Tag: All good men

Finished a good full draft of All Good Men; ready for the cast

I’ve been sitting up, watching Independence Day in the background (on A+E), and working on the script for All Good Men. As earlier posts reveal, I’m adapting a script for use as a dance theater project. I’m terribly behind in my schedule, but don’t doubt it’ll get done. I’ve done this before… I had a company from 2001-2003, and made full evening length shows in a little over three months. Twice! I think these twenty minutes of dance won’t be too burdensome to complete by July.

The script, the frame, for the dance, is this story written by Dylan Thomas. I just finished placing in the dances, agreeing on almost all of the music. Here is the final scene – the Doctor speaking to his students for the last time:

To think is dangerous. The majority of men have found it easier to droop into the slack ranks of the ruled. I beg you all to devote your lives to danger; I pledge you to adventure; I command you to experiment. [slowly]

I have attempted to teach you the dignity of man: to think. But to think…. is to enter into a perilous country, colder of welcome than the polar wastes, darker than a Scottish Sunday, where the hand of the un-thinker is always raised against you, where the wild animals, who go by such names as Envy, Hypocrisy, and Tradition, are notoriously carnivorous, and where the parasites rule.

Pay no attention to the mob. Remember that the louder a man shouts the emptier is his argument. Remember that the practice of Anatomy is absolutely vital to the progress of medicine. Remember that the progress of medicine is vital to the progress of mankind. And mankind is worth fighting for: killing and lying and dying for. Forget what you like. Forget all that I have ever told you. But remember that.

Independence Day is now at my favorite part — the speech that the ‘president’ gives before leading the troops into the final air battle. Bill Pullman as the President in Independence DayOddly enough – he says: ‘we will not go quietly into the night!’. Which is theft of a Dylan Thomas line: “Do not go gentle into that good night”.  I realized a while ago that the theme played by Bill Murray on the piano in Groundhog Day is actually a variation by Rachmaninov. Apropos of nothing…

I wonder which part of this project I’ll perform. As President Bill Pullman just said: “I’m a combat pilot, bill. I belong in the air.”  I know one of the smaller parts is best for me… I’m thinking I’d like to play either the student or the Doctor’s assistant. Next few days will include re-recruiting the dancers and setting the rehearsal schedule.

Pride: By Any Means Necessary?

There has been a viral video going around of a comic talking about how “Everthing is So Great but Nobodys Happy.” In the video, comedian Louis CK shares some appealing common wisdom.

Looking through his channel on You tube, I came across the following video in which he backhandedly addresses racism, arguing that being White is way better. Here is the video:

Regardless of his intent, it’s impossible for me not to associate his comedy with “White Pride.”

I’m a Jew, which makes me white to everyone but White people. I don’t associate White Pride with my heritage, but with the people who spray painted swastikas on synagogues in my home-town. A quick search of the phrase White Pride” online got me to the White Pride Archives: News for People Who Love Their Heritage. Without even looking at the site, I have a strong sense that what’s inside is racist. I associate the term White Pride with bigotry.

I have a very different association with the term Gay Pride. I associate Gay Pride with very positive assertions of equality.

We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it!

Perhaps the positivity of pride – be it Black Pride, White Pride, Male Pride, Women Pride, Jewish Pride or Gay Pride – is directly related to the weakness of its possessor? If a group with a lot of power has a lot of “Pride”, its bad, but if a group with little power has “Pride” its good?

Amanda Hess, writing in last week’s City Paper, reported on a criminal attack in which two transgender men were beaten by a group of Lesbian women. The attack was apparently motivated by a sense of betrayal; one of the transitioning men was a former Lesbian who was now too good for that identity. It is impossible to defend the attack, but given the difficulties of Lesbian life it’s pretty simple to see how Gay Pride morphed into these criminal actions.

I’ve been thinking about slippery moral slopes recently, because I’m creating some Dance on the subject. Where are the crossing points for certain ideas – like pride. I listened to the rap song “Break the Grip of Shame” by Paris yesterday. Embedded in the song is a speech by Malcolm X which proudly declaims:

“We declare our race on this earth to be a being. To be a human being. To be respected as a human being. To be given the rights of a human being. Indivisible and binding. And we intend to bring it into existence by Any Means Necessary.”

Pride is a moral stance; an assertion of worth. The communal sense of self that Pride provides perhaps only remains positive when not divorced from other aspects of a moral life.

All Good Men thoughts

I’ve been working on the script for “All Good Men”. All Good Men is my name for the adaptation of Dylan Thomas’s fimscript The Doctor and the Devils into a dance/theater event.

The characters are very complex. Because the story deals with societal acceptance issues, I’m considering re-accenting parts of the story. There are some interesting parallels between the main storyline – people who are killed so that their bodies can be sold as cadavers to medical schools – and sex work. One of the main characters – who gets killed – is actually a tavern-girl/hooker. The killers are motivated in part by need, and in part by greed. I’m thinking about bodies, bodies for sale, and how that will work in as part of the production.

I’m thinking of highlighting that issue in one of the dances.

So I’ve been working on the text, figuring out where the dances might go, and what the dance might be performed to. I know that some of the dances are going to be performed to the read script. But at least at one point, music will overwhelm the read text, and dance will occur to music. I’m thinking about using this beatles song at a place where development occurs between three sets of characters, in subsequent scenes.

I heard the song on the radio the other day and thought it might work well for this. I don’t want to be too simplistic in creating my images for the audience. But it’s a nice song, and can be used both directly and ironically. I might use it.