MIND CHECK AS NEW PROJECTS LABORATORY: THE HUMMINGBIRD, FIRST INSTALLMENT
I have decided to change my approach in Mind Check, my blog, to make it more useful for me as an originator of new creative writing projects and to generate interest among those following my writing career in the works in progress that are occupying my mind at the present time. You can look upon what I’ll be doing in the next several installments of Mind Check as a writing projects laboratory where by putting down my latest ideas I’ll have a chance to step back and study them to see if they are going to be productive or not.
For several months I have been working on a play dealing with environmental issues. The working title of this full length two-act play is The Hummingbird. The Hummingbird may be thought of as a kind of sequel to the first book I came out with in 2008 entitled Murdoch McLoon And His Windmill Boat. I’m calling the new work a sequel, but in some important ways it is not a sequel at all.
First of all, The Hummingbird is a full length two-act play whereas Murdoch McLoon And His Windmill Boat is an epic poem arranged in 12 books or chapters. It was not conceived as a work meant to be performed, but of course as an epic poem it could be performed just as the original epic poems attributed to Homer (The Iliad and The Odyssey) were performed—that is, recited or sung in public.
The Hummingbird is designed to be presented not by a single narrator, but by six characters, of which one, not surprisingly, is called Homer and serves as the narrator. The six characters of The Hummingbird are Homer, who as indicated serves as narrator, Murdoch, a poet and inventor, Emma Jean, Murdoch’s lover, Frank, a close friend of Murdoch and really his chief antagonist, Ashante, a beautiful West African princess, and Luke Invictus, a political leader in West Africa and a dedicated opportunist and exploiter.
The play opens with Murdoch on the New Paradise, his windmill boat, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The boat is being wrecked by the action of high winds and rough seas. With him are Emma Jean, his lover and inspiration, and Frank, his best friend and harshest critic. Murdoch is facing the hard reality that his invention, the windmill boat, has failed, and he tells us that he is committing himself to coming up with a new invention—that is, just as soon as he manages to get himself ashore.
What follows is the beginning of The Hummingbird, a play in two acts.
THE HUMMINGBIRD
A Play in Two Acts
HOMER
Enters stage rear, dressed like ancient story teller bard, blind, has drum and guitar. Pounds on drum to establish a rhythm and bring attention to the stage and himself.
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