Transfered from Virtual Studio

6/19 Update

I'm adding to this post so it shows up as recent and moving it to the NL Archive.

There's been some talk about producing "Nunc Licet" for the Assembly next year. I'm looking into building a producing team. That means raising the money to make it happen. So anyone interested in Producing is invited to communicate with me. Even if we can't pull it together for next year, the idea of producing it as an environmental theatre piece at Cairnwood, sounds like a very good idea.

You will be able to locate a link to the script here on this blog. Also, there is a Nunc Licet Archive blog. I'll try to add links here in the future.

AG

ARCHIVE

I had a dream last night about producing "Nunc Licet". So I am starting the search for a Production Manager and other crew members. Discussions about this are not compensated, but we will pay people once we begin actual production. If you are interested let me know.  I will be shifting the old posts on Nunc Licet up on this blog but I think I might have a blog by that title. It's been awhile since I worked consistently on this blog. I hope to bring things up to date in that regard. If you search for information about Nunc Licet below you can that all the previous activity was taking place six years ago, so that information is not current, but it is applicable. I suggest you use the file folders to locate the posts.

I checked the links in this post and it does seem that the script is posted here. That version is not the most recent, but it is close enough. It is a PDF, so it almost is an e-book, so I think I'll set it up that way. Nothing to loose, especially if I can make a few bucks in the process.  Feel free to download it if you want to have it. I only ask that you do not attempt to alter it is any way or lay claim to its contents, or produce it without consulting with me first. It is copyrighted and any such use is a violation. I will pursue my rights if I discover any such violation. Plans are underway to produce this for film cameras.

If anyone wants to join the producing team, do inquire. If you'd like to kick in some bucks, then you'll become an Executive Producer. The management for this project will be taken from the Business Plan for IMS Management and The Gnomes of New Hope Productions, so the layout for that is already done, it only needs to be adapted.

Work continues on the Gnomes of New Hope so watch that blog for any information about that project.

I expect I will restructure the blogs to be more pointed toward the specific activity that is relative to specific projects, so bear with any changes which seem odd.

That's All Folks... to coin a phrase  AG

A presentation for The Assembly?

I'll develop a collection of thoughts here in this post.

1) I'm inclined to only seek a full production of the script as written.

2) We've had four workshops while it was being written and one abrieviated reading before the public.

3) It's clear to me that only a full production will produce the results intended, even if that appears to be a significant effort. The truth of the balance designed into the script cannot be determined any other way.

4) Although it is written in script form, it is not a Literary work and cannot be assessed from a Literary point of view. Nor can it be reshaped or refined any further without an active fully developed production, giving it a sense of reality.

5) There are elements that have been given clarity by the previous efforts, although those possible adjustments are not written in the current script.

6) I'm not sure about Directing a production. I've had a strong vision of how it should be, but with a coposetic partner, I might prefer to sit it out. If necessary, I would be willing to do it.

More later, AG

An e-Book Version and some other thoughts

    Well, it is interesting how well an e-Storybook has been working out for The Gnomes of New Hope: Zach & Zebby's Grand Adventure, even though it hasn't been released to the public, the preparations and the way it looks on an e-pad are amazing.

    So that leads me to believe that preparing a readable version of "Nunc Licet" as an e-book might be a good idea.

The Forth Reading of the Play

   For those of you who did work on our "psuedo-stage" reading we had at Bryn Athyn College during the last Assembly there, you know how laborious it seemed doing that. I have to say - THANK YOU for your efforts and blame whatever difficulties we felt during the process, in part on the environment and the way in which a reading was presented. I confess to being somewhat rigid in my desire to present the material as I wrote it, but I also have to say that I chopped it up miserably at the various requests by folks, to only present parts of play. It really became disjointed because of that. The accouterments which seemed so inconsequential at the time were designed into it for a purpose and without those elements the core material lost it's levity. This is why I will wait until I can present it in full before I make another attempt. I am not a fan of theatre by vote. The calculated structure of a piece cannot easily be seen or modified without the composite of it being presented to view.  But it was a gallant effort on the part of all those involved.

    Liz, I have to say thank you for your effort. But I want to say that the writer's work is sacred and only he or she has the right to make any changes whatsoever... and only, if and when, he or she wants to. That is paramount and communication on that front is not only essential, but the creator's right. Everybody needs to be on the same page with that.

    The play was really not written to work as a simple reading and that was obvious to me. There was also the issue of being pressed for space, time and the awareness of the attendees. Thanks to the planning people for putting us right up against a long day and supper time in a space with no air conditioning in the middle of a hot summer. Those things didn't help either the audience attention or the patience of the players. But Oh well, we did it. Thanks again.

An e-book

    I'm thinking that an e-book version of this play, with the technical specification taken out (or provided in appendix) might be a good idea. I'm not quite sure how that would look just yet, but Revision 1 of the e-book might be as simple as providing the same digital text that is on the CD with no modifications. I'm going to look into doing that and will report the progress here.

A Film Version

    This was alway part of the plan, but not until the core material gains a few refinements to condense it's presentation. I really do not want to change the premise around, as was suggested art the last reading. However I do need to refine some of the relationships so that the social inferences can be presented in a more subtle way. That is less possible on stage than it is in film, because the setting doesn't change as readily and I feel that can effect the way these inferences are presented. I'm probably the only one who knows what I am talking about here, but those are some of my internal thoughts on that subject. I do think that alters the perception of what the play is presenting in terms of the divergent subject matter which shapes to overall feel of the piece. I think that is unique to the film presentation because it involves subtitles which can only be presented that way.

So if I move to reshape an e-book version, that may lead to a screenplay, even without the stage version going up. I am sure that my more mature mindset will and a significant effect on that.

That's all for now. Look for some updates. AG

The Script

I had posted the script for Nunc Licet as a PDF on line (accessible below) but it seems as though only some of that is available online. If you are interested in having a copy of the script I can provide you with one on a flash drive. Contact me with that request. If you are a producer, I will provide that to you free of charge if not the cost will be $25.

Some recent thoughts

I have not been posting on this subject for some time, but just to bring some thinking up to date. We did a reading of this play at the assembly (probably posted somewhere below) and what I discovered from that process is that I need to employ the actors to implement the script fully as I wrote it.

During a reading like this, everyone has an opinion about what should be done. I was open to listening to peoples perspectives and I appreciated hearing those thoughts. But I know this much - I need to see this produced exactly as I have written it, without any adjustments. Once that is done, then I can proceed to edit if necessary.

So I have put this project on hold until I have the funds necessary to implement a full production as I have written it. All the dialogue, all the costumes and all the sets. Anything other than that is unacceptable to me, given the years I put into writing this.

Now when we did the reading, there was one participant who took it upon herself to rewrite the entire script and alter the character relationships and plot line without even so much as mentioning a desire to do so with me. Imagine the sense of invasion I had over someone doing such a thing without my permission. Well that just settled my mind even more firmly on the belief that no changes can occur until I see it done exactly as I have written it.

How I will feel about that if and when I actually have the resources to do that, may be different. But for now that is my objective with this project and I base that entirely on making enough money from The Gnomes of New Hope: Zach & Zebby's Adventure to do that.

A Film Version of the Play

  

   Making a film version of this play has been on my mind for years and a number of people have been discussing this with me lately. So I thought I'd post a photograph of the location that I would like to shoot this film and I have discussed this with a few people.

(I do not have the photographs on this computer just yet, so I will add them later)

Here is a link to their web page;

Cairnwood Mansion

   If it is agreed that we can use this location, it is only because the subject is of particular interest to the community where this property is and the fact that the building is owned by The Academy of the New Church. Our conversations on this subject have led me to understand that the property is generally not available for film work, but we may be able to use it because the film is about Emanuel Swedenborg.

   Should we move into filming at this location, we will need to have already established a relationship with a major film distributor, because the cost of shooting at this location will be significant. I will be looking to associate with producers who are capable on managing a major production. Such a production must be able to accommodate both union workers and members of the community who are not union.  We will be attempting to provide work for the community as a primary goal, so this will be a foundational requirement.

   As it stands now, participation in this project is on an individual basis and any theatrical producer who mounts, in whole or in part, a stage production of this play has the right to participate in the film. Of course all participants in the proceeds of this film must be vested.

UPDATE 6/12

Recent thoughts -

   When we did the reading during the 2011 Assembly last year in June, we recorded the reading with video. I paid little or no attention to that process and so it was implemented by other filmmakers. The principle filmmaker ended up reading for us and also not paying too much attention to the filming.  I would say that as a result of that, the footage we got was somewhat disjointed. This fact leads me to think that only clips of that reading will be useful, but it did serve the purpose of allowing me to see how a staged reading, without any blocking or business works for this show. Well, it doesn't.

   This has led me to conclude that I am not interested in doing a staged reading of this piece. There are too many elements which work against such a presentation.  There were individuals involved in the reading who were very much interested in seeing this presented and worked very hard to help that to happen.  During this process much discussion took place about culling the play down to fit into the time-frame and the circumstances of the events of The World Assembly of The New Church.

  As a result I cut a great deal out of the play, and all the material I cut out was the secondary sub-plot events which at the time seemed expendable.  After reviewing the video footage, I have concluded that although this material may seem expendable, it is not.

   These sub-plot elements were designed into the play for a very specific purpose and that purpose is to alleviate the intellectual tension brought on by the complex ideas presented in this play.  There is admittedly an apparent didactic nature to the play as it reads, but it is a play and not a novel or a narrative. That means that the material presented on the page is designed as a guide for developing the characterization and the events of the play.

   It was very clear to me that the actors in this play need to be fully committed to the characters, their lives and thinking and not their own aggrandizement.  There are clearly moments where an uncommitted actor would be frustrated by not having the material spoon fed to them, but the potential for developing the sub-plot is there and needs to be drawn out. This is what I expected at the time when I was writing this.

   I do know that I would like to expand upon some of the character's material, but I would like to do that in association with my actors.  This expansion is not an expansion of material that adds to the time-line, but rather it is an expansion of material that enriches the character's presence on-stage. Some of the lines can be shifted around and I am certain that some can be eliminated, not by cutting them, but rather by using them to create actions by the characters that are not conveyed by using the words.  This circumstance needs to be discovered in the production process.

  There was some discussion about condensing the characters in the play, but the need to convey a social gathering dictates that we must have sufficient characters and a sequence of events that would take place at such a gathering to make that legitimate.  Admittedly, the secondary characters need a greater presence, but it was my anticipation that this background presence would be developed as a not only as a backdrop to the principle characters delivering the more complex philosophical ideas, but also as another level of action which takes place around the core material.  This backdrop is intended to build an atmosphere around this core which is equally important in shaping the sense of "period" and real human experience, not just the heady theoretical aspects conveyed in the philosophy.  This is created in part by the costumes, the business and the sub-plot actions of these secondary characters that take place without the delivery of lines.  This is why the actors need to be committed and to see that their characters are equally important even when they are not delivering lines.

   Also, I do intend on producing this as a film, so any organization who wishes to produce this as a play on stage will participate in the film, if they like.

   All this being said, I have determined that I do not want to produce any variation from the script as it is written. Once I see this fully performed as written, then I will consider changes, but not before.

  If it is not performed as I have written it, it will never be performed while I am alive and that fine with me. I have other fish to fry.  AG