My most ambitious dramatic effort, this work grew out of my interest in, among other things, Greek tragedy, the history of the American West, and Harry Partch.
I began work on the play in 1977 and finished the script in 1981. It was performed in a staged reading in 1983 with bits of the original music. The score was not finished until 1994, and the work still awaits its first real production.
The verse forms used are rather closely imitated from Greek tragedy. The dialogue is in blank verse, the traditional English equivalent to the Greek iambic trimeter, and ancient devices like stichomythy are often used. The choruses are written in forms of my own devising, designed - like Greek choral lyric - for intelligible delivery to music.
Although my musical background was mostly classical, the aesthetic aimed at was in many ways closer to the American musical than to opera. That is, above all I wanted the words to be understood. I didn't want singing throughout, but only when plain (or even poetic) speech would not serve. Contrasts of speech and music were themselves conceived as musical elements. The poetic and musical structure were to be one.
Those familiar with Partch's ideas will see why I was interested in him. The Ghost Dancers score, however, is written in the conventional scale for conventional instruments. To me Partch's ideas were stimulating beyond his own particular practice. It was the rigorousness of his effort to realign words and music that I found impressive, and I tried to follow it in my own way - through rhythm rather than intonation. Verse and music, in the modern tradition, have different metrics, and I wanted to bring them into alignment again, as they had been for the Greeks. Doing so, I figured, could in itself lend freshness to traditional Western harmony, which for other reasons, dramatic as well as musical, I wanted to be able to use (ease of performance was definitely a consideration). In addition to Partch's theories and dramatic works, the plays of Yeats ( who had been a stimulus to Partch as well), and the collaborations of Brecht and Weill provided different models for me to consider.
There is a third important element to the play, implicit in the title, which has yet to be worked out. While I felt competent to write words and music, for the dance I have nothing to suggest beyond general parameters. Like the music, it must serve the words. Ideally a single chorus would sing, act, and dance, which again suggests an approach more like a musical than a work of "pure" dance, whether classical or modern.
The subject was perfect for my purposes, but its fascination and sensitivity, in the era of political correctness, seems likely to obscure anything novel I may have done with it. More than one theatre has declined to produce the work on the grounds that they have already done "an Indian play." It is sometimes suggested that I approach Indian groups about performing it, either with their performers or under their auspices. Certainly I would have nothing against working with any interested group that could meet the artistic needs of the production. But I resist any suggestion that I have tried to make myself a "spokesman" for Native Americans. I regard the Ghost Dance as part of American history, pure and simple, and claim no more than a dramatist's insight into the culture that produced it. My Sitting Bull is no more (and I hope no less) authentic an Indian than Shakespeare's Caesar is an authentic Roman.
The text is presented here in its entirety, including extensive notes for performers. In addition, there are two excerpts from the music in RealAudio format. The bulk of the fairly extensive score has not yet been performed or recorded. The words, though, can stand on their own; despite the musical design, I intended them to be more than a simple libretto.
For manageability I have broken the text into a number of files. The play itself is continuous, with no division into act or scene.
Note: this unpublished play is fully copyrighted. Permission is granted to make copies of the text, but not to sell them. No performance of the play, either in whole or in part, may take place without the written permission of the author.
© 1983, 2002 Alan Shaw | alanshaw@prosoidia.com | home | links