Saw the premiere of The Memorandum at the theatre on campus the other night and then I ended up last night going with my theatre friend Meg to a party at the house of the senior who was the lead for it. Meg promised me "drunken college students, nuns and a four-star general" as well as the gem of the evening: a full-out session of Irish trad musicians in the living room. As a result is was a glorious evening of music. Although I don't know which, if any, of the women were nuns. None of the girls who jumped up to do Irish dancing in the already-overcrowded living room, but that's just a suspicion on my part. And there was a four-star general there. As well as the director of the Memorandum. I got to ask him if he really believed the play: that in the face of all the demonic impulse to stifle life through over-organization or control--whether by communism, as the play was really about, or by the western corporate impulse--resistance could really be offered by the theatre. He looked at me sadly and shook his head. Although, he amended that to say that amateur theatre--amateur art as a whole--had that kind of freedom in it, before it becomes a business. I didn't think the theatre, or any art, had it in it by itself, although I can see the playwright--Vaclav Havel, no less--having that kind of optimism in the sixties. To dive into some of my Von Balthasar language, the subjective and objective conditions of freedom are dependent on a greater subjectivity and objectivity. Christian faith in the God who is really there and Who is Love, of course, allows us such a freedom, and the wherewithal to try to give social and ethical conditions for the flourishing of such a freedom. So. Other good conversations at the party, including with an actor who is going for an Olympic sailing slot. Fun, fabulous variety of people.
Possibilities for a a song or two from Life and Other Impossibilities to end up in an indie film project. Got to find out about copyright stuff with that.
And a Renaissance Man got engaged. Good news!!
