Thursday, February 26, 2009

Other ways of representing a performance, besides writing a script

I've been thinking about RVCBard's efforts to go off the beaten paths of dialogue-oriented analytical plays. I've been thinking that it might require going off the beaten paths of scriptwriting, and that it might require a cast and crew who have had some experience with what the performance is about, and who participate in developing the performance.

I tried googling "other ways of representing," with "plays" and "scripts," and a lot of results are about visual representations. A few other ideas came up using other senses, but one result was in a different direction altogether:

"Thus 1.0 and 0.999... are two different decimal numerals representing the natural number 1. There are infinitely many other ways of representing the number 1, for example 2/2, 3/3, 1.00, 1.000, and so on.

(Number, in Wikipedia)

Infinitely many ways of representing, yes . . .

I wonder, has anyone ever tried writing two or three scripts for the same play? What about a comic strip representation and a musical representation for the same performance, developed and applied separately? The performers might practice the two performances separately, then combine them into one, or present them one after the other. That might mean two or three times as much work for everyone. The performance might need to be shortened and simplified, but the possibilities might make it worthwhile.

It reminds me of front, side and top views in mechanical drawing. One flat drawing can not convey all the information needed to construct a solid object. One representation of a performance might not be enough to give a cast and crew everything they need to create the kind of performance Bard wants to create.

I'm wondering how all this might be applied to my performances.

Baha'u'llah wrote:

"Deal ye one with another with the utmost love and harmony, with friendliness and fellowship. . . . Exert yourselves that ye may attain this transcendent and most sublime station, the station that can insure the protection and security of all mankind. This goal excelleth every other goal, and this aspiration is the monarch of all aspirations. . . . At one time We spoke in the language of the lawgiver; at another in that of the truth-seeker and the mystic, and yet Our supreme purpose and highest wish hath always been to disclose the glory and sublimity of this station."

(Baha'u'llah, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, p. 14)

Some God-centered performances might revolve more around what He says in the language of the lawgiver, others more around what He says in the language of the truth-seeker and mystic. Looking at it that way might help improve my relationships with some people.

1 comment:

RVCBard said...

I'm not sure if I'm envisioning this correctly, but I think I get where you're coming from.

In either case, after looking over what I have so far, it's actually pretty complete. The gaps are rather easy to fill in, except where I have trees changing into zombies and what not.