eS Pee ld oot a “When I Cilvcebon manne compass lights stay on” BY SEAN NELSON FROM OUR FALL CLASS oO Cae canis re oun 2007 SUPPORTERS 8 ih HUH TDIN IE CLASSES} inside “Answered Prayers , and Other Tragedies a BUF rao swokcae oi ees 10 a \ /\ ] > sl Rosana sar ANSWERED PRAYERS AND OTHER TRAGEDIES A speculative preview | ay sean neison ras delighted to ascept this commission nr two reasons: The fist is that getting [paid to make music isa rare pleasure, and almost always worth the elfort. The sec- ‘ond is just as practical: The theme of answered prayer as tragedy requires ‘almost no imagination for me to embrace, either intellectually or musically. Por the lest several years in particular, [ve become ‘aware that Iregard prayer itself as aa kind of tragedy. Maybe not fall- Down Aristollestyle tragedy, but certainly a human lapse, and worse, fa venality (or at least a banality ‘Such Tapses are usually good starting: ‘points for songs. 1 get that “answered prayers” in the contest of this presentation, is metephorieal/aphoristio—not neces- sarily actual prayers that are actu: ally answered, but, you know; like the sultcase full, of money. you. find when youre a month behind on rent. Which, of course turns out 1 be a monkey's paw (speaking of aphorisms) because some gangster 4s looking for it, or there's a fin ‘ger inside, or, more to the point, i simply doesn't belong to you, ‘ng, which has just about enough § ‘and we really are all connected enemies these days. It's also the = t one another despite how ‘Seen Nelson enemy of human accountability, € The Heroes’ Craft... s0: We Hugo House plants a in a public forum. The aynergy about what it was like to grow @ inconvenient that often is. (Um remsind- ed hete as T often am, of line from the great, vnahend-obittime 1968. pop- calture-deconstruction-disgused-as- ‘Monkeer-movi, “Head”: “The ‘tagedy of your time, my young friends, is that you may get exactly what you want”) ‘Tho part that romaine prob- lomatie,ofeourseis-answered” By whom? And whom are you toying to convince? There are no angels, "There is no. God ess its hard to even capitalize that word anymore. ‘This iso, cold news Its also good news. Why rust it he so dificult for people to accept responsiilty and edit for the powers of creation, ofresliency, of morality, of grace that resides ‘within them? And why itso unbe- Bevel, unbearably ‘common for people to prey upon ournataral, ci ee ‘by insisting thet only supplication Loan invisible prayer answerer can make our lives meaningful? This Tine of reasoning is, among other 2 ‘things, the enemy of literal mean- § ‘theme in a writer’ psyche, of three original performances, concept ftom seedling to com- the end product fairly’ linked by one unifying idca, cre” munity harvest, The conversa snaps with fresh new life. For ated a one-of-a-kind experience tions are printed in their entire- ‘our literary series! “We Could for both the audience and the «ty on our Web site. The fall text He Heroes” Brian Turner, Hllen presenting authors ‘of the new work commissioned Fomey and Jack Hitt germinat- Tollowing are excerpts from for “We Could Be Heroes"is ed innovative, powerful poems, conversations with authors accessible online, Tack Fi Grawings and stories, present- Brian Turner and Billen Forney, reflections can be found in our ing ther for the first time ever where they share the inside dirt Epilogue, on page 8,HEROES'S CRAFT consinuso rom eace « “Ive never experienced anything that was quite like ‘this thing they've got going at Hugo House, said poet Brian ‘Turnes. “And if the people there in Seattle don't treasure it, they should go down and check it aut, Because wheth- er a piece falls on its face or doesnt, isa rare opportunity to see something really raw, that hasn't been practiced cover and over again with dif- ferent andiences and doesn’t feel canned. And T think it’s 4 special thing Anytime you hhave three different authors, with different. backgroands, working on a similar theme, ite truly unique experience.” “It felt ike unearthing comothing that itwas time for me to unearth” said Forney, who wrote a funny, moving narrative about her bipolar disorder. “It was very, very difficult for me—yery wreneh- ing-getting the material ‘together, as you might imag- ine. T mean, I haven't had an episode for years. Way would T want to go back there? At ‘the same time it felt very im- portant. Tim tying to make bipolar” disorder—and any number of other mental dis ‘orders—less mysterious. “What I was tying to do was keep my text pretty dry ‘and let. the drawing show iow T was focling. Every one of ‘those drawings was part of my sketchbook or my journal. “Eyon most of my friends hhad never seen those draw- ings-that was the scariest part of the performance for ‘me, showing those journal 5 she said. “f would ts some of the mest heartfelt, fnot the most heart- felt, work that Ive done. 1 ‘mean, I did it for me—T did it Decause T had to, [did it be- ange myrheart needed it” ‘Turner tock a more cireu- itous route to his subject mat tes, He ended up writing three poems thatinjected creamlike, ‘antasticlandscapes ofthe Iraq swarinto American life, “At fsst Lwas resisting writ- ing about Iraq again,” Turner said, “I wanted to write other things. 1 thought I would ‘write about a man name Mele ‘hat I met on a recent trip to Uganda. That wes my firstim- pulse because he seemed kind fof heroic. His brother had Deen missing afteran arabush by rebels four years ago, and hhe hada’t done the funeral rites that you're supposed to do when your brother He didn't want to give up on the idea that his brother is stil alive. ‘Turner did end up writing about Mele, but it took the Jorm of aa essay published in ‘The New York Timo, “But then @ lot of o-meils started coming in ‘rom guys that Pd worked with who were stillin Iraqon their second de~ ployment, So it was sort of ke 4raq was percolating up into cexerydey life and it seemed like these poems were insist- ing that they he written. So it seemed that maybe T should be aware of Iraq in my owa life and it didn’t seem like Twas. 1 think that’s @ problem for alot of people here, not heing able tw feel a eonmection to the fact that were at war, “I started waiting a series of poems, trying to ereate sort of abridgework from America to Taq, Really cresting sort of a surreal kind of mood, bring- ing Tragi people in the poems into the streets and homes of America, and vico versa.” ‘After performing a poem about Marla Ruzicka, a US. humanitarian Killed by a sai- cide bomb in Baghdad, Turner asked the audience to read aloud the names and ages of Tragis killed in the war from a list he bad prepared, “rd never done’ anything Tike that and 1 really didn't know—at first it was like, er, this is not working at all ‘Turner said. “And then people fell into @ shythin, I dida' ac- tually expect that. It was sort of prayer-like” Continued at Irugohouce org playerright Jul Cho, $2 ciscount for Richard Hugo House mambors vn sie-preductions ore trreticketwindewonlae.com February 22- March 15, 2008 *Sox in Seattle” reruns by Serin Nea ane Kathy Heieh $2 slecount for Rishard Hugo House members or sesinseatte.ons ‘wrsicketsvindowonline.com March 28- April 20, 2008 Next Stege In residence at Hugo House presents "Demonology" by Kelly Stuart A sate of the mele dominated workplace is set in a beby formula company, where men determine even tho fooding and fare of infants, But when Gina, & mother who breast-foads, joins x eo tho stat, things begin to change ‘The company falls unéer pottical cabotags, ordere are rerouted and the building is shut down But who's realy to blame? A Northwest promiste, Fress opening Frday, March 28, 2008 at 8 pm. Tickate wil he available at wor brownpaporickets.com ard at ‘he doar