Mid-afternoon. Leisurely lunch at Potbelly’s a few minutes ago, and presently Carol is
returning flannel sheets to Macy’s in Kenwood because of imperfections. You had
a doctor’s appointment earlier and are at 288.8 pounds with clothes and 288.2
pounds at home without. Five prescriptions were renewed and you have two more
doctor visits later in the month.
You
spent last night thinking about settings and situations for the roundtable
discussion among a universal spirit, a young female hybrid marsupial-humanoid
alien and yourself, not Richard Graystone in the books.
I
wasn’t sure about who Richard is.
Now you know. Human beings have questions
about aliens and how it would be to actually know one. You have the advantage
in that you do know one (of sorts), me. And, you have the background of your
marsupial aliens to go with, so you know a bit about them too.
I
get to develop and keep a sense of authenticity then?
Yes, of course, orndorff. This blog should
be real enough, in some ways more real than this one which is still a working
blog. The new one is set and ironically not much different than your first
existential story, the one for Dr. Price’s class (sophomore year) at Otterbein.
He gave you a D for poor grammar, poor writing and immaturity.
Maybe
I can do better this time. I hadn’t written an existentially-toned short story
before. I assume that this will be helpful later, in book six with the
marsupial-humanoid dead mixing with the human dead.
You’ll need a bit more focus and
clarification but for now your comment will do. Post. - Amorella
You are moving off topic, orndorff. This ‘narrator’
is worth taking the time to think about. Something to sleep on. Post. -
Amorella
You
have completed some of the preliminaries for the new blog, but you need a
narrator, someone like the stage manager in Wilder’s Our Town.
Our
Town has always been one of my favorite plays since we read it out loud in
Miss Harley’s high school freshman class I believe. We sat at our seats and
spoke different parts. I think I read Dr. Gibbs’ lines a few times. I really
liked that the characters were dead and looking back at life – I always
wondered who the stage manager was – one of the unknown dead; a Caretaker of sorts;
an Angel; or God – it added to the mystery behind, or rather, beneath the play
(at least in my fourteen year old mind). The setting was in the Mind of God,
that’s the way I took it then, that we existed solely in the Mind of God, that
was the drift in my freshman imagination. Here are some reminder pointers from
Wikipedia.
** **
Our Town is a three-act play by American playwright Thornton Wilder. It is a
character story about an average town's citizens in the early twentieth century
as depicted through their everyday lives (particularly George Gibbs, a doctor's
son, and Emily Webb, the daughter of the town's newspaper editor and George's
future wife). Using metatheatrical devices, Wilder sets the play in a 1930s
theater. He uses the actions of the Stage Manager to create the town of
Grover's Corners for the audience. Scenes from its history between the years of
1901 and 1913 play out. . . .
The play is set in the
fictional community of Grover's Corners, New Hampshire, modeled upon several
towns in the Mount Monadnock region: Peterborough, Jaffrey, Dublin and others.
The narrator gives the coordinates of Grover's Corners as 42°40′ north latitude
and 70°37′ west longitude, which is in Massachusetts, about a thousand feet off
the coast of Rockport.
Our Town's narrator, the Stage Manager, is completely aware of his
relationship with the audience, leaving him free to break the fourth wall and
address them directly. According to the script, the play is to be performed
with little scenery, no set and minimal props. Wilder was dissatisfied with the
theatre of his time: "I felt that something had gone wrong....I began to
feel that the theatre was not only inadequate, it was evasive." His answer
was to have the characters mime the objects with which they interact. Their
surroundings are created only with chairs, tables, and ladders. (e.g., The
scene in which Emily helps George with his evening homework, conversing through
upstairs windows, is performed with the two actors standing atop separate
ladders to represent their neighboring houses.) Says Wilder, "Our claim,
our hope, our despair are in the mind – not in things, not in 'scenery.'"
From Wikipedia
** **
What
is the form, behavior and function of the Narrator in the blog? I will have to
think on this. Fun stuff! I love thinking and creating scene and characters. A
boring discussion? It need not be. Another favorite play (and film) of mine is My
Dinner with Andre written by and staring Andre Gregory and Wallace Shawn
and directed by Louis Malle. From time to time I would show this film
production in my AP classes because most would have never the opportunity to
see it, or care to see it. The film stirred their minds, at least the minds of
some. It is always good to stir the minds no matter what the age.
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