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Sunday, April 27, 2014

A Kind of Absolute Reality*

I wrote these words:

"On stage are a tree with a few leaves and three apples duct-taped to it and a small mound next to it.  Wrapped around the tree is The SNAKE, now limp, made out of shiny metal.  The Snake should be a large marionette with obvious strings to animate it's head, now hidden behind the tree and, out of sight, and it's tail.*"

Little did I know what that would mean.  I mean, I could see it in my mind, but I didn't understand what was technically involved in writing those words.

People at The Overtime Theater in San Antonio read those words and agreed to make them a reality.

And what a reality.  Ten or twelve feet tall.  Three feet thick... with a snake wrapped around it.

People have worked for days... weeks.

Others have memorized not just the words I wrote, but they have understood them, and are working to do the words I wrote justice.

They care whether I think what they are doing is what I had in mind.  As my brief experience in the theater has shown me is what these people are doing is so much more, so much better, than what I dreamed.

I am more than a bit overwhelmed by the gift these people have given me.

That's one line of thought in my brain.

Gratitude.

The other is fear.

I want this to be a beginning.  I want this to be the start.  I don't want it to be one and done.

*Manifesto of Surrealism, André Breton
*The Canard of Vaucanson, James Burnside

1 comment:

  1. I doubt it'll be the one and done, not with the strong feelings you have and the will to write. It's a passion, right? Write.
    r

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