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This beautiful combination of poetry and film created by playwright and film artist Don Nguyen with voice work by Charise Greene examines the plight of Lot's wife from a new and intriguing perspective. The piece is based on the theme of "destruction" and Genesis 19:26.
Genesis 19:26
My Million Spectacular Moments
By
Don Nguyen
Credits:
Performed by Charisse Greene
Curated by:
Chris Cragin
2014
Poetry, Film
Primary Scripture
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The first time I learned about Lot's wife was in Sunday School at the age of twelve. I remember being completely frightened at the thought of someone turning into a pillar of salt just because they made a poor decision. I also remember thinking "what a foolish woman! All she had to do was listen to the angel and she would've been okay." It implanted in my mind the believe that Lot's wife was a weak woman who gave in to temptation. She was a character in the Bible that came from a position of weakness. It's a passage in the Bible that's always intrigued me, and now that I have the chance to revisit it as an adult, I knew I wanted look at Lot's wife from a different perspective. What if Lot's wife wasn't weak? What if she exercised free will? That would actually mean she made a strong choice for herself. That idea intrigued me, and it was from this idea that I came up with Lot's wife describing the last thing she saw that fateful moment when she turned back and looked upon God's Wrath. Perhaps to the others, the ones who obeyed the angel's instructions and did not look back; perhaps they imagined fire and brimstone, but for her, what if she looked back and actually saw the face of God and the only way in which she could describe it for herself was as "my million spectacular moments."
Spark Notes
The Artist's Reflection
Don Nguyen was born in Saigon, Vietnam, grew up in Nebraska, and now currently resides in New York City. As a playwright, Don has written several full-length plays including: SOUND, a sign language play which was a finalist for the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference and was previously developed at The Playwrights Realm. Don’s first full-length play RED FLAMBOYANT was developed at the Ojai Playwrights Conference and was both a finalist for the Bay Area Playwrights Festival as well as the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference. THE MAN FROM SAIGON has been developed at Naked Angels and was a NYSAF Founders Award recipient. THE COMMENCEMENT OF WILLIAM TAN was developed at New York Stage and Film and was a finalist for the Bay Area Playwrights Festival. Don was also recently one of 48 playwrights commissioned for The Flea Theater’s 5 1/2 hour epic production of The Mysteries, directed by Ed Iskander, which was a stage adaptation of the Bible. Don is a proud member of the Ma-Yi Writers Lab, a member of the inaugural Emerging Writers Group at the Public Theater in New York and served five years as artistic director for The Shelterbelt Theatre. Don is also a frequent volunteer for the 52nd Street Project.
Website: thenuge.com
Don Nguyen
About the Artist
Artist in Residence 2015: Don Nguyen
Don Nguyen
Other Works By
Poem:
My Million Spectacular Moments
YOU said don’t do it
If you know what’s best for you.
If you care about your life
If you care about your soul
YOU said don’t do it
Because you could lose everything
Everything you have
And everything you’ve ever known
And the more YOU said don’t do it
The more I wanted to
So badly I wanted
To see
To hear
To feel
But most of all I wanted…
To want.
So I guess it was my fault
I guess I’ll take the blame
Because YOU want me to.
Because YOU warned me
And I didn’t heed
When everyone else did
So I’ll take the blame
For going against your wishes
And I see that look on YOUR face
On everyone’s faces
Those looks of WHY
Why give it all up?
Why risk?
Everything that I knew
Everything that I am
Why everything?
For one glimpse
Of a golden moment
When there are so many more
Ahead
Yes you say all that with one look
And with one look I say back to you
That, which is behind me
Is what used to be ahead of me.
So why imprison myself to such ideas
We move in the opposite direction of moments
We go from past to present to future
While moments
Always move backwards
From future to present to past
So why can’t my gaze
Follow those moments
On its natural course
Through time
When my heart already does?
And all of you go on
Go on with your lives
Keep moving
While I stand here with my feet
Planted into the burning ground
Where all the salt of my tears
Have covered me entirely
From head to toe
And you see that I
Was in the middle of weeping
When I turned back to look
It was me and ONLY me
That turned and looked back
And YOU can judge me
All of you can judge me
And your judgemental eyes
Make you see me as a woman
Petrified in my foolishness.
But bother to look closer
And you will see
One corner of my mouth
Lifted slightly higher than the other
And know that what I saw were
A million spectacular moments
That now and forever belong to me
And only me.
Bio:
Charise Greene (voice) was recently seen playing Darleen in Nothin's Gonna Change My World at Dixon Place. In NYC, Charise has also played Sharon in the world premiere of Versailles at Theater for the New City, Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Ernest Hemingway at Access, Arkadina in the NYC premiere of Tennessee Williams' The Notebook of Trigorin at The Flea, Joanna in Inadmissible at Canal Park Playhouse, Jo in a staged reading of Canary at New York Theatre Workshop (directed by Rachael Chavkin), the title role in Psyche at Ensemble Studio Theater, and the title role in Darleen and Trent at the Living Theatre. She is currently dialect coaching the Showtime series The Affair, starring Dominic West and Ruth Wilson. She teaches undergraduate acting at Barnard and Columbia (Chekhov, Advanced Acting, and more) and is the resident voice and dialect coach for productions at NYU's Stella Adler Studio. Charise directs at Adler and coaches privately. She holds an MFA in Acting from the Brown/Trinity Rep Program (Stephen Sondheim Fellow), and bachelor degrees in Theater and Political Science from UC Berkeley.
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