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Wow. It's been a while since the last entry, when I decided to write about the influence Pres. Hinckley has had on me as a writer. He died a week ago.
The only thing I can think of to add now as that I also want my work, for the most part, to reflect the same spirit of realistic optimism he always had and taught. Life is tough, but it's also a beautiful, wonderful thing. The road ahead is long, but we're further along it than we've ever been before, and there's not just light at the distant end of some tunnel--there's enough light, if we have eyes to see it, all around us.
Since we just had LDS General Conference, I wanted to write a little bit about a man who's had a great influence on my writing: our prophet, Gordon B. Hinckley.
President Hinckley succeeded President Hunter as the prophet about the same time my family moved to Ohio, right as I was coming out of elementary school into middle school. He did visit Columbus once, but otherwise the way I know him is mostly through General Conference broadcasts.
I remember the first time I was convinced I was listening to a prophet of God speaking. It was in the priesthood session of conference, I can't remember which year, and Pres. Hinckley was telling husbands to treat their wives and children right. I just remember this 90-something-year-old man standing straight up and saying, with power and clarity, that if any man abused his wife physically or emotionally, "Amen to the priesthood of that man" (meaning that the authority of God departs when we do such things.)
I've been struck since then how the greatest recurring concern of God's prophet in our day is not to discuss abstract theological concepts or petition God for new commandments. The thing he cares about most and has emphasized again and again is the need for greater love and kindness in our lives, and the eternal tragedy of our casual mistreatments of one another. Those are the issues that fill a prophet's heart.
When I write, I do so with the intent to communicate something. I'm not nearly clever or witty enough to justify a script purely on the basis of its entertainment value (I have to give audiences at least a little meat, you could say, because my milk isn't all that good). More often than not, the types of themes that occupy my mind are those I learned a special concern for from President Hinckley: how do we treat each other? Why do we so often fail to be loving and good and how can we find healing and retain a belief in our ability to change?
Another manifestation of this influence comes in the way I try to be kind to my characters. Rather than vilifying them, I try to humanize even the ones I disagree with. All my characters make mistakes, but I try to give them credit for wanting and trying to do good and make things right at least much of the time.
My hope is that through my most of my plays, characters and audiences can search for healing and struggle for repentance together. I like to think President Hinckley would approve.
There are a lot of reasons why we write. Writing is a form of therapy whereby which the writer can take the time to express their own personal questions, doubts, and beliefs and display them in such a way that others will be able to get involved. Now this is obviously only one way of viewing writing but I think it’s an important one and one that I use many times when starting a new project. Since my play 6is currently greeting everyone as they enter our website I thought I’d let you know a little bit about my life as a writer and a resident of the great city of New York. Sure I’m currently living in Provo but 9/11 still rings in my mind. The play is very biographical though not particularly in its specific events as in its specific emotions. As you read through the play the different characters (mom, dad, cousin, etc) explain the situation from their own point of view. The dialogue is derived from the feelings I received from them and from other members of my family. Knowing where all of them were during the attacks I began to fictionalize what happened to each individual while not taking away the emotion. Some of the characters thoughts were my own but most were derived from conversations with my family. In the end 6is a look back at 9/11 and a collection of thoughts and prayers from those who lived to speak about it. From that point of view I can say that after returning from my mission in Mexico I began to think a lot about playwriting and this last year I kept feeling that I needed to write a play about 9/11. I didn’t want to but I kept feeling that I should. I’m really glad I did and I hope all those who have read it have been able to get something out of it. There’s a little bit of me, until next time, live it up ‘cause life is beautiful. Peace.
Sept. 14th, 2007: James
Goldberg
It's been almost a week and my sleep
schedule still isn't back to normal after the conversation I had with Adam
Stallard last Saturday. Around 11 pm, we got talking about just what the
"values-driven" in our new tagline means. After all, everyone has
values...what makes us unique? And how do values drive our kind of theatre? Our
discussion stayed lively until we looked at the time and realized it was 5
am...
Here are some thoughts
from that conversation:
“Values” is a tricky word…anything
anyone values is technically a value, but the word usually implies more than
that. Google the phrase “values-driven” and you’ll find articles on
values-driven business (where fulfilling your purpose in life and treating
people right is more important than making money, and “the spiritual dimension
of life doesn’t disappear when people get together for a business venture”), on
values-driven families (how to “share a heritage of faith with your children”)
and even values-driven healthcare (giving moral, ethical, and religious
considerations greater priority in medicine). Wherever we looked, “values” went
beyond the relativistic, subjective definition. Our deepest values seem to be
spiritually-rooted: they have to do with living in harmony with our fellow
human beings (who are, in any religion, spiritual creatures) and God (or our
“conscience” when it’s phrased secularly). The principles these deep values
emphasize are seen as inherent in the world, not just a human invention. They
are either discovered by people or revealed by God, but never just artificially
created.
New Play Project’s goal is
to develop writers who are committed to creating plays rooted in these deep
values. There is, of course, room for producing things that are simply
entertaining, but the heart of our work is producing new plays that help keep
audiences grounded and connected to a life of harmony.
Most of our writers are
LDS, so putting values first in writing often just means being true to our
identity more than to prevailing artistic ideas. But how, specifically, do we
encourage values-driven theatre? A few keys:
-Inspiring,
thought-provoking plays: when selecting scripts, we look particularly for scripts
that combine good writing with good messages on important topics. We also find
try to develop scripts that don’t just preach values, but help the audience
think about them.
-“Safe” theatre: A
values-driven business, says Ben Cohen, cares more about the environment and
surrounding community than about extra profit. Similarly, New Play Project puts
the cultural impact of entertainment above the common artistic ideal of 100%
free expression. We respect the prevailing
-Focus: Most Disney
musicals, Adam pointed out, have positive messages and are “safe” as far as
content standards, but the average production of, say, Beauty & the
Beast is more focused on visual impact than on values. We’re more interested
in getting people to think about values than in getting applause or a standing
ovation. Through a combination of our traditional pre-show essay, our program
notes, our talkbacks, and our workshop program, New Play Project tries to
emphasize the thought-provoking, values-driven nature of our plays.
-Heritage: if the goal is
to raise issues about how to live a good life, in harmony with others and God,
we need to acknowledge past discoveries and revelations. Much of modern art
tries to exist on the cutting edge of human philosophy, but we are happy to
look back to our heritage and to time-tested principles of goodness as primary
sources of guidance.