play in three acts AURORE MAREN Cast of characters: Narrator Three children, siblings: Claira (5) , Thomas (7), and Syblle, (4) Their grandfather David (86) Landscape Architect
Act 1 Summer, on a wide sandy beach
Act 2 Early winter, in an open field, once a cow pasture: an aspen grove singing on one side, tufts of yellow tall grass, blackberry bramble and wild rose, scarlet in the fog and sun. Ten poplars hold an arc, various spruce and fir stand as points, marking time. Narrator: Light is nature’s play. In any creation of space, the play of light, defines the space, gives it its breadth, its depths and height. Light is a dancer; its movement, its presence, its absence is choreographed by time. Landscape Architect: To create spaces in this field, I must watch Light, the dancer, move through the seasons beginning in winter, thus I may notice the unfolding of spring’s new growth. My shears and clippers and mowing will articulate this movement. I wish to experience in my body, as I walk through this field, a similar wandering path as of that dancer, sunlight. There will be shade and shadow on the vertical and the horizontal. There will be enclosure and opening, solids and voids. There will be places of movement and rest. This is my play , I am joyful here, always.
Act 3 Late autumn, falling quietly, sometimes quickly. Yellow leaves of aspen and alder shroud the grass turned green again after rain. Aspen’s white marbled trunks show a wall, solid, comforting, embracing, holding back the bitter winds. An eagle and a hawk are clearly outlined against the sky; summer’s leaves no longer disguise them. Narrator: Anticipation is the Play of autumn: summer ends and winter is not yet. Light is more dramatic in its change of movement from shadowed clouds to soft tender fogs, to shafts of sharpened light through barren tree branches. Thomas pushes a soccer ball through the leaves with his feet, sometimes kicking up a swirl of yellow and gold along with the ball. Claira walks slowly and bends down to pick up a leaf and then another, fingering each leaf carefully and placing them back to back, then spreading them like a fan in her hand. Syblle runs through the leaves kicking them with her tiny boots until, oops, upside down she falls, laughing she makes her fall into a somersault, leaves flutter everywhere. David sees the eagle and the hawk, and puts up his right thumb and forefinger to the sky to measure how far apart they might be. He places his left hand on his heart, sighs and smiles.
somewhere in the far Pacific Northwest. Narrator: Play is a highly evolved sense, and engages a most essential human emotion, Joy. The conversation between the two, play and joy, may create a feeling sense of peace or equanimity. Claira squats on the sand and draws a heart shape then backs up, moving her hands back and forth cupping a string of hearts in the sand. Thomas takes a clam shell and fills it with water from the tide and pours the water along the line of one of the hearts. Syblle runs and jumps over the string of hearts — like jumping rope, she skips back and forth, back and forth…. David, who has been watching the sun dance on the waves, turns to see his grandchildren playing. A smile runs across his face and he whispers a prayer to himself, ‘may the peace created by my grandchildren’s joy spread across these ocean waves.’
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on site review 44 : play ©
Aurore Maren
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