encounter on our journeys.
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Tom Minter
his writing of the play Breathing Ash. The only thing I want to point out are the entry dates from the journal.
David Garone.
The best writers are those who, like canaries in a mine, sense
Potential danger to ourselves, our society, and sing out possibly saving alerts to us.
Such a writer is Tom Minter --Great Tom.
Alfred E. Prettyman
Journaling towards ASH
14.8.01
..it is with the article on Pinter this past Sunday, that I see the pines for the forest. And it does have to do
with social issues – social responsibility – a righteous consciousness. [As a writer] I have to tread where
I’ve not stepped before.
..I’ve opinion – I’ve a view – I may even have a valid point, but I’ve got to find characters who are enmeshed
[in] now – snared, and hostage to larger issues than family secrets and neurosis. I could talk about class-
the African American middle class none of us acknowledges. I could talk about the absence of humanity in
human services. I could look at the frigid political passion of America. So many snares. There must be
characters who could catch my heart and knit a good story.
21.8.01
…There is an edginess to the hot humid nights here – an edginess to the balance of this street – this
country. It’s as if, what’s solid was really ephemeral – what’s imagined, whatever horror, just might
happen. There is no anchor [in view] in this country – my country. [The institution of] Politics has failed us,
numbed us – worn us down to embracing status quo as innovation. Politicians bask in the unblinking
glare of a scurrilously intrusive media – their lives are fodder for movies of the week, or news of the
moment. There are no scruples left anywhere in this arid culture – just a modulating keen of
righteousness, masking outrage and despair.
..[while] religion has groped forward to become the resurgent bedrock upon which people’s intolerances
are anchored and given reason; God, as fascist purist – scripture, as totem and ideal- there to abase and
explain iniquity.
…[American] culture has been so monolithic – so focused on the straight forward – rather than the
complex or side line.
..[we’d no other] civil wars – real wars –or [cathartic] conflict issues; no varied government – no variety of
politicians, communists- or anarchists; no wit of flavor, or candor – just a perpetual lullaby of American
might and perfection. ‘Our system works’ – you don’t futz with what works.
…Unfortunately – its worked us into stagnation, worked us into an atrophy of our will – all we want is a
peaceful life, our SUV’s, our vacations –our right causes.
…But Nature seeks its balance – and so, inverted – we’re going mad. We are the guards and inmates of
the nuthouse; who needs doctors?
…We are stiffening to shatter.
22.8.01
…Outside this continent, the world heaves; countries rend themselves apart to establish ethnic states..
Israel and the Palestinians – Macedonians and ethnic Albanians.. Columbian military separatists fight
government and themselves, swaggering under the riches wrested from a ripe drug industry – the former
Soviet Union continues to fracture along ethnic divides, while these divides now fracture themselves..
Manila and the Philippines spontaneously combust over religious jihad and civil intolerance.. Spain is rent
by Basque separatists; London is again living with terrorism, car bombs and death threats – the collection
of African States, Republics, and Commonwealth holdings, continues to perform the kind of genocidal
tactics its original colonists executed.. Kosovo unveils more mass graves, and hides fugitive generals –
India and the Kashmiri toss missiles and devastate a mountain – Afghanistan and Pakistan rattle words
and guerilla strategies.. The north European countries, Norway, Finland, Sweden, are heaving with the
indigestion of immigration, as tankers unload the third world’s displaced and destitute; Black is the color
of change, and is a constant undertow all across Europe right now; no borders, no deterrents, nowhere
where the righteous eyes of the rest of the world aren’t looking.
All this, just outside this demented garden..- and as inmates, most [here] haven’t a clue.
…Death, destruction, racism, ethnic genocide, inhuman atrocities occurring by the second – and what
does ABC Evening News (touting itself as the nation’s premiere news source) show tonight, with regard to
the ‘other world news’..?
The Tomatoes Fiesta in Spain –which was plugged as: “..the world’s largest food fight!”
…We are not plagued by terrorism, nor any internal jihad, or perpetrated civil destabilization – we drift
serene, succumbing to that monotone, and our own voice.
23.8.01
…Here’s a spark for insurrection: it is an Act of Congress which gives Blacks the gift of the vote in the
United States. And this generosity expires in 2006 – at which point the Act must be re-ratified, or put into a
Bill, run through the House and Senate and transformed into law.
26.8.01
…What would this country be like…? ..already in the fevered grip of certainty that Blacks would wake up,
one not too distant morning, shorn of one of this country’s ‘inalienable rights’..
-..Terrorism. ..activism. ..a racial polarization, probably greater than anything already witnessed here; a
rolling cloud of ‘right wing’ religious fervor, crushing opposition, aligning the advocacy of equal rights to
the repudiation of God. The office of the President – a war room – where strategies and body count would
be the statistics in every conversation. The media, pumped to film it all live!
..What would it be like..? ..the last great democracy, teetering on the brink of irreparable insurrection –
potentially facing, finally, the doppelganger the world has known as America – facing an internal hatred
and contempt it could not overcome with pat buzz words, slogans or feel good mantra.
…In this semi-second, between civil war and civil policy, what would be happening?
…everyone breathing ash
Angel-
A spiritual being superior to man in power and intelligence; an attendant spirit or guardian;
messenger, harbinger < ~of death>; a message originating from God in His aspects of
Truth and Love; one ( as a backer of a theatrical venture) who aids or supports with money
or influence.
- as defined by Mr. Webster's dictionary
When first presented with the play Perfection Unspeakable, I was not that interested by
the definition of an Angel. I was far more intrigued by the fact that this play has a
requirement of deaf actors, voiced actors, actors whose only communication comes from
movement, and that all three have to interact simultaneously.
It is, as far as I know, a unique experiment in ensemble playwriting. And to be honest , I had
concerns about the coordination between the Angels who sign their entire dialogue and the
voiced actors playing the characters picked by these Angels to act out their debate. How do
you keep an actor who plays three characters at once in some cases, in step with the
emotional choices of his scene partners when he cannot hear?
How do you have actors aware of the fact that they have to set a rhythm with the dialogue,
yet still be available for the emotional connection with what they are saying?
During our rehearsals over the past week, I have found that my concerns were completely....
unfounded. It is true, I was wrong.
The ensemble came together, listened to each other, and found common ground from which
to work. The major difficulties have been with the theology of the play. Angels using Man to
act out a debate? It seems sacrilegious to some. To others, it seems as if it were taken from
the Bible (Old Testament), and as such, keeps faith with what the definition of an Angel is
(above). One thing that I think has come from our week together is that Tom has given us a
play that stretches our concepts of imagination, inclusiveness, God, and what perfection is.
My thanks to all of the cast for their efforts, to those of you who have been journeying with
us, and to all who are with us now
David Garone
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