Communication

  To those who are communicating with me via apps on my my phone... I have misplaced my cell  phone. Therefore I have lost the ability to communicate via those apps.  So I suggest using methods that I can access via computer, (image.of.the.mind.studios@gmail.com), Facebook (Messenger, WhatsApp, LinkedIn) direct mail to my studios address (Image of the Mind Studios, 1325 Industrial Boulevard, Building Three, Southampton PA. 18966), or my office Phone line (412-502-9182). I will delete this message if I find my cell phone. Truth is; I lost it in my shop somewhere. AG

The Libretto, writing notes;

The Libretto

An Epiphany (5/5/24)

    As I mention below, I discovered I can work on the script using an older workstation and that definitely moves things forward.

   So, right out of the box, the text says "Let Us make man in Our image."

   What does that mean? Us and Our? Well, I have numerous explanations for this, but all of the require complex discourse. The Lord enlightened my mind to understand that; the Us and Our refers to the Alpha and the Omega. The all encompassing composite of the Heavens and it's Creator.

A little elucidation is in order; 

   The Mind of God transpires outward and downward from the ultimate essence of Being - first to the Celestial Degree, then down to the Spiritual Degree, and then finally into the Ultimates of the Natural Degree. 

   Man, in the Natural Degree created hell, by willfuly, though inadvertently, perverting his understanding of Truth. Because of his propensity to the sensual nature of the Natural Degree, he sought Truth and drew his conclusions from his natural perceptions. Thus, his separation from (even) the Spiritual Degree, (let alone) The Celestial Degree, blocked his influx from the Heavens and the Wisdom of God. Because God's influx comes to man down through the heavens to him, man's propensity for sensuality blocks influx. Yet God's mercy prevailed (indeed it still does) but not without vastations. The depths of hell, because of the connection to man, are encompassed in the Omega, the ending, intended to be the outermosts of Creation. It was man's choices that created hell and infused the deepest hell into the outermosts of Creation.

   So all that is and was, beyond the Natural Degree; is the Us and Our, because the Creation of man refers to his creation in the Natural Degree, which is the outermost, the foundation and the ultimate of Creation.  

   The Spiritual and Celestial Degrees had an array of created beings in them, who were not men, but rather; Angels, Archangels, Seraphim, Cherubim, and even Nephilum, none of which were human.

   Mythology might even point to other non-human creatures, if one may choose to expand those horizons.

   "Let there be Light" refers to Natural Degree Light, as Heavenly light is inherent in the existence of the Celestial and the Spiritual Degrees, and comes directly from God's Essence, although in varying intensity, in accordance with it separation from God by descret degrees.

   In the Natural Degree, a natural sun, moon and stars were required, which are only correspondential, because the sensual nature of the natural degree corresponds the the Spiritual and Celestial and is manifested in appearances.

   Hence, the darkness present could only be remedied by use of a correspondential sun, since anything in the Natural Degree cannot even deign to approach God in His Divine Essence, which indeed neither can the Spiritual or Celestial, but even less so can the Natural.

  God in the garden approached Adam & Even by virtue of the same body he had when He visited the Natural Degree in human form, as Christ,  after mankind perverted the Natural by allowing falsity and evil to prevail.

   This is all part of the Libretto, conveyed in representations crafted with Artistic License.

   I will integrate this (expanded) explanation into the script. Of course in a more proseic fashion.

AG

In wíll add to this post as needed.

Alpha & Omega Script

The Libretto (script)

(5/4/24)

   So, I have been somewhat distressed by the difficulty I have had trying to transfer the script materials up to my main workstation.

   But then, I realized that I don't really need to transfer the script. I can just work on it on the older computer that I used to write it. Duh. So I printed out the first scene.

    Well, that worked out pretty good. So far, I updated some production notes in  the script and had a chance to review the last revision. I am pretty impressed with what I saw. It's not the way I envision it now, but it's a good foundation for creating an updated Libretto. 

   My recent thoughts are towards creating a sample using PowerPoint. I'm considering the improvements that have been made since the last revision in 1999 and I am inclined to make adjustments to the concepts to take this into account.

   I expect to spend more time on rewrites, now that I have it working on my old OS 9.2 Mac 6500. I'm also going to revisit my G4 machines, of which I have three. They all need to be brought back to life, not only for the sake of moving Alpha & Omega (and other files) up the line, but also to access the Digital Performer files that were created using the G4 QuickSilver.

   In any event "I Am Alpha & Omega" is on the move again. This time, the goal will be to publish the Libretto and then to move forward with the music while the Libretto is being refined to accommodate both the new staging and the music.

More to come.

AG

Archive (4/37/24)

   I was asked "What's the plan?" It has to be this; determine the relationship between Writer/Lyricist and Composer so that the Libretto can be restructured to accommodate the creative propensities of those engaged in a collaboration. 

    If that is not addressed at this stage, then the Libretto will be strictly based on the Writer's perspectives as it is transferred to an updated workstation.  That process will engage a rewrite, since that last update was 1999.  In the new update, Lyrics will appear, some of which are already written, but not integrated into the Libretto. But integrating lyric should be in conjunction and agreement with the composer.

    The previous version of the script started to exceed the technical capabilities of imagery control, which at that time was undergoing extreme changes with the more extensive use of DMX, MIDI and the expansion of programs like Digital Performer. So it became clear that the writing needed to pause, until some technology was refined.

    I had gone through this conflict of technology with film, photography and video and that process threw my filmmaking into a tailspin, so rather than getting caught in this changes again, I put the development on hold for that reason; to allow technology to become more stable. But also, I had a few sections that I skipped over, sketching them out because I couldn't resolve certain design issues.

    I now have a few new ideas about the technical design issues in Act One and how to transition into Act Two, which has been predominately drama and dance, thinking that I may add musical theatre into that Act, in the form of lyrical music, which would lead into Operetta. The real challenge is the new mission for Act Three - something along the lines of High Opera. All of this being based on the literal form of the Word being integrated with the Spiritual Sense, and that being derived from the Church of The New Jerusalem teachings.

    So overall, the music will transition from a basic form of music to Symphonic and with the introduction of actors bring dance into the picture with a blending of drama transitioning from the spoken word into the lyrical expression of singing and that singing transitioning upwards toward High Opera. 

   So the. Creative Art aspect of theatre will run parallel to the Creation of the Universe as it expresses the Creation of the Mind of man and his/her relationship to the Heavens and God. Of course, this will express the balance between Heaven and hell, Good and evil, Truth and falsity.

   This would be an updated synopsis of the project as a whole 

     I am planning on diving into a rewrite, but truthfully, I cannot really get down to it fully, until the book publishing for The Gnomes of New Hope; Zach and Zebby's Grand Adventure is finished.  Once that layout is finalized, I will be turning to setting up my new music workstation with the upgraded components and a new Mac processor. If I do not come to an agreement with the composer I have been speaking with for "Alpha & Omega", then I need to be prepared to do it myself.

AG

Archive (4/27/24)

     So I'm thinking about what it's going to take to recover the script and update it to the new objectives I have for it. I do have some ideas about delivery of God's dialogue, which I think could work really well. But getting the script converted over into an updated file format is going to be difficult. I don't seem to have Part Two. Part One appears to have more than one Act. I think I might have divided the piece into three plays. I'm not sure,  I distinctly remember having written certain portions of the play, but they don't seem to be included in the files I have. I'll just have to keep looking. I'm sure I have a hard copy somewhere.

   I am going to take a greater degree of Artistic License than I have heretofore. I think mainly because I was leaning more heavily on a poetic style in the more recent work. Being that Act Three will take shape as an opera, I think it's appropriate to review the earlier writings and allow a more abstract aesthetic style to emerge. I'm not sure what that will actually be, but I have a feeling about it.

   I do recall thinking that Act One was more technical theatre in terms of it's design, while Act Two was predominately intended to be dance & drema. I'm seeing more expression taking place in a dream state, giving more latitude to the dance.

   I have to say, it's uncertain how this will turn out. A concentrated effort will have to wait until after The Gnomes of New Hope is finished, at least the book publishing aspect of that project.

AG

Archive

   You can read the history in other postings below, but this is to communicate some current thoughts/discoveries about the script.  I was relieved to find some files on an older OX9 computer I have, and today I was delving into the files that I have there and doing so on that operating system.  I can say I was surprised to find that Act One has been updated to integrate New Church philosophy with the Literal Sense of the Creation. I do recall writing both Act One and Act Two to have this element included in them, but so far though, I have been unable to find all those materials. Although the file for Act Two is there, I have not found the portions of the script that I  remember writing.  The file for Act Three is empty, because I removed that Act and used it to create "Nunc Licet", so that was expected.  What wasn't expected is that only portions of Act Two seem to be present. I know that I was using multiple computers to write this, one of which was a laptop that is now dead. So it seems I will need to be looking through all my old files to try to find all the materials that were written.  At worst, I will need to reconstitute it from what I remember.

   I have begun to write Act Three, I say write but I mean transfer over to a computer and restructure the material to be formatted for the stage.   The core material for Act Three has a very abstract form compared to Acts One & Two. What I can say is that the first half of Act One leans heavily on Technical Theatre to convey it's visual aspects, being that it is intended to represent the formation of the Universe and the World.

I will continue this later. AG

An analysis of the Musical Structure

  Here are some thoughts about the musical structure of "I Am Alpha and Omega". This is purely conjecture, because it must be founded in the Libretto, where the musical elements will be more clearly defined in the next Revision.

    I see the music as developing toward being predominately Symphonic, not starting out that way, rather introducing an assortment of styles being both instrumental and vocal in nature. The concept needs to run in syncopation with the visual representation of The Creation, adding elements to "create" a composite.

   Since there will be a divergent theatrical structure, both visual and dramatic, the music will need to be flexible enough to accommodate the texture of the piece. This means that the symphonic nature would take on a wider definition of movements, that are not necessarily tied to one another in a conventional contiguous sense. 

   It is possible that musical numbers that are not part if the symphonic structure may be interjected in-between the movements of the symphony. If that is the case, those numbers need to transition out of the previous movement and lead to the next movement or number. In any event if there is a sequence of numbers, the last one needs to be tied to the next movement in the symphony. So it would be that numbers may exist in-between movements.

    There was reference to a Requiem. If there is a Requiem involved, it needs to be encompassed within the Symphony and come forth out of the same.

    The Third Act needs to generate forward into an Operatic format, but that format could merge back into a Requiem as a concluding expression. The introduction of musical numbers (as in SATB musical theatre or solo performance formats) needs to be reserved for the centre portions of the piece. The exception being in the Operatic format of the Third Act. In that context, the SATB of the Opera comes from the Heavenly Hosts.

    I think that the conclusion of the piece need to be introduced with Acapella SATB probably leading into a Solo that points to the symphonic climax. I also think that the numbers that are presented in Acts One and Two need to be incorporated into the Symphonic Climatic approach, while leaving room for an Operatic expression that is distinct from those numbers, yet sets the foundation for the Symphonic expression. So, the musical theatre numbers are the external of the orchestral structure, while the Symphonic elements, probably the Requiem, forms the foundation of the Operatic expression, allowing the Operatic aspect to build the internal, the substance of the Symphonic expression, yet still leaving room for the Requiem aspect to emerge.

   I hope that makes sense. AG

 

Kudos to the photographer here. The image is reversed, but it's still awesome.

"I Am Alpha & Omega"

 Well, I managed to transfer the original script materials, which were done on OS9 over to OSX. I had to use a G5, because the Zip Drive I just bought, although it connects via USB, it will only run under Classic. I thought it was worth a shot, so a hundred and fifty bucks got my script materials transferred over into a workable computer environment. Unfortunately, the files went over as Unix files, which only TextEdit can open. That means no formatting.  At least I don't have to type it ALL over again.

So I've begun reviewing and editing the script that has already been written. I expect that I will make additions or alterations, in part based on my studies when I wrote "Nunc Licet".

Having begun to transfer written notes on Act Three, I see that I have prose that is very much more abstract then the earlier work and I like it. It has been literally decades since I last worked on this. The files that I am transferring are dated 1999. I have grown as a human being and I have different perspectives from when I first wrote this at age 21, or even in 1999 when I was 45 years old that's a 24 year span.  I am 69 (soon to be 70) another 24 year span and I am picking up the project again.

 For those of you who are familiar with New Church Philosophy and 

the Science of Correspondances, that is The Threefold Essence.

As I progress in reviewing the script, I will post more thoughts here as I progress.

AG

I Am Alpha & Omega, rewrites

  

UPDATE 4/17/24

   I am gearing up to dive into this piece again. I pulled some of the older material and I found myself feeling uneasy with the structure. Well, I think I did a good job with the material, but somehow I want to address the material in a less external way. 

   I know how I dealt with certain aspects and I have felt satisfied with those scenes, but some of the earlier scenes were not as abstract in the concepts. I'd like to revisit those scenes and explore alternatives to the present approach.

   I think this comes from the fact that I did an in-depth investigation into what might be called the sub-plot of Act Three, the new Act Three.  After removing the first Act Three and turning it into "Nunc Licet", which was in development for around twenty-five long hard years.

   So the new Act Three is still developing, but I'm happy with the potential.

   So, after reading an older version of Act Two, I'm not real happy about it's structure. I can see that it was improved over the first few versions, but what I read so far doesn't measure up to the new work for Act Three. I'll have to redress that.

   Admittedly, what I was reading is not the latest version. So I'm working on getting the files transferred up to my current work station and getting all the materials updated to the new format that I would like to see. By format I mean the creative aesthetics. Truthfully, it's been decades since I last worked on this and my perspectives are quite different than they were when I started it.

   So, overall, I expect the piece will grow into what I have always imagined it could be, but it will be quite different than I thought it would be.

AG

 ARCHIVE:

 I have begun transposing my prose over to a working document that I can use to structure the Third Act of A&O. 

   As I was kfelling over what to do about the Third Act, after I removed the one I had and turned it into "Nunc Licet", the Lord revealed to my mind that it was to be an opera based on the Apocalypse.

   So I began researching the material. I had extensive notes in my copy of Apocalypse Revealed, but apparently I took it with me when I was working as an actor on a production (to read while waiting to go on) and I must have left it behind, because I cannot find it. Not great, I guess I can reconstitute what I did to select sections of Johns writings.

   But what I did do in regard to material for the play, was to write prose on the subject and I found a few journals with material I might be able to use.

    The difficulty lies in establishing the visual elements and determining what the method of delivery should be. 

   For now, I am going to transfer the notes and structure an outline of the sequence of events. I expect that there will be events that can be interpreted visually and surround the prose, creating a multi-layered effect. 

   In terms of Operatic expression, I will need to extract characterization from elements in the Apocalypse that were simply visions, but in that case there is nut much room for character development, buy I will try. I'm having ideas that are based on my performing John in the June Nineteenth Pageant, something I did for probably twenty years (or more).

   I have the same difficulty with the First Act, where there is nothing but the Mind of God in a representation of Creation.

   So I guess, at this point, the work will be literary, with theatrical conceptions that are fluid, in terms of execution.

History;

    I began writing "I Am Alpha & Omega" when I was 21 in Berkeley, California in 1974.  It started out as a screenplay that had a science-fiction nature to it. It was a narrative that grew wholly from my mind and was structured to be a story of the Second Coming of Christ. 

  That first version grew out of my journey to Hollywood in an effort to make movies and that screenplay arose from an education that insisted that the first thing needed to produce a film is the screenplay. 

    After I completed that screenplay I showed it around Hollywood and I was told to take it to Bob Hope, which shocked me. I showed it (and some of my lyrics) to the agent Carter Wright and he wanted me to join the Song Writers Guild. I got to one of the top agents at Creative Artists Agency and he asked me what I wanted him to do for me. I was young, uninformed and I didn't have an answer, so that didn't pan out. The script ended up in Gene Roddenberry's hands (thru my association with Chaka Kahn) and he liked it. I got scared and decided I needed to improve it, so I took it back and started rewrites. Circumstances in Hollywood were difficult, amidst many adventures and foibles,  so I left California returned to Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

   I set up Image of the Mind Studios in 1977 and it was my intention to continue to advance A&O. I concluded that I needed to have other established people onboard. So I started thinking about the music for the soundtrack. I was very much interested in The Moody Blues music and I got the idea of having them write the soundtrack stuck in my head. So I started working to set up a meeting with them to propose that they write the music for A&O.

   I succeeded on setting up a meeting, backstage at the Spectrum in Philadelphia. Made eye contact with Justin Hayward, where we acknowledged each other, but he was occupied so I moved to greet John Lodge. I had an excellent conversation with John who introduced me to their agent. My discussions with their agent did not go well. I was excited about a film idea I had for their music and I had an excellent vision of what I would do. I started to convey that to their agent. He made me feel small & insignificant and insulted me for even suggesting that I had something to offer them. Needless to say, I was crushed. I moved away and Justin Hayward came over to shake my hand. As we walked over toward the group, I asked him if he had seen the materials I sent them. I waited for an answer. I asked again and I got a grunt. Well, after being belittled by their agent, I said to myself "I don't need this" and I turned and walked away. Like a dope I walked into a dead end and I had to turn around. I walked past their limo, knocked on the window, it rolled down and is said; "Please thank (their tour manager) for setting up the meeting" then I left. Other things have happened around this over the years, but that decision to walk away has haunted me for nearly fifty years.

   I continued to consider the project, after that and this time I thought maybe Rick Wakeman might want to do the music, so I set up a meeting with him. He was interested and we agreed to set up a deal through his agent, who was there at the meeting. He worked out of NYC and I tried to communicate with him numerous times, but he never responded to me, so I dropped it.

   I then began producing concerts at The County Theatre in Doylestown and ended up going back to college to study theatre. I was engaged in many other film and theatre projects, so A&O was put on the back burner.

   Then I ended up in Boston and I was pitching A&O in conversation, which resulted in being offered an office in the Paramount Theatre to work on the piece. I think it was then that the screenplay turned into a theatre piece.