To blog or not to blog

I am not a writer.

There.

I'm just not.

But I do so want to communicate. And I often find an interesting sort of peace when the things swirling in my head are finally articulated. A peace that is at times more powerful when it is articulated by someone else.

I’ve had three epiphanies in one week. No. That’s not the right word. See? Not a writer. We’ll just call them really, REALLY cool moments. At least until I figure it out.

One of them I want to tell you about. A play that stopped me in my tracks.

Pause for a moment while I reflect on the nature of Theatre. One of the compelling things about theatre is that it is a live (alive?) and dynamic medium. But for me that is also a real bitch. I can’t rewind or suggest a friend NetFlix it.

As a thespian I have great respect for The Script. That might be why I prefer Shakespeare. The guy kinda knew how to write and no one involved in a production is going to discount it. Which is why new works intrigue the hell out of me and playwrights doubly so. They are Writers. How do they string together such language? Line after line of perfect word choices that effortlessly articulate something deep in my core?

I usually get about one of those experiences a year. When a play is so great my mind can not let go. Angels in America by Kushner, Betrayal by Pinter, Arcadia by Stoppard. Last year it was Faust.Us. by a Portland playwright and in 2003 it was a play called Outrage by some guy younger than me from Berkeley. Well, Portland, he’s back and he brought us a world premier!

Here’s the press on Celebrity Row:

Fact:
The most secure prison in America is ADX-Florence, a.k.a. Colorado Supermax, a.k.a. the Alcatraz of the Rockies. It once held The Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, Latin Kings gang leader Luis Felipe and World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yusef, all on the same floor, at the same time.

Fiction:
In this brilliant, hilarious and free ranging epic, Itamar Moses {Outrage} imagines what might have transpired in the one hour a day that these prisoners were allowed access to each other. As seen through the eyes of the prison educator, Maze Carroll, these conversations morph into a humorous and excoriating examination of the freedoms we trade away for "security."

But this is not just a story of four sociopathic men - indeed it is the sole female character that we come away wanting to know more about. As an audience, we are not forced to take a side or a stance. The playwright simply suggests that we stop and THINK about what is at stake in light of these men’s actions.

I can’t explain much more. I wish more people could experience it. But maybe you can find a local production of one of his plays or at least experience his writing. Remember the name - Itamar Moses. Destined for greatness I tell you! Or perhaps already achieved it.