The Shaman
The Shaman was written to be the definitive play about shamanism as it is understood today, with some original ideas of my own. The main protagonist, Rudolph, is an intellectual who has spent many years researching exceptional states of inspiration, alternative states of consciousness, trance, and other forms of visionary experiences. He is sought out by Melissa, a depressed young woman with a long history of self-harm, after boasting online that he has found a way to beat depression.
The Poaching Of An Aesthete
A computer programmer is visited by his former girlfriend who mysteriously tries to get him to resume reading poetry. Essentially this is a play about not realizing your potential and imagines what would happen if somebody showed up to put you back on the right track. The Information Technology industry has been known to poach computer science talent from within its own sphere, but it can also be said that it poaches talent from the wider community. While not being too explicit about it, this play is a fantasy of one of the muses showing up to perform a rescue operation, to poach someone from the IT industry someone who has been resisting inspiration and the great destiny that inspiration is meant to bring about.
Charcoal Sketches
An arts instructor has struggled to reach a position of economic security only to have his life disrupted by his ambition. If character is destiny, then one’s destiny as an artist must also be determined by one’s character and this cannot be denied through conscious decisions. Although the protagonist wishes to settle down in a comfortable life in academia, he is forced to strive for a greater artistic destiny by his vision. He is outwitted by his unconscious mind and thrown back into a life of struggle so that he might strive more mightily to create great art. Note carefully how all the characters try to avoid the human figure in art. This symbolizes the avoidance of passion, sexuality, and humanity.
Dawn Eclipsed
A single mother in a stagnant, stifling career takes charge of her indecisive son’s college selection process. She takes him on a grand tour of college campuses and cities in the hope of inspiring him to set the course of his future. In the process she squanders all of the money she saved for his college education leading to accusations that all this travel was nothing but a justification for an extended vacation. But it would be more accurate to say that her behavior was the acting out of a longing for a new start for herself.
Lured Away
An actor visits a spiritual center after learning that someone he went to performing arts school was seen there. He discovers his old friend Randolph is associating with an urban shaman, Alan, and a visionary poet, Tanya, based on a mutual interest in visionaries. After a somewhat confrontational scene during which Randolph storms out, the actor leaves and Alan and Tanya are left to speculate on the significance of what he revealed about Randolph. Randolph returns and three engage in a lengthy discussion about how Randolph’s gift is to be understood from their varying perspectives. Alan feels that Randolph is a conduit to the supernatural. Tanya thinks more in terms of inspiration and the creative spirit. Randolph has a somewhat unique view that the psyche is to be respected and served for its own sake without deciding on a conscious course of action. After frustrating Randolph with a barrage of words he makes the decision to leave and explore the world to find something visionary and worthy of his attention.