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First Impressions

Posted by DCA Theater on December 8, 2008 in July-December 2008 Season, INCUBATOR Series: The Plagiarists

By Gregory Peters, Plagiarist, writer & project facilitator

“In fact, there is no action so manifestly evil that it cannot be seen and described as a justifiable and purely defensive measure. But none of this should be allowed to confuse us.”
-Wallace Shawn

I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: The Plagiarists have always been blessed with the caliber of people that choose to work with us. When we set out to do this, we had a plan, but we’ve already abandoned most of our early ideas and assumptions, because better ones have come from the workshop process. This group is so smart, informed, empathetic, articulate, and passionate that we don’t really need to do anything but open up the discussion for things to start coming together. Here we are, developing a play based on a 19th century maritime disaster, and people can’t wait to get started, to jump in and make things happen.  We started with some core themes:

1. Class & Political Tension
  a. What is an Anti-Meritocracy and what are its effects?
  b. Does social rank equal destiny in this society?
  c. How does an unjust social system endure? How does it change?
  d. How does an important event affect different layers of a society?
  e. What effect does this society have on loyalty to religion, truth, nation, class, or political persuasion?

2. Dealing With Trauma & Horror
  a. How do we deal with experiencing truly traumatic & horrifying events?
  b. Can we trust memories of such an event?
  c. How do we communicate or interpret these experiences?
  d. Can art communicate or interpret these experiences?

3. Morality
  a. Evil——Carelessness——Ignorance
  b. Heroic———Necessary——-Evil

4. Point of View
  a. How does the passage of time affect our view of this event?
  b. How does our changed social circumstances and psychology affect our view of this event?
  c. Why does the story hold significance for us?
  d. Can we be objective? Should we?

So, there it is. Next up, we’ll see how all this goes. For your pleasure, some alternate version of Gericault’s “The Raft of the Medusa”:
Vegatables (appropriate, you know, since they ate each other…)

Models