Shiva's dance : playwriting as process : an attempt to bridge the chasm between linear thinking and mythopoeic consciousness
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Date
1990
Authors
Nixon, Gregory Michael
University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Education
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Faculty of Education, 1990
Abstract
This document consists of two parts: one is a
creative work (a full-length play) and the other is an
introduction to and a commentary upon my experience of
the creative process.
The play, Shiva's Dance, is an attempt to
understand--from within, as it were--varous individuals'
encounters with the miraculous. I understand the
miraculous to mean that which is inexplicable in any
rational or past-experiential sense.
My play is set in Sri Lanka, near the village of
Kataragama where the annual firewalking ceremonies take
place even today. Firewalking is the central "miracle"
of the play, but it symbolically represents much more:
It is an intiation of consciousness and only those who
are ready for the sacred experience of silent awareness
can succeed at it.
There are various representatives of Western
Culture present in Sri Lanka for various reasons in my
play. There is a Protestant Christian missionary and
his frustrated wife. There is an agricultural
technologist who is the voice of reason and science.
And there is a CUSO teacher: she grows into the focal
point of the play and she discovers her own resources in
the face of terror.
Yes, terror: The play is set in Sri Lanka, so
other difficulties arise from these circumstances. The
Sri Lankan civil war comes to the corner where these
individuals are working out their destinies and
terrorists play a role in the events' unfolding.
Furthermore, there is the "old" versus the "new"
conflict between two other characters--a father and a
son--who are Sr i Lankan. And, lastly, at the most
obvious level, the play involves us in questions of
cross-cultural education and/or indoctrination. It
forces each of us (I hope) to question the cultural
imperatives which we take for granted and to realize
that these imperatives must be deconstructed to awaken
to new self-created potentials.
Because Shiva's Dance was written in isolation, I
naturally had to deal with the impact of its unveiling
to other minds. I write about this in my Introduction
in a general way, and in a longer Appendix in a more
personal manner. In these parts, I attempt to study the
process of creating characters who sometimes act against
the writer'S intentions and with the writer'S assumed
need to prevent this. I also deal openly with the
process of continual rewrites and dealings with friendly
critics and my review committee.
Description
iii, 57, ix leaves ; 29 cm.
Keywords
Playwriting -- Case studies