Continuing Production efforts for "Nunc Licet" : link to script

UPDATE 12/11 - Celebration of Swedenborg's Birthday:

A proposal that "Nunc Licet" be prepared to use in conjunction with the celebration of Swedenborg's birthday has been made to the Bryn Athyn Church and such an idea seems nice as a diner & a show kind of thing.   

That celebration takes place in January and his death took place in March, so something presented anywhere in between will serve the two purposes overall.

This presentation thus far has been not well received by the church event planners, either because of the length of the show, or the way in which Swedenborg is presented in the play. Yet such a presentation  remains a very interesting concept, with or without the church's involvement.

If anyone is interested in developing this concept, anywhere around the world, then I invite dialogue on the subject.

The readers edition is still something that will be further developed, when the time can be allotted to do so, and it is likely that such an edition will be the first stage of the diner & a show project.

We have video of the Assembly presentation and after editing I do expect to post it here and on the IMS YouTube Channel.

"Nunc Licet" was presented with some success at

The 2011 World Assembly of The New Church

For the advancement of the play, I offer the most recent edition of 

entire script of Nunc Licet for your review.

12/11 A revised Assessment of the presentation at the Assembly, with other thoughts; 

During the Assembly, we drastically edited the script, reducing the size and eliminating much of the subplot elements, in order to fit it into a two hour time frame.  Of course this two hour time frame was for the overall program and not strictly the on-stage material.  On-stage material amounted to just under one and a half hours, not quite enough to squeeze in the essential material. or develop the wide range of characters before jumping into the core material.  Which leads me to begin thinking in terms of film.

It became clear to me that making the presentation, as envisioned, will require much more in-depth working with, not only the actors (on an individual basis) but also, production elements that do need to be included (but were disallowed  for various reasons, under the circumstances available to us.)  Certain aspects  of the period nature of the play need to be more carefully constructed as an integral part of the final product, because they really do provide an external shape to the piece that is quite necessary due to the concentrated material within the core of the play.

We felt that since we were addressing a New Church audience, that certain points in the play did not need to be dealt with, since most of our audience already had a foundational knowledge of who Swedenborg was.  So some material was skipped over which gave a somewhat choppy effect (in my mind).

In addition, we were limited in our rehearsal time and production values,  so a significant number of subplot elements were removed.  I was not too please about needing to do this, but it had to be done.  Being faced with certain realities of production resources, time and the (much respected and valued) input of persons involved, I relented to cut out large sections that were initially designed to craft an atmosphere around the players and shape the persona of the characters.  

For the Assembly presentation I should have cut more out, which I ended up doing during the reading, jumping forward over (rather necessary) parts.  All of this was amplified by the fact that the presentation took place at diner time, at the end of a long day of workshops, in a space that was very hot and without air-conditioning.  People were very tired and their attention spans were considerably shorter than they might have been if the work was to have been presented at a more opportune time and under better circumstances.

I remain under the opinion that the script can and ought to be presented in full as written, although I do believe that the design elements that have been conceived, but not written, should be included. I recognize that the length of the play as it reads (presented here for you to read) is an issue, but the edits of the Reader's Edition will rectify most of that.  

My future approach will be to start with the Reader's Edition and then slowly and carefully include selected elements that were removed, to embellish the areas in need of such action.

You will note that the script provided here for your review has all of the staging instructions included. When I removed the assorted descriptions, instructions and the directions to the actors, leaving only the lines to be spoken, the script is reduced to 126 pages (with some of that material removed simply by crossing it out bringing it down close to 100 pages double spaced).  

So here is the unedited script for your review.

Please use the search function above to locate other posting on the subject.

I do hope that we can that we will present another reading sometime in 2012.

If you are a producing organization and would like to consider mounting this production as a reading or a full production, please do feel free to contact me in that regard. 

I am removing the postings which refer to the production efforts for the readings that have taken place. If you need that information let me know. I expect to move it to the "Nunc Licet" Archive.

 Nunc Licet... a stage play

 Download a READ ONLY copy of the full script

On-line Synopsis of Nunc Licet
Slightly different than that provided in the script

Purchase a Printed Hard Copy or CD of the Script

This is a limited production custom order item.

Introduction - "Nunc Licet Archive"

Welcome to  

The Nunc Licet Archive

• You may still find information about "Nunc Licet: a stage play about Emanuel Swedenborg" on the  IMS Virtual Studio Home Page , but overall I am attempting to make this the repository of all NL information

• There may be some postings that will allow for comment, but I believe that in order to do that you will need to become a follower of this web site.

• I do not expect this site to have a great deal of dialogue on the subject, because I have said most all that needs to be said.  I will, however, post updates if there is any advancement in the stated goals.

• If you care to comment you may do so here, on Facebook, or you can send me an email at: imagemindag@verizon.net

Nunc Licet as an Evangelization tool

• It is no secret that I desire the stage play "Nunc Licet" to be used on a regular basis as a tool to help people garner an understanding of Emanuel Swedenborg and the existence of The New Church in Bryn Athyn.  

• One of my goals is to create a production of this show that can be presented once or twice a year in conjunction with January 29 (the celebration of Swedneborg's birthday) and/or June 19th (the establishment of the New Church). Charter Day for the Academy might be another opportunity for such a presentation. 

• The reality is that in order for this to happen there must be a solid group of people willing to dedicate the energy to, not only making this happen, but following through to keep it happening.

• I will continue to strive for this goal, although I am no longer obliged to do so, as I feel that I am now free to explore other opportunities. This is due wholly to the fact that a reading of this show was presented before the 2011 Assembly in Bryn Athyn, an event which was my personal criteria for permission to pursue other worldwide possibilities for this show.

• So it is that I am now willing to discuss mounting this show anywhere that someone or some group of people may like to do so.

• As you may see in other postings or documents, I intend to pursue preparation of this show as a film, but I also would like to continue to refine the script material, not only in accordance with my objectives but taking into consideration other people's perspectives in this regard as well. 

Regarding Copyright

• Due to a previous copyright violation of this work, I need to comment on this subject.

• It is most critical that those who would like to contribute to the refinement of "Nunc Licet" do so as part of the production process, being a confirmed member of the production team, and offer their contributions and perspective in the appropriate manner.   

• I have been put in a position of needing to say this because - during the last production effort, someone took it upon themselves to re-write the entire script without my knowledge, participation or approval.  They did this by using the internet posting of the play to copy all the script and re-write it.

• Besides being a copyright violation and plagiarism, the alterations, caused a great deal distress to myself and numerous other parties involved. 

• I will state that the initiative shown by this person involved a phenomenal amount of energy. I am in awe of the willingness to do that, but the approach was quite inappropriate.

• The writing was creative and well thought out, but made assumptions and alterations to the character relationships and edited the text in ways that were a blatant violation of protocol, to say the least.  Under the right circumstances, the work of this person might have been accepted to some degree, but being what it is, and having been approached in the way it was,  it became totally unacceptable.

• I honor this person's ability, but I do not approve of their disrespect, of not only the work itself, but also of the production process and the complete trust and respect that is required between the participants. 

• But  more specifically, their disrespect of the far greater degree of effort & forethought that went into the writer's work, for which this production effort was intended to bring to life, was shocking to me as a writer.

• The effort on their part was a blatant violation the copyright that is and was specifically and clearly stated in the front of all copies of the script.  

• On my part, having no idea that such a thing would happen, I am sad that I have been put in a position to reveal these events here and reiterate that this work is copyrighted and any changes or use of this material must be approved of by me. This should be understood and respected, especially by people within the new church. 

• I beg your forgiveness that I must reveal these events here, in this way.  But I have been forced to do so by the inappropriate actions of another person.  I just hope that it ends here and I do not have to further defend my work from theft or from other infractions upon the many years of difficult effort on my part in writing "Nunc Licet" and the work of seeing this play produced as I have envisioned it.  I am completely open to alterations after that occurs, but not before.  

• Be it understood that "Nunc Licet" took twenty-five year of my life to write and that I will defend it with my dying breath.

Arthur Greisiger