Newest Project

A couple of posts ago I was complaining about having too much on my plate. But my latest project really is not about giving me more to do, its about adding some direction to the randomness of my writing lately. The idea is to take the Morality Plays from the Middle Ages and make them into a 'modern' piece. Most people don't realize how much on a influence the Church has had on Theatre. Even before Shakespeare, who was very heavy on the Christian symbolism and comments, there was the Morality Plays. These plays are mostly Catholic influenced and were a part of many Church Holidays. Different guilds and organizations would put on their own plays, all at the same time and completing for the attention of the crowd.

Modern Western Theatre has a lot in debt to these early plays. Although a lot of people like to gloss over the religious start to much of the theatre. In fact all cultures Drama and performance go back to some kind of religion. The Greeks and Roman's had plays about their gods, and the people who disobeyed them. In India, there is a whole holy book just for theatre and its use for worship (This book includes how the actor is to eat, work out, act, everything). In Japan and China, early theatre is about spirits and Buddah. I could keep going. In the West we seem to want to forget our connection to Christianity, so we skip over the importance of Catholic religious plays and for bide we discuss whether or not Shakespeare was Catholic.

Ok my rant is over, and in case your wondering no I'm not Catholic. However, I wanted to give you all a little history, so you could understand why I think its important to remember and perform these older plays. Also why I'm going to be spending my writing time, apart from this blog, on modern poetry and prose to match that of the Old English Everyman, and some of my other favorite Morality Plays. I'll try and share some snippets of verse when I get a chance. Also I'm not allowed to stop working on this project. I'm going to finish it! (or you can all give me a really hard time).