From: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com (aml-list-digest) To: aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: aml-list-digest V1 #994 Reply-To: aml-list Sender: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Errors-To: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Precedence: bulk aml-list-digest Wednesday, March 12 2003 Volume 01 : Number 994 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2003 18:30:37 -0800 From: "Aitken, Neil" Subject: RE: [AML] _The RM_ I'm not certain if anyone has done much in this vein, but another example of taking Mormon culture and religion to a whole new place was definitely Battlestar Galactica. Here again, culture is made safe by the distance implied by place and time. See the following link for a more complete discussion on this: http://www.proaxis.com/~sherlockfam/art5.html A change in circumstance or situation can make a comedy or drama so much more appealing. A few ideas I think could be interesting: * missionaries in Russia under surveillance by the Russian mob (this actually happens, the Russian mafia keeps tabs on missionaries and tries to keep them out of trouble). Imagine the conversations, misunderstandings, and weird situations that could arise out of this odd linkage. * missionaries teaching a mob family * Mormon family living in Saudi Arabia (where all non-Islamic churches are underground organizations) Neil Aitken ========= Scott Parkin wrote: Subject: Re: [AML] _The RM_ >Like I said, I'm probably overthinking it. But it would be interesting to see >someone take Mormon comedy completely over the top. Do missionaries in space or >set an "All In the Family" style sit-com in 1860s Canada. The relevance of >culture just might be made safe by the irrelevance of time and place. - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2003 20:03:18 -0700 From: "Alan Rex Mitchell" Subject: Re: [AML] _The RM_ My mission zone leader was headed home, but his parents had moved from southern California to Iowa while he was gone. So he was catching the plane to Iowa. I joked with him about his parents not leaving a forwarding address (Rodney Dangerfield, when I was a kid my parents moved around a lot, but I alway found them), and how cool the locals would think he was when he got to Iowa, and how well his milking the bull story would be received there. He didn't think it was funny. Alan Mitchell - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2003 20:33:22 -0700 From: Knudsen family Subject: [AML] LDSWorld Website Query Does anyone know what happened to the LDSWorld.com website? I loved their section on LDS Urban Legends and have referenced in often, including at the year's AML Conference. Now it seems to have disappeared! Any idea where or who the owners of this site are/were? Thank you, Ronda Walker Knudsen - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Mar 2003 01:09:13 -0700 From: "D. Michael Martindale" Subject: [AML] D. Michael's Film Lab #1--New Development Well, I had a great time at the first lab. For various reasons, those that RSVP'd didn't show up. Disappointing, but not too surprising. I've lived long enough to know things like this happen. So I watched the two Dutcher films myself with director's commentary. Fascinating stuff. I was going to move on, planning for next month's lab. But a sudden development made it worthwhile to reschedule the first lab. This is all still tentative--I'll give you confirmed information the minute it's available. It turns out one of the main stars of _Brigham City_ (who lives out state) wanted very much to attend the first lab, but was going to be in Utah the week after. He's still finalizing his schedule, but will likely be here Saturday the 15th and, if so, will attend, ready to provide lively discussion, including stories the director's commentary doesn't include. As soon as he knows he's coming, he'll also invite the director himself to attend (very up-in-the-air possibility at the moment). We'll view the two Dutcher films with director's commentary, since most everyone has seen them already, then _Out of Step_ normally. So here's another chance to not only view the films scheduled for Lab #1, but also to meet one of the stars, and possibly (fingers crossed) maybe even have a chance to discuss the first two films with the director/producer/author. Instructions for attending are at: http://www.wwno.com/filmlab - -- D. Michael Martindale dmichael@wwno.com ================================== Check out Worldsmiths, the new online LDS writers group, at http://www.wwno.com/worldsmiths Sponsored by Worlds Without Number http://www.wwno.com ================================== - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2003 05:55:37 GMT From: "Jeffrey Needle" Subject: [AML] Michael WILCOX, _Who Shall Be Able To Stand?_ (Review) Review =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D Title: Who Shall Be Able To Stand? Author: S. Michael Wilcox Publisher: Deseret Book Year Published: 2003 Number of Pages: 338 Binding: Hardback ISBN: 1-57008-870-5 Price: $19.95 Reviewed by Jeffrey Needle The full title of this book is "Who Shall Be Able To Stand? Finding Personal Meaning in the Book of Revelation." It is, in effect, a devotional commentary on the last book of the Bible. Wilcox has a good record of producing quality books on gospel topics. He focuses on giving readers a way of discovering their own individual connection to his subject. One of his previous books, "House of Glory," is likewise subtitled, "Finding Personal Meaning in the Temple." In both works, Wilcox succeeds in bringing the subject closer to the hearts and minds of his readers. Finding personal meaning in the Temple is an easier goal than doing so in a book written two thousand years ago and is, by general agreement, a mystifying and confused work of apocalyptic. How does Wilcox attain his goal? The method is simple -- stay clear of too many literal interpretations, too many parallels between symbols and historical events, relegate them to the musty study halls of theologians and end-timers, and focus on the message of hope and salvation in John's words. More than a decade ago, I was asked to teach a seminar on the book of Revelation at an Episcopal Church in southern California. Given the audience, I thought the preterist view was most appropriate. I was right. Such a view liberated me from the assumptions of the Christian fundamentalist worldview and allowed me to focus on the personal symbolism contained in Revelation. My first task was to disabuse the entire class of calling this book "Revelations." My next was to figure out just what the class thought about the book. One fellow, an imigrant from England, suggested that John had been smoking hashish while writing the book. I doubted this was the case, but, given the wild visions, the animals and fires and trumpets, I couldn't blame him for thinking so! Wilcox begins his book by describing what he sees as the "key" to a proper understanding of the book of Revelation. Lest we think there's just one item on his list, he explains that he prefers to use a single "key" with many "notches" to describe how all of the factors work together. I'm not clear why this made much of a difference, given the list of notches and their use throughout the book. But the list, at least to me, proved very revealing. Here they are, in his order: 1. The Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible 2. Modern scripture (the Book of Mormon, the D&C, etc.) 3. Old Testament allusions 4. Poetic imagery 5. Parallel images (within the book of Revelation) 6. Moral warning or encouragement This list provided for a few surprises: First, the placement of the JST of the Bible as "notch" #1. When one considers that the work, as a whole, was never canonized, it seems that, while it might provide a source of enrichment and explanation, it would not occupy the first slot. My own sense is that one would look either to the Old Testament allusions (after all, John depended heavily on Daniel and other Old Testament prophets for his imagery), or at least on canonized scripture as his primary source of direction. Also, there seems to be an element missing in his list, and one which I consider a very important piece of knowledge -- a familiarity with the Greek text that underlies the book. In at least one place, a knowledge of the Greek would have given him a better read on a text in the gospel of John, and would have served his overall purpose better. Consider the following: We can follow the morning star or the fallen one. Sadly, though, Jesus is "the light [that] shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not." (John 1:5) (p. 24) Wilcox clearly misses the meaning of the word "comprehended" here, thinking it means "to understand." In fact, the word, as it is used nearly always in the New Testament, means to seize, take by force, extinguish. And this is how most newer translations of the Bible render the word. In other words, the statement is one of the triumph of the light over darkness, not one that ought to be preceded by the word "sadly." I hope the author will research this and, perhaps, correct it in a future edition. Wilcox's design is to take us through the book of Revelation chapter by chapter. At every turn, he cautions the reader to avoid over-literal interpretations of the text. He is careful not to set timelines or rock-solid identifications for many of the symbols. And he displays a generosity for those who are loathe to take even the numbers in this book too literally. As an example, in a section titled "The Half Hour," discussing Revelation 8, Wilcox makes a case for a less-than-literal reading of the text: The time period of half an hour should not be taken at face value. It represents a short period of time offered to man to repent before the final cleansing preparations begin. A Book of Mormon example might serve as an illustration. The new star and the day-night-day of light told the people without equivocation that Christ was coming; still, things went along as usual for the next thirty-four years. Then the destruction of the wicked occurred and Jesus appeared in glory to usher in a reign of peace. This can be viewed as a shadow for the Second Coming, as the chronology is similar. The half-hour corresponds to the thirty-four year period. (p. 109-110) In similar ways, Wilcox makes his case for the openness of the symbols in Revelation, and draws parallels to similar *situations,* rather than similar *numerical values,* to enlarge and expand on the text. And this is basically what the author achieves in this fine volume. He accomplishes two worthy goals: 1. He opens the book of Revelation to the reader as a personal word of comfort and support. By avoiding strict literalist interpretations of the text, he leaves the text open for the reader to enter into the experience of both the writer and the recipients of the letter. He correctly sees the ultimate purpose of the letter as an expression of hope amid chaos. Such an approach is badly needed, and nicely executed here. 2. He pulls together the wealth of information available in other Restoration sources, showing parallels and enrichments, giving the reader a wonderful path for personal study. And he does this in a way that every reader may comprehend. No complex theological discussions here, only a pastoral view of the book of Revelation. I'm certain I won't offend the author by saying that textual scholars need not rush to purchase this book. If you're looking for insights into the Greek text, or if you're wanting to exegete the text as would a linguist, then this isn't the book for you. Of course, there is no shortage of resources for the scholar. Christians have been producing scholarly texts for generations. And most of them are not understandable by the average reader. This book is for the person who seeks to find meaning in the whirlwind of life in which we live today, the person willing to invest some time in reading, praying, and understanding the Biblical witness and the further witness of Restoration scripture. "Who Shall Be Able To Stand?" is well executed, eminently readable, and a great resource for the Latter-day Saint community. It is highly recommended. - ----------------------------------- Jeff Needle jeff.needle@general.com - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2003 15:21:19 -0800 From: "Jongiorgi Enos" Subject: Re: [AML] Introductions: Jongiorgi Enos Thanks Kim, nice to meet you. Yes, a French/Italian mother and a Texan father of possible Irish/German/Greek ancestry makes for quite a mix. You know, you can tell your son that I served five months in Cannes, on the French Riviera, and taught NOT ONE SINGLE discussion in that entire time! I even had a guy look me straight in the eyes and tell me "Don't talk to me about Jesus, I'm on vacation!" So I can sympathize. Of course, I would also like him to send me about 20 pounds of gulf shrimp! Half of my gene pools is from the bayou and a good gumbo from time to time bubbles my soul. I was in that neck of the woods around Thanksgiving and do love it, despite its challenges. With respect to my joking comment to Jeff, I hope he takes it in the jovial spirit of fun it was extended. I have since read the List guidelines and realized that even mild language, even in jest, is discouraged, so I apologize now for my use of it. As a door approach, however, I would argue that it may have merit! Actually, I have many friends, particularly of the intellectual variety, who have much contact with the church, even love much about it, but have no interest in joining. I can relate. I have my own love-hate relationship with the church as it finds itself manifested in our modern culture. Many days I wish, I just WISH I could just be a Buddhist! I really do. But for me, while I explore and study all religions, that is just not an option for me. I have received too powerful and intense of a personal testimony to deny Christ and His restored gospel. The church is calculated to work for the least strong and the most strong, and so we find all types in it and all kinds of examples of behavior, etc., we are ashamed by. But I like the comments that somebody made here a while back about types of "mormonisms" (culturally speaking), and this has to be taken into account. Intimately, as you know, a personal testimony is available to anyone who asks. I don't know why someone would find themselves truly interested in LDS culture without having a testimony of it. And perhaps making that statement is just fishing for interesting debate. It's a funny opinion, since I write about our culture, and I am interested, as a businessman trying to make a living in it, by creating the ephemeral "cross-over appeal." From the outset, we suspected that Brigham City would appeal more to non-members than members, but for me, personally, I just don't think we are that fascinating a culture. I think we are fairly bland as a culture, actually, and all of these comparisons to "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" just don't work for me. There are insufficient ubiquitous cultural traits to identify. The truth of the matter is, we are a faith which is superimposed over other cultures. Greeks, Jews, French, Africans, Chinese, Utahans and New Yorkers are all LDS, but they do not share the same culture, per se, only the same faith. Even saying I am Greek Orthodox-American is not the same as saying I'm LDS-American. I think the most successful works will ultimately those which are universal (be it in their comedy or their drama) in theme while the LDS background is the spice. "Greek Wedding" tricked us into thinking it made us laugh at Greek American culture, when in fact we laughed at universally humorous events, and were charmed by the universal love story. This may be why there is such a lack of polarization in the Halestorm products. I don't know if my recent comedy (written with David Howard), "The Trek" will ultimately prove successful in this regard (if it get's produced, time will tell), and we are still tinkering with the story for the next six months or so, but that's the goal, at any rate. "Brigham City" is a story that can only work when set in a small mostly-LDS community, but it is the story and the characters which work, not the "Mormonness" of it. You are either compelled by Wes Clayton and his entourage, or you are not. The concluding sacrament scene is about universal themes of forgiveness and community, regardless of your faith in the symbols of Christ, and that scene has, interestingly, always tested extremely well with non-LDS audiences. Anyway, I got WAY off track with my little hello-and-thanks letter! But I tend to do that. I'm a master of digression! Great meeting you, Kim. Ciao for now. Jon - ----- Original Message ----- > I've never heard/read such an interesting intro before. Makes me wonder how > many other fascinating lurkers there are out there. C'mon...speak up... > > My favorite part was to Jeffrey Needle. "Get baptized, dammit" may be the > new door approach of the 21st century now that they've done away with > memorized discussions. I'm writing my son in Louisiana to suggest it to him > right now. (He's depressed, finishing out his mission in heavily > Cajuncatholic Lake Chuck, LA where he can buy fresh Gulf shrimp $15 pounds > for $10, but investigators ain't to be had for love nor money. Hey, he might > not make much headway in teaching the people, but he's gonna come home King > of Gumbo.) > > Welcome, Jon. I can't believe you have an Italian sounding first name and a > Book of Mo last. How cool is that? > > Kim Madsen, of the pedestrian first and last names. - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2003 22:43:34 -0500 From: "Bryan Loeper" Subject: RE: [AML] _The RM_ Granted, I haven't seen _RM_, but I have seen _Singles Ward_, and I have a hard time supporting your claim that it purports to be "real world." >From the introduction to himself, the main character sets the tone of absurdity with at least by the time you finish with his dismissals of the reactivationists, if not sooner. Also, rarely do people motion for cameras, and 'lecture' the audience in reality. And as for the benefit of "truer" characters in _Princess Bride_, it is my opinion that the movie suffered from that, as compared to the book, which only contained two-dimensional characters. That's just me, though. Sincerely, Bryan Loeper - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Mar 2003 06:00:28 +0000 From: "Andrew Hall" Subject: [AML] Recent Web Book Reviews Here are some book reviews of Mormon lit that have recently popped up on the web: Bound by Honor By Virginia Weldon Published by Covenant Communications. Reviewed by Jennie Hansen http://www.meridianmagazine.com/books/030306bound.html George Q. Cannon: A Biography, by Davis Bitton and Hugh Nibley: A Consecrated Life, by Boyd Jay Petersen. Reviewed by Orson Scott Card http://www.hatrack.com/osc/reviews/everything/2003-03-03.shtml Dark Property, by Brian Evenson Reviewed by Alex Paozols http://www.rockymountainbullhorn.com/Archives/January%202003/reviews_0103.html (This is the first review of Evenson's book that I have seen. It sounds even more grusome than his Altmann's Tounge, if you can believe it). Andrew Hall Fukuoka, Japan http://www.rockymountainbullhorn.com/Archives/January%202003/reviews_0103.html _________________________________________________________________ MSN 8 helps eliminate e-mail viruses. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Mar 2003 05:52:20 +0000 From: "Andrew Hall" Subject: [AML] 2002 Year in Review: Theater 2002 Year in Review-Theater The main stories of the year are the establishment of a theatrical company dedicated to Mormon plays, a string of notable premiers in Utah and Idaho, two plays becoming staples of regional theater outside of Utah, and the premiers of more harrowing works by the one really famous Mormon playwright on Broadway and the West End. I was in the United States only very briefly this year and only attended one play by an LDS playwright. I received most of my information on the Utah plays from reviews in the Utah newspapers, comments on AML-list, and scuttlebutt from Players Anonymous, an active message board about Utah theater. Although existing on a smaller scale than some of the other works I will mention, perhaps the most significant event in Mormon theater in 2002 was the establishment of the Nauvoo Theatrical Society by Scott Bronson, Thom Duncan, and Paul Duerden. They also constructed the Center Street Theatre as part of the effort, a small 130-seat black box theater in Orem. The company and theater were created with the express purpose of producing plays by Mormon authors or with Mormon themes. Over the past three decades Brigham Young University had provided a training ground and performance space for young Mormon playwrights and directors, which has resulted in the production of a significant body of plays about Mormons. Those who did not return to BYU to teach, however, have struggled to find performance space for Mormon- themed plays. The creators of the Nauvoo Theatrical Society aim to fill this niche. In its first season the company is producing a series of revivals of works by LDS playwrights over the last twenty five years. They began with two plays in 2002, Carol Lynn Pearson and Lex de Azavedo's 1977 musical "My Turn On Earth", and Tim Slover's 1996 play "Joyful Noise", both of which received excellent reviews. The Nauvoo Theatrical Society has scheduled four plays so far for 2003. There were a large number of premiers by LDS playwrights in 2002. Perhaps the most noteworthy was Tim Slover's BYU production of "Hancock County", which was the university’s entry in the State Cultural Olympiad. Slover based the play on the historical record of the 1845 trial of five men accused of conspiring to kill Joseph Smith. He said he hoped the play would take the audience beyond the historical story to illuminate the nature of inter-cultural conflicts between neighbors. Reviewers raved about both the script and the production. Eric Snider from the Daily Herald said, "It is a clear, rich drama that is satisfying even when it doesn't go the way we want it to." R. W. Rasband said it was "an intelligent, thrilling, tightly-drawn courtroom drama/tragedy that unfolds into a meditation on America, violence, and forgiveness." It is the production I most regret missing from 2002. Also, as mentioned above, Slover's 1998 drama "Joyful Noise", about Handel and his creation of "The Messiah", was produced by the Nauvoo Theatrical Society later in the year, again to rave reviews. Eric Snider said, "The script is brimming with fantastic dramatic conflict, but it also is so rife with great lines that it is nearly Oscar Wildean . . . wit, emotion and loveliness abound in this stellar production." It was hoped that a production of "Joyful Noise" in Lancaster, PA early in the year would lead to a Broadway production, but a poor review in the New York Times put an end to that momentum. Still, there were at least three other regional productions of the play in 2002, and more in the works for 2003, so the play may be on its way towards becoming a regional theater standard. It would be one of the first times a play produced originally for a Mormon audience has moved beyond that audience to find a place in the national theatrical world. Slover also created a screenplay version, which won a writing award early in the year. BYU campuses were the sites of two other important premiers, both tragic in nature; LeeAnne Hill Adams' "Yellow China Bell" (in Provo), and Reed McColm's "Hole in the Sky" (at BYU-Idaho). Adams, a BYU graduate student, made quite an impact with her first play about the life of an Armenian who as a 15-year old girl was raped, kidnapped and forced to marry a Russian man. Genelle Pugmire from the Deseret News and Eric Snider both strongly praised the work ("one of the most provocative and passionate plays ever to hit a BYU stage", "intense and cathartic"), while recognizing that many in the audience would struggle with the harrowing events portrayed. In a postscript to his review Snider said "the joke was that this show was performed without intermission because they knew no one would come back if they gave them a chance to leave . . . [particularly] after the initial rape scene." In 2003 BYU will present a second Adams play on the main stage, "Archipelago", about a group of imprisoned Soviets, based in part on selections from Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago. In "Hole in the Sky", Reed McColm took on the September 11th tragedy, creating a story about fifteen people stuck on an upper floor of the north tower of the World Trade Center from the time of the first impact until the tower's collapse. The two-week run was sold out and was held over for three nights. I have not seen any reviews, but the play was awarded the 2002 AML Drama prize, so at least one person thought it was a high-quality work. "Together Again for the First Time", a comedy McColm originally produced in 1985, also appeared at BYU-Idaho earlier in the year. The peripatetic Eric Samuelsen had his finger in several pies, as usual. "Peculiarities", a tragi-comedy about Mormonism and sexuality, was directed and performed by BYU students at the Villa Playhouse in Springville. The Salt Lake Tribune said it was "a brave exploration of what often bubbles just underneath a seemingly virtuous society." The majority of AML-list reviewers spoke very highly about the work, calling it a "thoughtful" and "fearlessly honest" look at loneliness and sexual frustration among young single Mormons. Samuelsen also adapted the script of "Magnificence," a medieval morality play, which was performed at BYU in tandem with "Everyman". I attended the plays, my first taste of the genre, and was deeply moved and highly entertained by both. I have never seen religious devotion and raucous humor mixed so well in my life. Finally, he presented another new play at the BYU Writers, Directors, and Actors workshop. Titled "Mount Vernon", it imagined a meeting between an aging George Washington and a (time-traveling?) African-American history professor from the 21st century. One of Sameulsen's students at BYU, Melissa Larson, premired her play "Wake Me When It's Over" in July, which received strong reviews from AML-list readers. Other premiers included Tony and Karrol Cobb's Book of Mormon musical "The Promised Land" at the SCERA in Orem, George Nelson and Daniel Larson's musical comedy "Soft Shoe" at BYU, about an aging vaudevillian and his family, Doug Stewart and Merrill Jenson’s 1940s-style musical comedy "Almost Perfect" at UVSC, and Bill Brown's comedy "Throwing Stones" at the Villa. Except for some positive words I heard about the music in "The Promised Land," I do not get the impression that any of these works are headed for theatrical immortality. Several plays which premiered in Utah over the last few years returned in refashioned productions in 2002. The most successful was a Thanksgiving Point production of Michael McLean and Kevin Kelly's musical "The Ark", based on the story of Noah and his family, which premiered in 1998. After a small string of productions in Utah the authors took the play to the prestigious Festival of New Musicals to be critiqued, which resulted in a simplification in the plot, focusing on the relationship between Noah and his doubting son, Ham. Eric Snider said, "this is a show of great humanity and beauty. It is sometimes uproariously funny, and other times uncommonly moving . . . go by any means necessary". Ivan Lincoln from the Deseret News placed it in his top ten semi- professional plays of the year. Following in the footsteps of "Joyful Noise", it appears that "The Ark" has some legs. There were two productions late in the year outside of Utah, one at Eastern Arizona College, another at the Starlight Mountain Theater in Idaho. There is also a production scheduled at the Village Theater in Issaquah, Washington in the Spring of 2003. Two other plays reappeared on Utah stages after a period of adjustment, although that is the only point of similarity between them. The pageant-like Tuacahn musical "Utah!" returned, the fifth version to appear so far, after a hiatus of a few years. The author of the current script (following versions by Robert Paxton, Reed McColm, and Tim Slover) was "Stallion Cornell", the pen name of Jim Bennet. This version retained the previous music by Kurt Bestor and Sam Cardon and lyrics by Doug Stewart. It focused on Joseph Hamblin's efforts to act as mediator between the Mormon settlers and the local Native Americans, avoiding the emphasis on polygamy and the Mountain Meadows Massacre found in some earlier versions. Ivan Lincoln gave the production a fairly good review. On the other end of the spectrum, Steven Fales brought his one- man show "Confessions of a Mormon Boy" back to the Rose Wagner Center in Salt Lake City, where it appeared in 2001, after appearances in New York City, San Francisco, and Las Vegas. Through monologue, comedy, song, and dance Fales tells the story of his struggle with and eventual acceptance of same-sex attraction, which resulted in his excommunication. The most recent version, which he hopes to eventually take to an Off-Broadway theater, includes more about his life in New York City since his decision to come out. From the oversized and the unconventional, three revivals of small, familiar plays received warm reviews from the press: the Nauvoo Theatrical Society's "My Turn on Earth", "Joseph and Mary: A Love Story" at the Bountiful Performing Arts Center, and "The Educated Heart" at the Hale Center Theater. Viewers of "My Turn On Earth", one of the first of the popular-but-frequently-mocked 1970s Mormon musicals, were reminded that it contained some of the best songs and most engaging premise of the genre. Ivan Lincoln said the late Ralph Rogers Jr.'s semi-musical "Joseph and Mary" was a "heartfelt Christmas story . . . [which] more than any other show encapsulates what Christmas is all about." Eric Snider said Ruth and Nathan Hale's "The Educated Heart," was by far the most enjoyable of the nine plays by the Hales he had seen. "Unlike most of the other plays written by the godparents of Utah community theater, the characters . . . are not sitcom-inspired smart- alecks . . . the humor here comes, gently and unforced, from natural situations and believable characters." Margaret Blair Young's AML award-winning historical play "I am Jane" also was revised in productions in Provo and Los Angles over the course of the year. Several theatrical events were scheduled to coincide with the Olympics in February. The Church put on its own pageant at the Conference Center, "Light of the World." It was a big, impressive production, with over 1000 people in the cast. The script tried to cover all the bases of Mormonism, Olympic history, and universal brotherhood, which resulted in a bit of a muddle. Still, it was a lot of spectacle for only $5 a ticket, and it was without a doubt the most well attended Mormon theatrical event of the year. Down the street the Salt Lake Acting Company put on its own event called "Cabbies, Cowboys, and the Tree of the Weeping Virgin:, an omnibus of short plays with Utah settings. They included Mike Dorrell's "The Dome", about pioneers building the church house which now serves as the SLAC's theater, "Eager", by Mary Dickson, about a young LDS woman with a departing missionary boyfriend who has spread rumors about her, and "The Unsettling," by Pete Rock, about a young LDS girl drawn into drug use and possible madness. Neil LaBute continues to make a name for himself as both a creative force and an unsparing moralist in theater as well as film. While his most recent films (which he directed but did not originally write) have shown some rays of hope through the gloom, he continues to write and direct some of the most depressing, misogynistic plays ever to reach the big-time. His 2001 play "The Shape of Things" was performed in at least four regional theaters in North America in 2002, and his film version will be released in 2003. He premiered three new plays in 2002. The first, "The Distance from Here", at the Almeida on London's West End, told the story of "six young Americans trapped in a suburban wasteland, on the brink of revolt." One young man, believing he has been sexually betrayed, kidnaps a baby and uses it as a means of extorting the truth from his girlfriend. John Lair in The New Yorker wrote in his review, "There is no playwright on the planet these days who is writing better than Neil Labute . . . LaBute, in his most ambitious and best play to date, gets inside the emptiness of American culture, the masquerade of pleasure and the evil of neglect. . . . a new title to be added to the short list of important contemporary plays." A reviewer for the Guardian was less complimentary, commenting that it was "a dismayingly cold piece: a vision of the spiritual emptiness of American suburbia recorded with the scientific detachment of a zoologist. LaBute presents the evidence without analyzing the causes of the U.S.'s descent to the abyss." The play was to be produced on Broadway in 2002, but it was replaced by another new LaBute play, "The Mercy Seat", and will appear in the 2003-2004 season instead. "The Mercy Seat", staring Liev Schreiber and Sigorney Weaver, played on Broadway in December 2002-January 2003, and was held over for four performances. It told the story of an adulterous couple on the morning of September 12th, who had just missed being killed because they were in her apartment instead of at their offices in the World Trade Center. LaBute "casts the couple's narcissism and moral abdication into relief," according to Tom Sellar in the Village Voice. New York reviewers for the most part strongly praised the actors and direction, but felt the script lacked direction. Ben Brantley in the New York Times wrote, "Ultimately you feel he's not digging any deeper than the tabloids that made heroes out of everyone who died in the terrorist attacks . . . 'The Mercy Seat' feels lazy. It doesn't build, breathlessly but carefully, in the way of each of the transfixing monologues in 'bash'. Thus the play's stars must constantly invent new ways to tread water." LaBute also wrote a one-act play, "Land of the Dead", which was performed at Town Hall in New York City on September 11th as part "Brave New World", an omnibus three-day memorial benefit for the victims of the terrorist attacks the year before. It stared Kristin Davis (Sex in the City) and Liev Schreiber, and told the story of a man who tries to force his girlfriend to have an abortion. Unlike his 1999 play "bash: latter- day plays", none of his 2002 plays appear to contain any reference to Mormons or Mormonism. So, there you have it, from the sweet to the harrowing. It is quite a large number of works, considering that in 1970 probably even the most aware Mormon critic could not name more than five original plays penned by a Mormon author. Now, if I could just get to see some of them. Andrew Hall Fukuoka, Japan _________________________________________________________________ Add photos to your messages with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2003 23:21:18 -0700 From: "Thomas C. Baggaley" Subject: RE: [AML] _The RM_ Eric D. Snider wrote: >Furthermore, those films acknowledge their tenuous grip on reality, and in fact intentionally eschew reality I agree completely. The error in "The R.M." is not that it starts out with some pretty ridiculous things happening to the main character but rather that it fails to consistently maintain that throughout the film. Thomas - ---------------------------- "Of course, there should be a structure, an architecture to any score. It's not a piece here and a piece there. It has to be thought out. You can't approach each cue as a separate piece of music." - Jerry Goldsmith, composer Contact info: Thomas C. Baggaley Composer 9446 Fox Hunt Drive Sandy, Utah 84092 Tel: (801) 942-3580 E-mail: thomas@baggaleymusic.com Web page: http://www.baggaleymusic.com - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Mar 2003 00:34:22 -0700 From: "D. Michael Martindale" Subject: Re: [AML] _The RM_ Scott Parkin wrote: > My grandmother > hated "Hogan's Heros" because in her mind there was nothing funny about > Nazis--the fact that her brother died in Germany didn't help matters. Fascinating how people react so differently to the same thing. I saw a news feature on Werner Klemperer, who played Colonel Klink in "Hogan's Heroes." He's Jewish, and his family was definitely impacted by the Third Reich. He said he was willing to play a German officer only if the Germans were depicted as buffoons. His pound of flesh, I suppose. What enraged your grandmother was exactly what Klemperer needed to be willing to take part in the series. - -- D. Michael Martindale dmichael@wwno.com ================================== Check out Worldsmiths, the new online LDS writers group, at http://www.wwno.com/worldsmiths Sponsored by Worlds Without Number http://www.wwno.com ================================== - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Mar 2003 01:19:06 -0800 From: Harlow S Clark Subject: [AML] Hate Crimes and Literature (was: YOUNG, _Heresies of Nature_ etc) [MOD: Hm... I'm not convinced that Harlow remains entirely away from a=20 political focus here--but as always, I'm baffled by the task of trying to=20 untangle the threads of a Harlow-post. And I think he says some interesting= =20 things about how we are in some ways a conflicted culture, pulled between a= =20 variety of texts and messages, and how that provides fruitful ground and=20 subject matter for our literature. So I guess the moral is that it's okay to= =20 stray into politics a little, here, if (a) you can do it without disrespect= =20 for the opinions of others, and (b) you can continue to convince me that the= =20 focus really is largely literary and cultural, not on politics per se.=20 Thanks...] On Tue, 04 Mar 2003 14:45:15 -0700 Margaret Young writes: > Now a non-AML related question--unless someone can come=20 > up with a literary tie, in which case, I'd love to see it on list. Oddly enough, I was just thinking about the legislative session in relation to AML today. The connection I see is cultural, and the way culture effects law and law affects and reflects culture. There is also a literary connection because the two best statements I know about love overcoming hate are from sermons, which are a literary form. > The "Hate Crimes" bill got pulled from the Utah State senate.=20 > I have very deep feelings about this and simply don't understand=20 > WHY. I'm assuming it has to do with lobbyists afraid of gay=20 > rights, but the implications of not having the bill pass are pretty=20 > serious and extend far beyond the gay community. (And why=20 > would anyone think we shouldn't have a bill which protects gays=20 > from hate crimes?) If anyone out there has some insights into why=20 > it was pulled (I believe the Church even supported the bill),=20 Now this is the part I was thinking about. For all that we say about the Church affecting politics in Utah, there is a certain segment of politics where it simply has no influence--or seems to have no influence. Despite strenuous objection from many institutions including the Church, in years past, to allowing guns in schools, the legislature approved a bill this year allowing people with concealed weapons permits to carry guns in schools.=20 As a part of American culture and Mormon culture, the belief in the sanctity of guns faxcinates me (hmm, interesting typo. What does vaccination have to do with guns? Well, there was that e-mail recently warning about forcible vaccination with armed sherrifs standing by). For a certain segment of Americans the 2nd Amendment is sacred writ, easily the most important piece of modern revelation ever penned. A gun represents the ability and right to kill in defense of your family, self, or property, and the perception that we have a right and responsibility to kill in such defense has a profound influence on our art.=20 One of the oft-recurring archetypes in tv and film thrillers and cop-shows is the villain so evil and implacable he (usually, sometimes she) has to be killed--there is no safety outside the villain's death. My favorite example of this theme was Fred Dreyer's series, Hunter. I saw a variant on this theme recently in an episode of The Agency (March 1, 03), which begins with a suicide bombing at an amusement park. Like most cop shows and thrillers this gives the lie to the idea that Hollywood is full of political liberals, as the show's politics are quite conservative (in contrast to, say, The District, which is more liberal, but still fairly conservative). The episode argued in favor of profiling Arabs and people of Arab descent, though the suicide bomber was white. Lynn Gardner's novels also have a lot of casual violence. In one, Allison the narrator is about to kill someone and wonders if she should spare his life then decides her sympathy is misplaced and kills him anyway. Lynn's violence is not well-thought out, and I was gratified to see an e-mail on AML-List sometime before the Gardners left on their mission wherein Lynn said she was rethinking the violence in her novels. (I keep waiting for her to sign back on. Maybe Elder and Sister Gardner have re-upped.) I was gratified partly because Allison's sense that some people just don't deserve to live has tragic echoes in real life. Maybe 15 years ago there was a short-lived LDS tabloid, published in Arizona, I think. My mother sent us all a subscription (my sisters called it The Latter-day Enquirer).=20 I remember a particularly distressing article about a teenage boy who had shot and killed an intruder climbing in his window at night. In investigating the killing police turned on his radio to see what station it was tuned to, and it was a wholesome LDS station, and they checked to see what books he was reading, and they were wholesome LDS books and he didn't have lots of unwholesome grungy music posters around or anything related to unwholesome drugs. The most distressing thing about the article was that he said he had absolutely no remorse about killing the intruder. Hadn't rattled him at all. I wonder if he thought the lesson of Nephi and Laban is kill and don't think about it. ("Hey, don't ever look back, don't ever look back, Your yesterdays are behiiiiiiiiind you.") (Several years later I read that scene in Thomas Harris's _Red Dragon_ where Will decides he'd best teach his wife how to shoot a pistol and someone watching him gets the sense that part of Will's soul has died. I wonder, though, is that a cliche? I don't know. I read Red Dragon because one of the first posts I read on AML-List was Rex Goode talking about the breathtaking compassion of Silence of the Lambs, but a page or so into it I realized I ought to read Red Dragon for background. I'd like to know what Rex meant by that phrase, because I didn't find the ending to be breathtakingly compassionate. Several men are killed in what seems like a semi-paean to Hannibal Lecter's murderous ingenuity.) In contrast to casual violence as a solution, Jack Weyland's novel _On the Run_ starts out as a thriller with an implacable villain, the kind you can run but not hide from because he has all kinds of electronic surveillance equipment, so if the missionary tries contacting his family the villain can find him. But rather than have his protagonists use electronic methods to destroy the villain (like Sandra Bullock in The Net) Weyland creates an environment where they can be without electronic communications. The woman the missionary is fleeing with is Lakota so they make their way to her reservation and hide. At this point Weyland does something remarkable. He begins to explore what it means to be isolated. It means the missionary and his companion have a great deal of time for introspection, and the last half of the novel is more a meditation on time and silence and scripture and meditation and conversion than a spy thriller. The meditation sets up the final section, where Weyland poses the question what if a man about to commit murder were to hear the Gospel preached. What effect would it have? Intriguing story, though it probably needs to be longer. But, to get back to the hate crimes bill, I suspect part of the opposition, maybe a gut level part, is the feeling that we should handle our own problems, fight it out gun to gun, not always go running for mommy and daddy. I also suspect it's similar to the primal opposition many Americans express toward international war crimes laws, which--they say--might ensnare American soldiers. (I was looking through Time and Newsweek a few weeks ago for a story from 1971 about a Pakistani military commander who came into a village in East Pakistan (after it had proclaimed itself a Desh for the Bengalis) and told the villagers he needed blood for transfusions. He strapped several young men down and drained all the blood from their bodies. I didn't find the story but I did find William Calley.) Again, I'm interested in this from a literary standpoint. There's a lot in both Mormon and American culture that glorifies violence, and not so much that offers alternatives. I remember the BofM-in-French teacher who paused in the middle of the lesson one day, said something like, "Why am I feeling so sick," and went over and threw up in the garbage can. About a year later, I think, I learned that his wife was a refugee from Indochina. Her family had been brutally killed by the Vietcong (Khmer Rouge?) and she had been able to summon the spiritual strength to forgive the murderers. We don't see that kind of story often in our literature, and maybe that's because, as Spencer W. Kimball said in that great essay and magnificent sermon about False Gods in the Hands of Angry Sinners, >>>>> We are a warlike people, easily distracted from our assignment of preparing for the coming of the Lord. When enemies rise up, we commit vast resources to the fabrication of gods of stone and steel--ships, planes, missiles, fortifications--and depend on them for protection and deliverance. When threatened, we become antienemy instead of pro-kingdom of God; we train a man in the art of war and call him a patriot, thus, in the manner of Satan=92s counterfeit of true patriotism, perverting the Savior=92s teaching: =93Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; =93That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven.=94 (Matt. 5:44=9645.) <<<<< Hmmm, I love these words so much I think I'll continue the quote a bit longer. Now, why was I quoting him in the first place? Oh yes, my sense that the war-like culture we belong to often trumps the words of our prophets. >>>>> We forget that if we are righteous the Lord will either not suffer our enemies to come upon us--and this is the special promise to the inhabitants of the land of the Americas (see 2 Ne. 1:7)--or he will fight our battles for us (Ex. 14:14; D&C 98:37, to name only two references of many). This he is able to do, for as he said at the time of his betrayal, =93Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?=94 (Matt. 26:53.) We can imagine what fearsome soldiers they would be. King Jehoshaphat and his people were delivered by such a troop (see 2 Chr. 20), and when Elisha=92s life was threatened, he comforted his servant by saying, =93Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them=94 (2 Kgs. 6:16). The Lord then opened the eyes of the servant, =93And he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.=94 (2 Kgs. 6:17.) Enoch, too, was a man of great faith who would not be distracted from his duties by the enemy: =93And so great was the faith of Enoch, that he led the people of God, and their enemies came to battle against them; and he spake the word of the Lord, and the earth trembled, and the mountains fled, even according to his command; and the rivers of water were turned out of their course; and the roar of the lions was heard out of the wilderness; and all nations feared greatly, so powerful was the word of Enoch.=94 (Moses 7:13.) What are we to fear when the Lord is with us? Can we not take the Lord at his word and exercise a particle of faith in him? Our assignment is affirmative: to forsake the things of the world as ends in themselves; to leave off idolatry and press forward in faith; to carry the gospel to our enemies, that they might no longer be our enemies. (Spencer W. Kimball, =93The False Gods We Worship,=94 Ensign, June 1976, 6) <<<<< The last time I read that through I was struck by how literally Pres. Kimball takes God's promise to fight our battles for us, and I love the idea of taking the gospel to our enemies so they are no longer our enemies.=20 And, of course, there's that other great sermon about love overcoming hate, delivered far, far away on Judea's non-plains, and so important the koheleth delivered it again a few years later in another life. The odd thing is that If I think about the peace invoked in both sermons I begin to wonder if the reliance on punishment implied by a hate crimes bill is wholly compatible with the mission of spreading the Gospel. I love the idea of giving legal protection to people who are the targets of crimes motivated by hatred for their ethnicity or sexuality or race, gender or religion, but the hate crimes bills I've heard about talk about "enhanced penalties" for such motivation, and I feel we already rely as a culture too heavily on punishment and don't seek diligently for more effective ways to solve problems and deal with uncivil or inhumane behavior.=20 (This may sound like I'm veering into politics, but resistance to our cultural reliance on punishment was one of the main motivators to write my most recent AML essay, "Cities of Refuge." My concern, as always, is literary.) I have another concern when I stop to think that a certain percentage of the people likely to suffer the enhanced penalties of a hate crimes bill will be too young to competently assist in their own defense. Much of the rhetoric of hate is quite idealistic, as are young people, and I worry about how we treat young people who commit or wander or blunder into crime. I saw an article in the Monday, March 3 Daily Herald (page 1) about a study from the MacArthur Foundation about juveniles tried as adults. The study said that "many children under the age of 16 had as much difficulty grasping the complex legal proceedings as adults who had been ruled incompetent to go to court." A story on NPR's Mar. 4, 2003 Morning Edition said the study was a little broader, and found that even some young adults as old as 24 had difficulty qualifying as competent defendants.=20 (For an abstract or to hear the story go to http://discover.npr.org/features/feature.jhtml?wfId=3D1182246) The deep irony for me though, is that people who are most likely to oppose a hate crimes bill are also fairly likely to favor trying juvenile offenders as adults. Surely that's an invitation for someone to contradict me, but please (for our poor moderator's sake--not a poor moderator, of course, but let's not pour the coals of politics on discussions of literature, though Frederick Jameson's critical credo is, "Always Politicize") keep the contradiction literary, focused on the evidence within our art and literature that we are not a punitive war-like people, or some other literary foci. Harlow S. Clark ________________________________________________________________ Sign Up for Juno Platinum Internet Access Today Only $9.95 per month! Visit www.juno.com - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ End of aml-list-digest V1 #994 ******************************