Is it more important for a memoirist to avoid inflicting pain on those close to him or to tell the truth as he remembers it? Is the allure of suicide to be taken on its own terms or treated with the taboo our society generally imposes upon it? Which should sway the thinking person: the less than conclusive evidence for God’s existence and meaning in the universe or the less than conclusive evidence against God and meaning? There is not going to be an objectively final resolution to these problems. Should drama therefore not “go there”? And if it does “go there,” must the dramatist furnish a right answer? Not in my book.
Tags:
A Man for All Seasons,
Actors' Equity,
Albert Camus,
Andrew Hinderaker,
Bank Street Theater,
Bertolt Brecht,
Black Box Theater,
C.S. Lewis,
Clive Staples Lewis,
David Bar Katz,
Doubt,
Ellen Burstyn,
Freud's Last Session,
Great White Way,
Independent,
James McMenamin,
John Glover,
John Patrick Shanley,
Labyrinth Theater Company,
Mar St. Germain,
Mark H. Dold,
Martin Rayner,
memoir,
memory play,
miracles,
New World Stages,
Off-Broadway,
Off-Off-Braodway,
Pilgrim's Regress,
Raoundabout Theater Company,
Roundabout Underground New Play Initiative,
Second Vatican Council,
Showcase rules,
Sigmund Freud,
suicide,
Suicide Incorporated,
Surprised by Joy,
Tennessee Williams,
The Abolition of Man,
The Atmosphere of Memory,
The Crucible,
The Future of an Illusion,
Theater District,
Tiny Alice,
Vatican Two,
Waiting for Godot Comments Off on Off- and Off-Off- |
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I was intrigued as soon as I heard that Director Eve Muson was bringing the show to a professional company. My sense was that Muson felt she could build a better product on the same platform of stars, costume and set. She was right. The end product is a modern historical tragedy that obviously speaks directly to contemporary racial and gender issues but also past them to the human condition, as all great tragedy does.
The monastery must now meet the demand for an “incorruptible,” a corpse that never decomposes, the Rolls-Royce of relics. Marie seems ready to be pressed into service over what may be her dead body. And only a bona fide miracle will save the day.
Lennon’s voice comes across as exhausted by sadness. And it speaks to me because that’s how I feel after this close encounter. I could have been a war casualty; I’m not, thank God. But I tell myself I must never forget what it felt like nearly to have been one. And I never do.
Tags:
1-H classification,
1969,
1971,
1972,
Adolph Hitler,
Allen Ginsberg,
back problems,
Baltimore,
Catholic War Theory,
College Hall Green,
conscientious objection,
Draft,
Draft Board,
draft deferments,
Draft Lottery,
Dulce et decorum,
flight to Canada,
Ho Chi Minh,
Horace,
How Do You Sleep?,
Hunger Games,
Imagine,
Jealous Guy,
John Lennon,
John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band,
Just War Theory,
Light Street,
President Richard Nixon,
Richard Nixon,
Second World War,
World War II Comments Off on Imagining A Lot(tery) |
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The trouble was, if both of you were growing in unpredictable ways, were busy exploring, what would happen when each of you had grown into someone new? Could a marriage sustain such developments? One could not know for certain in advance.
Tags:
1970,
1971,
Anne Jackson,
Bonnie Bedelia,
Boomers,
Brigantine,
Carly Simon,
Carpenters,
Cloris Leachman,
engagement,
For All We Know,
Fred Karlin,
Gig Young,
Greatest Generation,
Jacob Brackman,
James Taylor,
Jethro Tull,
Jimmy Griffin,
Karen Carpenter,
Larry Meredith,
marriage,
Michael Brandon,
On the Town,
Oscar,
Reasons for Waiting,
Robb Royer,
Some Other Time,
That's The Way I've Always Heard It Should Be,
The Carpenters Comments Off on We First By Ourselves |
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Posted on April 1, 2012, 7:26 pm, by Jack L. B. Gohn, under
The Big Picture.
The Hunger Games plays it safe, riffing equally on narratives of both left and right in our country, in a way that gives everyone something to like and little to hate. It will resonate for you, whatever you believe.
Tags:
Catching Fire,
Christian Smith,
French REvolution,
George Washington,
Hunger Games,
Jonathan Haidt,
Katniss Everdeen,
La Pasionara,
Lenin,
May The Odds Be Ever In Your Favor,
Mockingjay,
political narratives,
Robespierre,
Russian Revolution,
Suzanne Collins,
The Hunger Games,
The Righteous Mind,
YA fiction,
Young Adult fiction Comments Off on Hunger Games: The Politics Is Ever Balanced |
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