to Brown v. Topeka Board of Education, William Johnson, a State's Rights Supreme Court justice, citing the commerce clause to the Constitution, decided a case in favor of the plaintiff, a person of color.
This case swirls around the Denmark Vesey slave revolt of 1822. The play is quite a window into the times. Unfortunately, the swift pace of the story is completely broken by the actual court proceedings. This defect might not be so noticeable in a screenplay.
TELEPLAYS
The Gold Conspiracy
Beginning in 1949, the gifted Dutch diplomat and Sinologist, Robert H. van Gulik, began writing the Judge Dee mysteries. Taking a hero of Chinese folklore, Judge Dee, a Tang Dynasty official legendary for his rectitude and sleuthing, van Gulik created a series of very entertaining books celebrated by scholars and mystery fans alike.
Van Gulik made creative use of a key feature of ancient Chinese administrative practice, the rule of avoidance. Mandarin officials seldom stayed more than three years in any post, especially if they were doing a great job. They did not want anyone to build up an independent power base. So van Gulik sets his stories in several different places, following the career of Judge Dee.
The Gold Conspiracy dramatizes van Gulik's book, The Chinese Gold Murders. Judge Dee travels from Beijing to his first post at Penglai, in Shandong Province, where he exposes a plot of one of his classmates to manipulate the gold market.
Three Penglai Puzzlers
This script dramatizes three of van Gulik's short stories.
The Willow Pattern
A dramatization of another van Gulik story, the last set in Judge Dee's first post, in Shandong Province.
Obviously, the Judge Dee series would make a wonderful addition to the Mystery series on PBS. There probably would be another 12-15 scripts taking Judge Dee through his entire career.
Aussie Aviators
Afer the Armistice in 1918, the Australian government sponsored an air race from London to Fanny Bay, Darwin, despite the fact that the infrasructure supporting flight did not exist east of Calcutta. All of the aviators involved experienced a unique adventure. However, the team of Parer and McIntosh, flying a dilapidated, war surplus DeHavilland DH9 endured, perhaps, the greatest adventure of the 20th Century. Eight of the twelve episodes envisioned have been written.
"The Armistice and a Peacetime Folly"
In November 1918, John McIntosh began pilot training. After just a few days in the course, the war was over and training ceased. Raymond Parer, on the other hand, was the finest test pilot of the day. This episode dramatizes their meeting and the announcement of the Race.
"Inquest, Sabotage, Espionage, and Death"
Episode two tells the story of the failed teams. The Alliance team crashed into a Surbiton orchard and died 8 minutes after take-off. There was an inquest. The Blackburn Kangaroo team crashed at the gate of an insane asylum in Crete. An oil return hose suspiciously failed, causing the crash. The Sopwith Wallaby team, taking a more northerly route than the other teams, landed in the middle of a revolution in Serbia. They barely escaped execution as spies. The team of Howell and Fraser crashed off the coast of Corfu and drowned in 8 feet of water.
"Dodging Redcaps"
In episode three, our heroes, Parer and McIntosh, depart London in early January 1920, one month after the Smith Brothers, in their state of the art Vickers Vimy, had arrived in Darwin, winning the Prize. Parer and McIntosh did not have clear permission to fly. Technically, they were away without leave and subject to capture by the British military police, the Redcaps.
"Aflame over Forti di Marmi"
Episode Four. After two weeks in Paris repairing the plane, Parer and McIntosh continued on toward Rome. Above Forti di Marmi, a little town in northern Italy, a wing caught fire. Only a rapid descent of 5000 feet averted doom.
"Vented by Vesuvius"
Episode Five. The leg from Rome to Cairo was highlighted by a near crash into Vesuvius when a vent of gas out of the crater created a draft sucking the plane down thousands of feet in a few seconds.
"A Mills Bomb in the Assyrian Desert."
Episode Six. The leg from Cairo to Baghdad was punctuated by a daybreak raid of marauding Arabs on the shores of a lake somewhere near Ramadie.
"Friendly Cannibals"
Episode Nine. The leg from Calcutta to Rangoon included an emergency landing on an island in the middle of a tributary of the Irrawaddy River. The flight would have ended there without the help of a tribe of primitive people.
"Upside Down in the Land Down Under"
In episode twelve, Parer and McIntosh take a victory lap south and east from Darwin, destination Melbourne. The flight ends not far from Melbourne when a gust of wind flips the plane over. Parer saves McIntosh from a firy death, getting him out of his harness and gasoline spills all over the Great Scot.
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Processing a nearly lost play by Dorothy Heyward
Many years ago, I researched a play dramatizing the two Supreme Court cases preceding the Trail of Tears. That research required a reading of the seminal 1919 biography of Chief Justice John Marshall by Albert J. Beveridge. In volume 4, p. 382-4, Beveridge briefly outlined an 1823 U.S. District Court case from Charleston, South Carolina - Elkison v. Deliesseline.
At that time, Supreme Court justices presided over Federal District Courts. In that case, Associate Justice William Johnson, a Charlestonian and State's Rights advocate (who had been appointed by Jefferson to obstruct the Federalism of Marshall), struck down a draconian state law restricting the movements of free people of color. As in the civil rights cases of the 1950's, Johnson cited Article One, Section 8 of the Constitution - the commerce clause - as the basis for upholding the rights of Henry Elkison, a free person of color.
I filed this in the back of my mind as a promising dramatic subject. A few years later, when I came back to it, I finally recognized the obvious connection of the case to the Denmark Vesey slave uprising of 1822. Initial research - a 1935 scholarly article by Philip Hamer in the Journal of Southern History and a very readable 1983 essay by Scott W. Stucky in the North Carolina Central Law Review - made the connection crystal clear. The slavocracy of South Carolina, terrified by the Vesey conspiracy, turned to the legislature for extreme police measures to control the servile population. They sought to insure that their slaves never happened upon a free person of color. That very freedom was deemed seditious.
I sought out biographies of Denmark Vesey - by Donald R. Egerton, William Freehling, John Lofton and David Robertson. That raised some interest in Vesey's co-conspirators, especially Gullah Jack. I contacted (via e-mail) Susan R. Silverman (Gullah Jack's biographer) at Winthrop College. Dr. Silverman alerted me to an article in the Charleston Courier reviewing the treatment of Vesey in the performing arts. That article enlightened me to the existence of Dorothy Heyward's play Set My People Free, a dramatization of the Vesey Rebellion. (DuBose Heyward, incidentally, was a descendant of Nathaniel Heyward, one of the judges for the kangaroo court which convicted Vesey.) Quickly, it became apparent that my play would be shaped by the content and quality of the earlier play by this Heyward woman.
I set out to find the play. I read James M. Hutchisson's biography of DuBose Heyward. While reading this book, I supplemented the information with internet searches. One of those searches dredged up an entity called the DuBose and Dorothy Heyward Memorial Fund. The Trustee for the Fund is Mr. Albert Cardinali of Thacher, Proffitt and Wood, L.L.P. Naturally, I assumed that the Fund would have a copy of the play. Confidently, I contacted Mr. Cardinali. Unfortunately, the firm's offices at the World Trade Center were destroyed on 9/11. None of the attorneys were killed, but the papers of the 150 year old establishment were destroyed, Set My People Free among them.
I continued my search with the inter-library loan department of my local library. The best information suggested that only two copies of the play existed on the entire planet - one at the South Carolina Historical Society (with an alternate title, Charleston, 1822) and one at the Detroit Public Library. The SCHS was willing to photo-copy the play at 25 cents per page. After a long week, the script was in my hands. It was obvious to me, unfortunately, that that copy was an early draft.
Now, I was down to one last hope - the Detroit Public Library, which promptly informed my librarian that the play could not be lent to me under any circumstances. Clearly, it was time to call in the cavalry - Mr. Cardinali. Within a week, the script was in my hands. It looked like a final draft (excepting a long scratched-out section), complete with properties list. I spent the next few weeks processing the script. It has been rescued.
At that time, Supreme Court justices presided over Federal District Courts. In that case, Associate Justice William Johnson, a Charlestonian and State's Rights advocate (who had been appointed by Jefferson to obstruct the Federalism of Marshall), struck down a draconian state law restricting the movements of free people of color. As in the civil rights cases of the 1950's, Johnson cited Article One, Section 8 of the Constitution - the commerce clause - as the basis for upholding the rights of Henry Elkison, a free person of color.
I filed this in the back of my mind as a promising dramatic subject. A few years later, when I came back to it, I finally recognized the obvious connection of the case to the Denmark Vesey slave uprising of 1822. Initial research - a 1935 scholarly article by Philip Hamer in the Journal of Southern History and a very readable 1983 essay by Scott W. Stucky in the North Carolina Central Law Review - made the connection crystal clear. The slavocracy of South Carolina, terrified by the Vesey conspiracy, turned to the legislature for extreme police measures to control the servile population. They sought to insure that their slaves never happened upon a free person of color. That very freedom was deemed seditious.
I sought out biographies of Denmark Vesey - by Donald R. Egerton, William Freehling, John Lofton and David Robertson. That raised some interest in Vesey's co-conspirators, especially Gullah Jack. I contacted (via e-mail) Susan R. Silverman (Gullah Jack's biographer) at Winthrop College. Dr. Silverman alerted me to an article in the Charleston Courier reviewing the treatment of Vesey in the performing arts. That article enlightened me to the existence of Dorothy Heyward's play Set My People Free, a dramatization of the Vesey Rebellion. (DuBose Heyward, incidentally, was a descendant of Nathaniel Heyward, one of the judges for the kangaroo court which convicted Vesey.) Quickly, it became apparent that my play would be shaped by the content and quality of the earlier play by this Heyward woman.
I set out to find the play. I read James M. Hutchisson's biography of DuBose Heyward. While reading this book, I supplemented the information with internet searches. One of those searches dredged up an entity called the DuBose and Dorothy Heyward Memorial Fund. The Trustee for the Fund is Mr. Albert Cardinali of Thacher, Proffitt and Wood, L.L.P. Naturally, I assumed that the Fund would have a copy of the play. Confidently, I contacted Mr. Cardinali. Unfortunately, the firm's offices at the World Trade Center were destroyed on 9/11. None of the attorneys were killed, but the papers of the 150 year old establishment were destroyed, Set My People Free among them.
I continued my search with the inter-library loan department of my local library. The best information suggested that only two copies of the play existed on the entire planet - one at the South Carolina Historical Society (with an alternate title, Charleston, 1822) and one at the Detroit Public Library. The SCHS was willing to photo-copy the play at 25 cents per page. After a long week, the script was in my hands. It was obvious to me, unfortunately, that that copy was an early draft.
Now, I was down to one last hope - the Detroit Public Library, which promptly informed my librarian that the play could not be lent to me under any circumstances. Clearly, it was time to call in the cavalry - Mr. Cardinali. Within a week, the script was in my hands. It looked like a final draft (excepting a long scratched-out section), complete with properties list. I spent the next few weeks processing the script. It has been rescued.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Meddlesome Apparatchiks
In Peter Shaffer's AMADEUS, there is a scene where Constanza shows up at Maestro Salieri's palace conservatory bearing a sheaf of original Mozart compositions purloined from her husband's papers. The scene is narrated by the aging, institutionalized Salieri: "Astounding! Beyond belief! He had simply written down music that was already finished in his head. And finished as no music is ever finished." The aged Salieri elaborates on that perfection: "Displace one note and there would be diminishment. Displace one phrase and the structure would fall."
The aged Salieri's reflections came to mind, painfully, when I learned how a few arrogant Latino pressure groups mobilized meddlesome apparatchiks to strongarm Ken Burns into editing his World War II documentary to suit themselves. Shamefully, they succeeded. This does not bode well for free expression in our country. Tell me, Juan Gonzalez and all you self-appointed political commissars: How does your manhandling of Ken Burns differ from the meddling Mozart endured from the Emperor's advisers? How does it differ from the insufferable Soviet meddling in the work of Prokofiev and Shostakovich? Your blind pursuit of a narrow political agenda - pluralism run riot - has pushed the country a giant stride toward cultural sterility.
Why couldn't you simply produce your own documentary? Why meddle with Ken Burns? Could you not tell your own story better than he could? Or, perhaps - like the Emperor and the Soviets - you share Salieri's lament at Divine Fate: "He gave me that longing, then made me mute."
The aged Salieri's reflections came to mind, painfully, when I learned how a few arrogant Latino pressure groups mobilized meddlesome apparatchiks to strongarm Ken Burns into editing his World War II documentary to suit themselves. Shamefully, they succeeded. This does not bode well for free expression in our country. Tell me, Juan Gonzalez and all you self-appointed political commissars: How does your manhandling of Ken Burns differ from the meddling Mozart endured from the Emperor's advisers? How does it differ from the insufferable Soviet meddling in the work of Prokofiev and Shostakovich? Your blind pursuit of a narrow political agenda - pluralism run riot - has pushed the country a giant stride toward cultural sterility.
Why couldn't you simply produce your own documentary? Why meddle with Ken Burns? Could you not tell your own story better than he could? Or, perhaps - like the Emperor and the Soviets - you share Salieri's lament at Divine Fate: "He gave me that longing, then made me mute."
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Aristotle meets the Monster that ate Hollywood
More than two millenia have passed since Aristotle wrote his Poetics, an exposition on playwrighting. Today, it is mostly read by college freshmen forced to do so to meet core curriculum requirements at the better liberal arts colleges. Few read it with pleasure. Most forget it with alacrity. Plawrights and screenwriters, however, ignore Aristotle's Poetics at their peril. Hollywood producers, unfortunately, ignore him religiously. In fact, they stand him on his head.
In his Poetics, Aristotle lists, in order of importance, the six elements which make a great play: 1) plot; 2) character; 3) theme; 4) diction; 5) song, and 6) spectacle. Hollywood producers invest heavily in "production values." This is just a fancy phrase for "spectacle." Special effects, stunts, car chases, explosions, etc. consume the largest chunks of their budgets. Story is an afterthought.
Hollywood is digging its own grave. At the very least, "they" are starving our culture. Big budgets require rapid returns. A movie must get on as many screens as possible. The lion's share of the investment must be recouped in the first weeks after release - before the fickle audience sprints on to see newer and more "spectacular" special effects. This requires a huge investment in advertising - which only makes the hole even deeper. If the producers guess wrong, they might as well jump in the grave and let the bean counters kick the dirt in.
Demographics drives decision-making. On weekends, the malls of America are filled with adolescents. Parents are glad to get rid of them for a few hours. Hollywood producers compete furiously to draw these millions of kids into the theaters. These kids don't come to hear a story. They want to watch things blow up during the intervals between their glandular secretions. This is the beast Hollywood seeks to feed not tame.
The rewards are enormous. The dead hand of risk aversion gropes everywhere. Even medium budget projects must run the gauntlet of bean counters and demographics gurus before they get the green light. Nia Vardalos wrote a funny slice of life story called My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Eventually (so the rumor goes), she found herself in a room with 53 people weighing the pros and cons of taking her stage play and making it into a movie. A consensus took hold: cute story, bad demographics. They told her to transform her Greek family into a Mexican or Italian family. Ms. Vardalos put her foot down. "No! I'm Greek!," she said. If Mr. and Mrs. Tom Hanks had not been firmly in her corner, the movie probably would never have been made.
Storytelling or plot - #1 on Aristotle's list - costs next to nothing. Have you ever seen a big budget film trumpet the screenwriter in its advertisements? Of course not. The public is wooed by the lead actors or the director. The writer is a cipher. So - Hollywood marginalizes the writer while it spends millions for demolitions experts. It's all about feeding the monster.
This state of affairs creates a marvelous opportunity for regional film companies. There is plenty of talent here in Denver - a few good writers and dozens of excellent actors. Ask anyone who attends theater regularly.
Every state in the Union can support a film industry. Colorado is especially well-suited, blessed with "spectacular" scenery, a dry, sunny climate, and an innovative technological sector. Our population is large enough to support high quality, story-intensive, low budget films. The Colorado Film Commission, presently, rebates 10% of "below-the-line" costs for movies made here. That's a good start. But a strategic decision must be made. Can Colorado recapitulate the experience of New York City in the first decades of the 20th Century where theater and film cross-pollonated? The acting talent is already here. We should use it. The writing talent needs nurturing. Let's do so.
(Did you know that the next Sam Shepard graduated from Centaurus High School just five years ago?)
Hollywood abandoned the writer decades ago. Our culture piles up more rubbish year after year. The writer stands against this trend with his finger in the dike. We have a duty to stand up to the Monster that ate Hollywood.
In his Poetics, Aristotle lists, in order of importance, the six elements which make a great play: 1) plot; 2) character; 3) theme; 4) diction; 5) song, and 6) spectacle. Hollywood producers invest heavily in "production values." This is just a fancy phrase for "spectacle." Special effects, stunts, car chases, explosions, etc. consume the largest chunks of their budgets. Story is an afterthought.
Hollywood is digging its own grave. At the very least, "they" are starving our culture. Big budgets require rapid returns. A movie must get on as many screens as possible. The lion's share of the investment must be recouped in the first weeks after release - before the fickle audience sprints on to see newer and more "spectacular" special effects. This requires a huge investment in advertising - which only makes the hole even deeper. If the producers guess wrong, they might as well jump in the grave and let the bean counters kick the dirt in.
Demographics drives decision-making. On weekends, the malls of America are filled with adolescents. Parents are glad to get rid of them for a few hours. Hollywood producers compete furiously to draw these millions of kids into the theaters. These kids don't come to hear a story. They want to watch things blow up during the intervals between their glandular secretions. This is the beast Hollywood seeks to feed not tame.
The rewards are enormous. The dead hand of risk aversion gropes everywhere. Even medium budget projects must run the gauntlet of bean counters and demographics gurus before they get the green light. Nia Vardalos wrote a funny slice of life story called My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Eventually (so the rumor goes), she found herself in a room with 53 people weighing the pros and cons of taking her stage play and making it into a movie. A consensus took hold: cute story, bad demographics. They told her to transform her Greek family into a Mexican or Italian family. Ms. Vardalos put her foot down. "No! I'm Greek!," she said. If Mr. and Mrs. Tom Hanks had not been firmly in her corner, the movie probably would never have been made.
Storytelling or plot - #1 on Aristotle's list - costs next to nothing. Have you ever seen a big budget film trumpet the screenwriter in its advertisements? Of course not. The public is wooed by the lead actors or the director. The writer is a cipher. So - Hollywood marginalizes the writer while it spends millions for demolitions experts. It's all about feeding the monster.
This state of affairs creates a marvelous opportunity for regional film companies. There is plenty of talent here in Denver - a few good writers and dozens of excellent actors. Ask anyone who attends theater regularly.
Every state in the Union can support a film industry. Colorado is especially well-suited, blessed with "spectacular" scenery, a dry, sunny climate, and an innovative technological sector. Our population is large enough to support high quality, story-intensive, low budget films. The Colorado Film Commission, presently, rebates 10% of "below-the-line" costs for movies made here. That's a good start. But a strategic decision must be made. Can Colorado recapitulate the experience of New York City in the first decades of the 20th Century where theater and film cross-pollonated? The acting talent is already here. We should use it. The writing talent needs nurturing. Let's do so.
(Did you know that the next Sam Shepard graduated from Centaurus High School just five years ago?)
Hollywood abandoned the writer decades ago. Our culture piles up more rubbish year after year. The writer stands against this trend with his finger in the dike. We have a duty to stand up to the Monster that ate Hollywood.
Incubator for the Theater
When I think of a Golden Age (Periclean Athens, Elizabethan London, or Rooseveltian America, for example), a few defining strokes dominate the canvas. There is open recruitment of talent into leadership elites. There is a confident spirit of inquiry into the pragmatic and speculative sciences. And, there is lively, original Theater.
Today, in America, the same monster (an incubus?) that ate Hollywood has eaten regional theater. Big budgets, big marketing, big actors, bog productions, and big ticket prices all add up to gigantic risk aversion. Original Theater must run for cover. Free enterprise theaters, to survive, must impose limitations - minimal sets, tiny casts, etc. Such theaters often try to carve out a special niche, thus further limiting themselves. And limiting Original Theater.
There is a useful place for an incubator. Reader's Theater. Playwrights benefit from seeing and hearing their plays read and critiqued. Actors benefit from the work. The audience benefits from exercising the little gray cells in the cranium.
To make an impact, three things are necessary - space, a schedule, and participation. The Colorado Theater Guild, thanks to Gloria Shanstrom, has given us a chance to make an impact by solving space and schedule. If local playwrights do not take advantage of this program BY PARTICIPATING (which means attending readings other than one's own), the fault will lie, Dear Brutus, not in the stars but in ourselves.
Today, in America, the same monster (an incubus?) that ate Hollywood has eaten regional theater. Big budgets, big marketing, big actors, bog productions, and big ticket prices all add up to gigantic risk aversion. Original Theater must run for cover. Free enterprise theaters, to survive, must impose limitations - minimal sets, tiny casts, etc. Such theaters often try to carve out a special niche, thus further limiting themselves. And limiting Original Theater.
There is a useful place for an incubator. Reader's Theater. Playwrights benefit from seeing and hearing their plays read and critiqued. Actors benefit from the work. The audience benefits from exercising the little gray cells in the cranium.
To make an impact, three things are necessary - space, a schedule, and participation. The Colorado Theater Guild, thanks to Gloria Shanstrom, has given us a chance to make an impact by solving space and schedule. If local playwrights do not take advantage of this program BY PARTICIPATING (which means attending readings other than one's own), the fault will lie, Dear Brutus, not in the stars but in ourselves.
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