Summer Independent Study

Last night, I spoke with my friend, Andy, for a long time. Mostly catching up, but also discussing the usual politics and religion and state of the human race, you know, the basics. And through our talk, I found two additional new plays to write! I’ve always been worried about finding ideas for plays, but I guess it’s not too hard to find things when you’re discussing what’s true and beautiful with the world and asking the big questions about REAL LOVE and DEATH. I've read, seen, and heard plays where writers write about love, characters fall in love, they write about death, characters die, but mostly the characters are meaningless and pitiful. The characters make themselves out to be victims in a world that’s really not that bad. Andy and I were discussing how people in the world are lazy and there’s no time for real thought. People are so caught up in living and living has become so cluttered and complicated that there’s no time to consider what’s true in the world.

So, now I have two play ideas:
1. A writer and a theologian on the fringe of The Decadents Movement try to sort through life in the “modern” world. This is a comedy of sorts, which I imagine in the vein of “Shakespeare in Love.”
2. M.-A. Couturier, a Dominican priest hires modern artists such as Léger, Braque, Matisse, Chagall, Lipschitz and others to decorate a new Church in the city of Assy in the south of France. This play is based on a true story. It would be great to embark on this journey and investigate all these great artists and the impact of creating the art for this Church. Can you imagine? Great minds together, the art that must have been created. I haven’t seen their work yet, I’ve only just heard of this event, so I’m going to spend my summer researching this event for my independent study.

Actually, I’m going to be researching for three plays, the two above and “Spiral from Normalcy (The Grand Justice),” which might just be getting a title change… Maybe something like “I’m Gonna Smite Thee?” Perhaps not. It depends on what the play ends up being.

So, here we go. For this summer:

Research The Decadents
Research The Church of Assy
Read “Crime and Punishment”
Read “The Brothers Karamazov”
Read Nietzsche’s “Thus Spake Zarathustra”
Read “Gilead”
Read “Against Nature”
Read plays of Sean O’Casey

These are my goals for my summer. Let my eyes be swift and my plays be plentiful.