{"id":193,"date":"2019-09-14T19:34:55","date_gmt":"2019-09-14T19:34:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nwhellcats.org\/blog\/?p=193"},"modified":"2019-10-20T16:35:37","modified_gmt":"2019-10-20T16:35:37","slug":"whats-in-a-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.nwhellcats.org\/blog\/2019\/09\/14\/whats-in-a-name\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s In a Name?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Photo by Daniel Haley<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

This week rehearsals began for This Random World (TRW) by Steven Dietz. FINALLY! It’s my first time in rehearsals as a dramaturg. For my previous project I only assembled a research packet for the director, David Lee-Painter (DLP).<\/em>

DLP is also directing TRW. The packet’s done. I wrote it up last summer for the design team to have. DLP asked me to make a few remarks at the first rehearsal. Below are some excerpts. <\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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One of the things that immediately struck me about Dietz\u2019s script is how much we miss when we\u2019re narrowly focused on our own lives. We can be oblivious to the roles we play in others’ lives. It only takes a slight shift of focus to bring different things to light or see old things as if new.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea of randomness also resonated with me. We, as creatures on this planet, are trying to control our world and that belief of control is very important. It can humbling to discover how much is really just randomness or dumb luck at work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea of random chance brings me to the title of Dietz\u2019s play: This Random World The Myth of Serendipity. When I first started researching TRW, I thought the second title referred to serendipity as a myth. My friend, Rob Snyder reminded me that myth is actually a truth manifested as a story. I\u2019ve come to believe Dietz is using the phrase to comment on the main title. This Random World is the truthful story of happy chance. Later in the play a pair of the characters go the Forest Where Lies Are Revealed. When lies are revealed, one gets to the truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dietz has\ncrafted a compelling story and at the same time has dismantled it by denying\nscenes where we expect certain characters to meet. This puts us in & out of\nthe story at the same time\u2014like Schr\u00f6dinger\u2019s cat. It permits us to study the\nworld he has created and juxtapose it with our own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Dietz once wrote that theatre\u2019s most profound gifts are participation and reflection. This Random World<\/em> gives us plenty of opportunities to do that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image by Dan Lurie, Schrodinger’s lolcat. Credit to Justin Wick for the idea, and Kevin Steele for the photo.
https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/dantekgeek\/522563155<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week rehearsals began for This Random World (TRW) by Steven Dietz. FINALLY! It’s my first time in rehearsals as a dramaturg. For my previous project I only assembled a research packet for the director, David Lee-Painter (DLP). DLP is also directing TRW. The packet’s done. I wrote it up last summer for the design … Continue reading “What’s In a Name?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,6,11],"tags":[10,9,29,13,25],"class_list":["post-193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anthropology","category-dramaturg","category-theatre","tag-dlpanotherfinemess","tag-dramaturgy","tag-lovemesomeresearch","tag-theatre","tag-this-random-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.nwhellcats.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.nwhellcats.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.nwhellcats.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.nwhellcats.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.nwhellcats.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.nwhellcats.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":229,"href":"http:\/\/www.nwhellcats.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193\/revisions\/229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.nwhellcats.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.nwhellcats.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.nwhellcats.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}