Playwright's Note:
Full Circle
Farewell to Eden started as a distinct impression, what I call an "unbidden image." Sometimes writers will have brief images, phrases, or dreams come to them that are the seed for what later becomes a full story. They are tantalizing, organic, intuitive glimpses of things to come. For C.S. Lewis, it was an image that came to him when he was 16-years-old, a vivid thought of a satyr in a snowy wood with an umbrella and packages (he didn't actually write The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe until decades later when he was in his forties). For J.R.R. Tolkien, it was when he was grading at Oxford and he wrote a line on the back of one of his student's papers, "In a hole in the ground, there lived a Hobbit." He had no clue what a hobbit was yet, but he was about to find out. For Mary Shelley, it was a nightmaer she had in Switzerland while she was on holiday with a prestigious group, including her husband Percy Shelley and their friend Lord Byron. The dream was one of the most haunting and famous scenes of Shelley's future masterpiece Frankenstein, when Dr. Frankenstein brings life to his once inanimate creation, and then flees in terror to his bed, only to be followed by his infamous monster.
For me, I had just come home from two years in Australia, sitting in a peaceful place, contemplating what next to do in my life. As I meditated, I had the distinct phrase come to me, "Write a British play." Inspired by the work of beloved British writers like Dickens, Austen, Wilde, Shakespeare, and the Bronte sisters, I followed the impression, which led to the first beginnings of what would become my play Farewell to Eden. I had been a "writer" since elementary school, writing various short pieces, as well as a longer novel and various shorter plays in high school, but nothing that was published or produced on a level of anything grander than my student written/directed one-act plays in high school that were performed during lunch.
I couldn't have predicted what would come next. I was in my first semester at Utah Valley University (what was then UVSC), taking an Introduction to Theater Class from Professor James Arrington, whose one-man plays and audio plays I had deeply enjoyed when I was in high school. James had assigned our class to write a ten-minute play, so I wrote one of the later, dramatic scenes from the play I was writing. After it was read in class, Professor Arrington slapped his desk and declared in his characteristically sonorous voice, "Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a playwright in our midst!" He took me aside after class and asked if the scene was from a larger work. I informed him that it was, but it wasn't anywhere close to finished yet. He then said that, if I did finish it, the theater department would produce it. I was stunned. Did this professor just grant me one of my secret desires, to see my plays produced on a large scale?
James mentored me for the next year and a half or so, as I wrote, then rewrote, then rewrote, then rewrote, then rewrote the script, based on James' notes and guidance, culminating in two staged readings, which then led to even more rewrites. There were close to a dozen drafts and polishes, I'm sure. Eventually, we had a script that both of us were happy with, and James was as good as his word... Farewell to Eden was produced at UVU, with James in the director's chair, a powerful cast led by Margie Johnson as our leading lady Georgiana Highett, and a stupendous crew of designers, stage managers, and technicians.
The production was one of the highlights of my life as I bonded with director, cast, and crew through the rehearsal process and then into our sold-out run. The show was then picked up by the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival for the Regional Competition in California, and then I was invited to receive awards at the national festival in Washington, D.C. Well, it all seemed surreal and more than I even knew to ask for at the time.
Since then, Farewell to Eden has been mounted a couple of more times in excellent productions, but never with any of the original cast or crew returning. Catching a unicorn once seemed magical enough, but to be able to return to those friends and memories? It's something I didn't even think to ask for, especially 20 years later, after we had all been spread out to the four winds. And yet, again, as we were gearing up to re-catch that unicorn, a memory of a dream I had years ago recently resurfaced. Years ago, I dreamed that I was in the Ragan Theater at UVU waiting for a remounted production of Farewell to Eden to start and that I was chatting with James, who had returned to direct the production. I knew in the dream that Margie was starring as Georgiana again and that much of the original cast were back in their roles.
Although the dream was poignant, nostalgic, and beautiful, I didn't think too much of it at the time. It wasn't likely, after all, especially since I had moved onto writing other plays, novels, and even screenplays. Farewell to Eden had been an unexpectedly successful start, but I had moved on in so many ways, forging ahead with other projects. Any future productions of the show were to have different vessels, since so many of us had aged and moved past that special, unique moment in our lives.
Yet, that "unbidden image" of a dream proved to be a prophetic message, after all. The strange circumstances of so much of the cast having moved back to Utah after having been in other states, while other members of the cast and crew actually volunteered to travel back and forth from far flung cities, and even states like Idaho and California, to participate in the show, have astounded me. Financially, the ornate project seemed like it may not work, especially to have two of our performances at UVU, but a successful Kickstarter campaign and the sacrifices of so much of the cast and crew, as well as friends and family members who were willing to give us a hand with various needs. This all combined in startling ways and has all felt deeply providential.
Coincidence or Providence, this has been a deeply impactful reunion which will vividly remain with me always, just like the original production has kept a cherished room in my memory.
For me, I had just come home from two years in Australia, sitting in a peaceful place, contemplating what next to do in my life. As I meditated, I had the distinct phrase come to me, "Write a British play." Inspired by the work of beloved British writers like Dickens, Austen, Wilde, Shakespeare, and the Bronte sisters, I followed the impression, which led to the first beginnings of what would become my play Farewell to Eden. I had been a "writer" since elementary school, writing various short pieces, as well as a longer novel and various shorter plays in high school, but nothing that was published or produced on a level of anything grander than my student written/directed one-act plays in high school that were performed during lunch.
I couldn't have predicted what would come next. I was in my first semester at Utah Valley University (what was then UVSC), taking an Introduction to Theater Class from Professor James Arrington, whose one-man plays and audio plays I had deeply enjoyed when I was in high school. James had assigned our class to write a ten-minute play, so I wrote one of the later, dramatic scenes from the play I was writing. After it was read in class, Professor Arrington slapped his desk and declared in his characteristically sonorous voice, "Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a playwright in our midst!" He took me aside after class and asked if the scene was from a larger work. I informed him that it was, but it wasn't anywhere close to finished yet. He then said that, if I did finish it, the theater department would produce it. I was stunned. Did this professor just grant me one of my secret desires, to see my plays produced on a large scale?
James mentored me for the next year and a half or so, as I wrote, then rewrote, then rewrote, then rewrote, then rewrote the script, based on James' notes and guidance, culminating in two staged readings, which then led to even more rewrites. There were close to a dozen drafts and polishes, I'm sure. Eventually, we had a script that both of us were happy with, and James was as good as his word... Farewell to Eden was produced at UVU, with James in the director's chair, a powerful cast led by Margie Johnson as our leading lady Georgiana Highett, and a stupendous crew of designers, stage managers, and technicians.
The production was one of the highlights of my life as I bonded with director, cast, and crew through the rehearsal process and then into our sold-out run. The show was then picked up by the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival for the Regional Competition in California, and then I was invited to receive awards at the national festival in Washington, D.C. Well, it all seemed surreal and more than I even knew to ask for at the time.
Since then, Farewell to Eden has been mounted a couple of more times in excellent productions, but never with any of the original cast or crew returning. Catching a unicorn once seemed magical enough, but to be able to return to those friends and memories? It's something I didn't even think to ask for, especially 20 years later, after we had all been spread out to the four winds. And yet, again, as we were gearing up to re-catch that unicorn, a memory of a dream I had years ago recently resurfaced. Years ago, I dreamed that I was in the Ragan Theater at UVU waiting for a remounted production of Farewell to Eden to start and that I was chatting with James, who had returned to direct the production. I knew in the dream that Margie was starring as Georgiana again and that much of the original cast were back in their roles.
Although the dream was poignant, nostalgic, and beautiful, I didn't think too much of it at the time. It wasn't likely, after all, especially since I had moved onto writing other plays, novels, and even screenplays. Farewell to Eden had been an unexpectedly successful start, but I had moved on in so many ways, forging ahead with other projects. Any future productions of the show were to have different vessels, since so many of us had aged and moved past that special, unique moment in our lives.
Yet, that "unbidden image" of a dream proved to be a prophetic message, after all. The strange circumstances of so much of the cast having moved back to Utah after having been in other states, while other members of the cast and crew actually volunteered to travel back and forth from far flung cities, and even states like Idaho and California, to participate in the show, have astounded me. Financially, the ornate project seemed like it may not work, especially to have two of our performances at UVU, but a successful Kickstarter campaign and the sacrifices of so much of the cast and crew, as well as friends and family members who were willing to give us a hand with various needs. This all combined in startling ways and has all felt deeply providential.
Coincidence or Providence, this has been a deeply impactful reunion which will vividly remain with me always, just like the original production has kept a cherished room in my memory.