For many writers, the sight of a blank page or an empty screen can induce a strange kind of paralysis. Thoughts which seemed brilliant during one's waking hours lose their vitality. Confidence can evaporate into thin air, leaving a writer vulnerable to temptation and procrastination.
In the old days (when writers relied upon legal pads and typewriters), many a piece of paper would get crumpled up and tossed into the wastebasket. With decades of electronic editing already behind us, it's often easier to refresh a blank screen or overwrite a previously-stored file. One of the easiest ways to get started is to simply create a list of words that may have some relevance to each other. As a string of words gets expanded into phrases, sentences, and paragraphs, enough empty space fills up to help solidify an idea. While that idea may not be the most original thought, if used as a starting point it can help a writer jump start a project. Add in a few pertinent facts, some relevant quotes, and the framework of an article soon becomes visible.
Two recent articles devoted to wildly different topics intrigued me with the way they framed the possibilities and permutations available in a writer's quest for an idea. Carl Zimmer's piece in The New York Times entitled "DNA Gets a New -- and Bigger -- Genetic Alphabet" revealed that, although "DNA is spelled out with four letters, or bases, researchers have now built a system with eight that may hold clues to the potential for life elsewhere in the universe and could also expand our capacity to store digital data on Earth."
Ferris Jabr's lengthy piece in Harper's Magazine entitled "The Story of Storytelling" details how applying modern-day phylogenetics to data culled from various folk and fairy tales from around the world led to a surprising analysis of the narratives so many people learned during childhood. As Jabr explains:
“The world confronts the mind with myriad impressions, a profusion of other often perplexing beings, and an infinity of possible futures. The increasingly large brains of our ancestors, all the more attuned to the world’s complexity, needed a way to organize this overwhelming torrent of information, to pass the multiplicity of experience through a reverse prism and distill it into a single coherent sequence. Stories were the solution. A story is really a way of thinking -- perhaps the most powerful and versatile skill in the human cognitive repertoire. Before stories, the human mind was only a partial participant in its own conscious experience of life, restricted to the recent past and near future, to its immediate surroundings and fragmented memories of other places. By telling stories, early humans gained unprecedented autonomy over their subjective experiences: they could dictate and record extensive histories and make intricate long-term plans; they could obscure, revise, and mythologize truth; they could dwell in alternate worlds of their own making. Storytelling transformed our species from intelligent ape to demigod.”
“A story is a choreographed hallucination that temporarily displaces reality. At the behest of the storyteller, this conjured world may mimic perceived reality, perhaps rehearsing a past experience; it may modify reality, placing proxies of actual people in hypothetical scenarios or fictional people in familiar settings; or it may abandon reality for a realm of fantasy. Like trees in a forest, we too are rooted in the living mesh of another organism -- in a web of story. We give life to the stories we tell, imagining entire worlds and preserving them on rock, paper, and silicon. Stories sustain us: they open paths of clarity in the chaos of existence, maintain a record of human thought, and grant us the power to shape our perceptions of reality. The co-evolution of humans and stories may not be one of the oldest partnerships in the history of life on Earth, but it is certainly one of the most robust. As a psychic creature simultaneously parasitizing and nourishing the human mind, narrative was so thoroughly successful that it is now all but inextricable from language and thought. Stories live through us, and we live through stories.”
Whether one looks to such narrative templates as The Prodigal Son, The Midas Touch, Cinderella, or The Hero With A Thousand Faces, one can track the core of many stories back to their origins by treating key elements like genomes. In some cases, it becomes easy to see how current events are rooted in fiction. All too often, one need only turn to The Simpsons for verification that this is true.
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In her recent essay entitled "President Trump Has Inspired Art. That’s Not Always a Good Thing," critic Jillian Steinhauer stresses that "When it comes to the Trumps, we’ve seen plenty already, but there remains much more that we haven’t." Nevertheless, the pickings are like a buffet of political cartoons soaking up potato salad that's gone bad; like a preening Day-Glo colored Jello salad resting atop a display of cold cuts covered with mold spores.From Anthony Atamanuik's scorching characterization of Donald Trump on The President Show to Jennifer Rubell's recent live-streamed piece of performance art entitled Ivanka Vacuuming and Mike Daisey's blistering monologue entitled The Trump Card; from Sandow Birk's collection of lithographs entitled The Horrible & Terrible Deeds & Words of the Very Renowned Trumpagruel to Joshua Harmon's scathing 2016 farce entitled Ivanka: A Medea For Right Now and Rick Wilson's book (Everything Trump Touches Dies: A Republican Strategist Gets Real About the Worst President Ever), the cultural impact of the 45th President of the United States has been more regurgitational than aspirational.
One of the newest entries into the artistic genre inspired by President Fuckface von Clownstick is currently on display at the Berkeley City Club, where CentralWorks is presenting its 62nd world premiere: a creepy thriller written by Gary Graves and directed by Jan Zvaifler (the company's talented co-directors). Set in the White House, the artistic team behind Wonderland poses a simple question to the audience: "What do you do when you’re down the rabbit hole, and through the looking glass? When Lewis Carroll meets Franz Kafka?"
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| Poster art for Wonderland |
Even before the play begins, it's obvious that sound designer Gregory Scharpen has had a field day curating the music to get the audience in the mood for a sampling of nostalgia mixed with Twilight Zone eeriness. As the play begins, an extremely agitated and befuddled Joseph Kaye (John Patrick Moore) finds himself in a place that looks suspiciously like the White House but might just be a fancy hotel suite.
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| John Patrick Moore is a very confused Joseph Kaye in Wonderland (Photo by: Jim Norrena) |
Clueless as to why he was arrested, the middle-aged bank teller from National Savings & Trust is eager to find out what's going on around him. The people who enter and leave the room (warning him not to leave on pain of death) seem to speak in a strange sort of code. Despite his insistence that his last name is spelled K-a-y-e, most of them seem to think that, for security purposes, his name has been reduced to nothing but the letter "K" although, come to think of it, he could be the Knave of Hearts.
The people he meets hint at a possible coup engineered by the person who wrote that mysterious OpEd piece in The New York Times. Eventually, Kaye learns that he was recommended by someone to do something that cannot be named or spoken about. His instructions are to pick up a car in a nearby parking garage, drive to a local bridge, and throw a suitcase into the river (he can keep the car for himself). At one point, someone echoes the Cheshire Cat's famous statement in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, telling Kaye: “We’re all mad here. I’m mad, you’re mad. You must be, or you wouldn’t be here.”
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| John Patrick Moore (Joseph Kaye) and Clive Worsely (The Rabbit) in a scene from Wonderland (Photo by: Jim Norrena) |
In addition to Kaye, there's a tense young staff secretary (Martha Brigham) who arrived on the job six weeks ago as an intern, but has become quite scared and disillusioned by what she has witnessed. Trying to keep any personal details to a minimum, she insists that Kaye only refer to her as "A."
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| Martha Brigham ("A") and Clive Worsely (The Rabbit) in a scene from Wonderland (Photo by: Jim Norrena) |
The Duchess (Kimberly Ridgeway) speaks in riddles, answers questions with more questions, and keeps suggesting that Kaye pour himself a drink. She claims to be working for The Red Queen (Melania?) and reacts to news that the Mad Hatter is dead in a way that seems "curiouser and curiouser."
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| Kimberly Ridgeway is The Duchess in Wonderland (Photo by: Jim Norrena) |
The Rabbit (Clive Worsely) is a high-strung political operative who is the mastermind of a plan to murder the Red King, dismember him, divide his body parts into four suitcases, and jettison his remains in four separate locations.
To no one's surprise, the increasingly paranoid Joseph just wants to go home, leaving the audience to wonder whether the Mad Hatter is Kellyanne Conway or Stephen Miller. Is the Red King really Donald Trump or could Vladimir Putin be the Red King and a red herring? Is this a masterful game of gaslighting or is it all just a horribly twisted dream?
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| John Patrick Moore is Joseph Kaye in Wonderland (Photo by: Jim Norrena) |
With costumes designed by Tammy Berlin and lighting by Gary Graves, Wonderland's psychodrama makes the twists and turns of any episode of Murder, She Wrote look more and more like a children's tea party. John Patrick Moore shines as the addled Joseph Kaye, with Martha Brigham adding another one of her intense portraits to her resume. Clive Worsely adds hot pepper to the roiling stew with Kimberly Ridgeway filling the shoes of the Duchess with a steely determination.
Performances of Wonderland continue through March 17 at the Berkeley City Club (click here for tickets).
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One would not be surprised to come across a film in which a moody adolescent decides to run away from home without any money or even a cell phone. However, the 2019 Berlin and Beyond Film Festival is presenting a German take on the legend of the prodigal son written from a very different perspective.Georg "Schorsch” Kempter (Elmar Wepper) is gardener whose family owns a plant nursery. Although his long-neglected wife, Monika (Monika Baumgartner), runs the family business and handles the accounting chores, Schorsch has always belittled her experiments in breeding specialty orchids. What little communication exists between them is bleak and passionless. While their daughter, Miriam (Karolina Horster), is an aspiring sculptor who wants to go to school so she can get an art degree, her introverted and emotionally distant father shows no interest or support for her goals.
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| Elmar Wepper (Schorsch) and Bernd Stegemann (Dr. Starcke) in a scene from As Green As It Gets |
As the film opens, Schorsch is tackling some landscaping chores for a golf course being built by his client, Dr. Starcke (Bernd Stegemann), a Trump-like figure whose company is facing bankruptcy (Starcke owes Schorsch 83,000 Euros) and who has the hots for Monika. With no knowledge of how the difference in various grasses and soils might affect a golf course, Starcke insists that it’s Schorcsh’s fault that the grass on his golf course doesn’t look as green as the grass he sees on American golf courses and threatens not to pay Schorsch for his work.
Because Schorsch is easily intimidated, hates any kind of confrontation, doesn’t like to talk to people, and has no idea that the businessman and Monika once had a brief affair, he agrees to have his wife pay a visit to Starcke in order to discuss business. As soon as Starcke is alone with Monika, he starts pawing her, but is rebuffed. The next day, as a bailiff tries to collect some long overdue payments from Schorsch. the gardener panics. When the bailiff attempts to impound Schorsch’s pet possession (a vintage red biplane), Schorsch asks permission to retrieve his belongings from the plane, calmly walks across the green and takes off with no idea where he is going. His only dream is to fly to the North Cape to witness the aurora borealis.
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| Schorsche takes to the safety of the sky in a scene from As Green As It Gets |
While flying over a lake, he nearly runs out of gas but manages to touch down near a farm owned by Hans (Michael Hanemann), a lonely widower who offers him food, and shelter. Hans also facilitates an introduction to Richard von Zeydlitz (Ulrich Tukur), a nobleman who owns a castle in the North Rhine-Westphalia region of Germany and needs help with the landscaping for his garish estate. Soon after landing, Schorsch encounters Philomena (Emma Bading), a petulant teenager who takes him to the von Zeydlitz castle on her bicycle.
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| Emma Bading is the impulsive and petulant Philomena von Zeydlitz in As Green As It Gets |
Much to Schorsch’s surprise, Philomena is Zeydlitz’s rebellious daughter who seems to be doing a bang-up job of antagonizing her father and stepmother (Sunny Melles). While there is no love lost between Evelyn and her stepdaughter, Evelyn is physically attracted to Schorsch (who shows much more interest in the sandwich she brings him). As soon as he is finished with the landscaping, Schorsch takes to the air only long enough to be lured back by a desperate Philomena who is determined to escape from her stepmother.
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| Elmar Wepper (Schorsch) and Dagmar Manzel (Hannah) in a scene from As Green As It Gets |
As their road trip continues, Schorsch and Philomena visit her grandmother (Gudrun Ritter) and lesbian lover. Upon hearing Ellen describe how big an influence Schorsch has had on Philomena and how much happiness he has brought her, the gardener once again panics and heads for his trusty biplane. Soon after he is airborne, Philo pops up in the front seat.
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| Poster art for As Green As It Gets |
Faced with a mechanical emergency, they land at a small airport near Brandenburg owned by Hannah (Dagmar Manzel). A former agricultural pilot who flew crop dusters, Hannah purchased the airfield with her husband (who subsequently left her for a younger woman) and is unlike anyone Schorsch has ever met. While waiting for a replacement part for his plane to arrive, he takes a strong liking to her. Meanwhile, Philomena has finally met someone her own age who seems like a lot of fun: Hannah’s hunky tech expert, Timo (Tilman Pörzgen).
Hannah soon convinces Schorsch to return to his family. Upon arriving home, he discovers that Monika has sold the business and the land it occupies, Miriam has been accepted to art school, and Starcke is about to celebrate the opening day of his new golf course. Which leads to Schorsch’s delicious revenge.....
Directed by Florian Gallenberger, As Green As It Gets benefits from the script's wry sense of humor and the film's spectacular aerial photography. Elmar Wepper, Dagmar Manzel, and Monika Baumgartner shine as older Germans willing to take brave steps in new directions. Karolina Horster, Emma Bading, and Tilman Pörzgen bring a youthful vitality to the proceedings with Bernd Stegemann and Sunny Melles as comic villains. Here's the trailer:
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