Friday Thoughts

Couturier: "[Christian art should be resurrected by geniuses who happen also to be saints], but under actual conditions, since men of this kind do not exist... it would be safer to turn to geniuses without faith than to believers without talent" (Rubin 68-69)

Couturier (Quoting St. Augustine): "Many are outside who believe themselves to be within, and many are within who believe themselves to be without" (Rubin 69)

Bryan Moore, who has been helping me with research and discussions, told me earlier this week that I should be ready to start writing some scenes. Maybe a monologue or two, just to see where my thinking is. I started to consider this today, wondering what scene I could possibly write.

In rereading the story of the evolution of Lipchitz's Virgin created for the baptismal font of NDdTG, I am struck with the feeling that Lipchitz might be my nucleus. While reading "The Brothers Karamazov" today, my mind fluttered around and, for some reason, rested on the New York subway system. Why? I'm not sure. It was my curiosity and fear of the subway, my own personal reflections on the subway and New York life that had created my first play, "Dialogues with Lars." The NYC subway was a place of spirituality, of rebirth, and of sacredness. The story of Lipchitz's creation of the Virgin discusses how he had a "vision" on the subway in NYC in 1948. He was so moved by this vision that he took out an address book, the only paper in his pocket, and sketched what would become the basic foundation of the sculpture. In my thinking about this play, I've been "seeing" that scene onstage. It is the only scene that I can "see." The subway. An older man. A sudden apparition. Inspiration.

What is this apparition? Is it Jesus Christ? God Himself? I've been toying around with a celestial body being in the play, interacting with the others. Then, it hit me. Mary. The Virgin Mary. She's the namesake of the Church. She has the greatest representations in NDdTG, (on the facade of the Church, in the Lipchitz sculpture). It should be her. She should be Lipchitz's vision. Not in the visions of tradition- in a blaze of light and carrying roses, but a woman in the clothes of the 40's. A nice dress, maybe even pants. Maybe carrying roses? That strikes me as an important link. Roses. She's selling roses on the subway. She sits next to Lipchitz. What are they talking about? Perhaps nothing of consequence, but she strikes a nerve. And as she gets off the subway, leaving Lipchitz alone, he has an epiphany. His mind goes back over his conversation and he draws his first image of what would become his Virgin.

Lipchitz described his experience creating the Virgin as a religious experience.
"When working, I am linked to the entire cosmos. By rhythm I am linked to time, by volume I am linked to space, and by the subject matter I am liked to human beings, to their sufferings and joys. And through the feeling of creation I am bound to our Lord himself. From this comes the fascination of work and also the feeling of responsibility"(Rubin 133).

Now, I think I may have found my nucleus. How does this branch out to take hold of the rest of the material? Taking into account Lee Blessing's advice to me of looking at a play as a "Lawyer's Opening and Closing Remarks," what am I trying to prove with this play? And what is my evidence? So far, the first clue is: NYC subway. Does that mean that true spiritual experience happens outside of the Church?