Thursday, August 14, 2008

Loggersarus Rex

I wanted to share a personal account of the breakdown on the way to Idaho. We were blasting down the road in Adam's car, blasting some Li'l Wayne, Stevie Ray Vaughn, or Angels and Demons when we blasted our tailpipe. It must have had something to do with the sudden change in road quality. We thought the scraping sound was just rocks in our wheels but some dude driving past us indicated that something was very wrong. We got out and played in the dust, most notably filming ourselves with tumbleweeds blowing past. I don't know about everyone else, but I wasn't terribly frustrated by being stranded. The group decided to rescue me and Hilary because we were needed for teching. Grace traded in and we left her, Adam, Mike, and Nijae in the dust- literally. I felt like I was betraying them by leaving them stranded, but they made it back eventually.

Jamie stayed with me in the theater as I tried to figure out this manual lightboard and the funky funky set up at the Alpine Playhouse. The converted church makes for a lovely stage with great acoustics and despite it not being state-of-the-art, I haven't had to compromise the lighting much at all. Tonight was our first show and the actors, perhaps inspired by the new intimate space, put on a jolly good show.

We took a jaunt around the lake today and stopped to jump off cliffs (into the water). It was big fun. Nijae thrilled us all by performing some exquisite swimming moves (for her first time). We think she channeled a big-eared Olympian. Jamie and Max found this gigantic fallen tree that was stranded just off a beach. I commandeered it, making it my steed dragon Loggersaurus Rex and sailed on it to the cliffs. We all proceeded to have a rollicking good time horsing around on it. We could have all fit on it comfortably this thing was so long. And it really did look like a dragon.

You know, after the show tonight I really have to say that these terrorists are choosing violence because of their love. They love their homeland, their families, and when these things are threatened, some of them choose to use violence. It may not solve anything but we have to recognize that we would do the same thing if we were coming under daily attack. Max's grandfather said this and I think it wise, something to be reckoned with. We need to use the knowledge gained from producing this play to spread love and understanding amongst ourselves every day that we can. I believe the message of the play is that terrorism is as human as our ability to love and thus born out of it. We need to "think how to love" everyone around us no matter the context. It is quite challenging but indeed possible. Little things like riding a water-dragon for a half hour are enough to bring us together.

Chris

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