When We Dead Wake

I have been working on a play by Henrik Ibsen, one of my favorite playwrights. When We Dead Wake was the last play he wrote, although he did not intend for it to be his last play :(

Here are a few thoughts I have had as I prepare for my presentation on Friday...

Imagine a man and a woman...husband and wife who become pregnant with their first child. They go through all the joys of pregnancy and the gestational period, yet after nearly 20 hours of labor the result is not a beautiful, warm, crying child, but a deformed, cold, lifeless and silent child. The realization that the pregnancy resulted in nothing more than death and memories causes a slow, painful, and twisted awakening for those involved, dragged in, and looking on...

Now, imagine the audience walks in to this pure white, crisp, clean set with Maja and Rubek set in a tableau... By the time the audience is settleed Maja and Rubek have changed slowly into various tableaus. As their dialogue reaches their first mention of death we have slowly brought in a mild hint of a dull cool blue on the set behind them out of their direct view.

Please visit again as I continue to develop these ideas...I hope to have the rest of my presentation complete before it is due this Friday. Any thoughts???

(For images of my inspiration for living sculptures you may go to Project 4 work by Jenna McCracken; for images of my inspiration for the set you may go to Project 4 work by Alex Gutierrez; for images of my inspiration for the tone and feeling of each act, as well as, some basic color pallettes you may go to Charles Cramer's site and observe specifically his Yosemite images; and to listen to the music I have chosen to inspire me you may listen to "I Touch Myself" by Divinyls.)

New Havens

I added a new link list to the right. These sites are a list of links I am starting with to help build my knowledge of the arts happening today. I am hoping to build the list and do a weekly reading of a new site each week. If you have suggestions on which sites I need to know about send them my way. I am specifically interested in sites that touch on an area of art (music, theatre, dance, sculpture, performance art, etc.), but would love any suggestions.

What have you got?

Annular Solar Eclipse

On file with the AFP...


On January 26th, there will be an annular solar eclipse visible from near the Indian Ocean and western Indonesia. It should be a very exciting event. I would expect that you may be able to watch a video of the event on their website (providing they shoot it). So, if you are interested be sure to check them out...here...Here is a photo from a previous annular eclipse. They are as expected rare and amazing. I hope to see one someday :)


Details from NASA...

Portfolio Update

Howdy folks...I wanted to let you all know that my Portfolio is completed. Check in the list of links to the right and you will find a link that takes you to my Portfolio. I will also be working on a page where you will be able to read a brief description of the production.

While you are purusing the links to the right find something you are interested in and enjoy looking at the various sites I enjoy looking at...Also, you may find a number links within my posts...please take some time to check out these links as they are most often quite intriguing.

Thanks for stopping by...

J

Ganz, Uncle Roudin, and ?

Uncle Roudin, 2005

I have been getting very inspired to continue exploring my play. I wrote a one act play, Ganz, in college. I started another one act play the year after I graduated, but I have not had a chance to finish it. I think I am going to revisit my work and continue the second play, Uncle Roudin. Shortly after I finish the second play and have had it successfully staged, then I will write my third play, which is yet to be started or even explored. My only conceptual idea in reference to the third play at this point, is that it is tied to the first and second. Essentially, the three one act plays are one play...Ganz makes up the first act, Uncle Roudin, the second, and the third...well the third act of course. Anyway, I am very excited to start working again. I was supposed to have finished all three plays by 2007, so that they could be ready to be staged as one large play by 2009. We will see what happens.

Sites to check out

Look to the right and scroll down a little...I posted a new list of sites that I will be reading for this week...enjoy!

Weekly Reading List

I have just updated my list of Weekly Havens to the right. I will be reading these folks blogs this week as much as I can, or if they are websites, then I will be learning about their work as much as I can. Each site is a link from my New Haven list of links to the right. I hope to add a few more sections to these soon, as well as make each blog its own unique outpost. Keep checking back for more developments and take a look at my Weekly Havens list...you may just find something you like.

Total Solar Eclipse

NASA is running a live feed to the total solar eclipse from 6 a.m. to 11 a.m. EST. Don't miss this opportunity to see the sun red, the moon black, and the amazing experience. Someday you have to see this live (with the proper eye wear of course...I found that a welding mask works wonders). I wish I could get a photo of this, I am sure lots of photographers are taking advantage of the opportunity.

Lightning

The weather is going crazy out here in Amherst, MA. Every 10 seconds we get a blast of lightning and then shortly after a sky tearing thunder clap...literally, it sounds as though somebody tore a piece of paper in half, but magnify it as if somebody just tore off a piece of the sky. I couldn't help but watch for a while, and then I thought maybe I should try to capture it with some photography...is it art?


No lightning...

This is fairly dark right? I took off the flash on my camera so that I could get a true sense of what the lightning was doing...providing I could capture the flash of lightning. It is obviously night time and to the right of the picture you can see a light glistening in the water on the road...


Lightning flash...

This was taken a few minutes later during a lightning flash...looks like daylight right? Amazing! It took a lot of pictures to get this shot, but I got it. I can't believe the world lights up like that when lightning flashes...Wow!

Did I mention that it is July...what happened to the sun? What is the weather like where you are?