Act One of "I Am Alpha & Omega" is based on The Story of Creation, with the details of such being enhanced by the Arcana Coelestia written by Emanuel Swedenborg. The literal books of the Bible provide the external vision of Creation, while the writings of Swedenborg provide the internal correspondance of those stories to the Spiritual meaning, essentially the Body and the Spirit of the Word.
I will be posting the earlier versions of A&O for reference to the history of it's progression. I believe that last version of the Libretto has the internal and the external blended, but I am trying to conceptualize a presentation that may be different that what has been previously written. I want to have a presentation that is enthralling.
One version of the stage show was written for use in a Hemispherical Theatre. But at the time, there was no such "hemispherical theatre" designed. Since then, there has been a theatre developed which uses Cinema 360. I am not certain if this will lean in that direction. I would like to see that happen, but I think it is important that there be a version for the standard proscenium stage, being that a proscenium is a worldwide venue style. A proscenium does interfere somewhat with the all engulfing premise of the "Cinema 360" experience, but there are not many hemispherical theatres built. Possibly a observatorium.
It may be that Act One be presented in a hemisphical theatre, with Act's Two and Three being presented in a normal proscenium environment. If that were the case, it would be a triad, a threefold essence (so-to-speak) theatrical experience. What that means is three separate shows.
In one way I like that idea, because that would allow the material to be explored fully in each presentation. In essence it would be;
The Creation, out of nothing came all that is, the earth is formed from the void
Act Two
Act Three
This is a summary of the intent of the material presented in the Libretto and it is posted here for those who care to be involved in bringing this into reality as a theatrical presentation.
This has been a long-term project for me and has gone through numerous revisions on the path toward the summaries posted here above. I will be endeavoring to proceed with another rewrite in an effort to conform to these ideals. For those who seek to understand how this will be achieved, I posted a link to the Arcana Coelestia above as an introduction to the concepts.
The Writings for the New Church are very extensive and sometimes complex. I have been studying them for fifty years, in part with the intention of creating "I Am Alpha & Omega", because I was led to these Writings as a result of writing the first version of A&O and having spiritual visions in this regard. So I do not expect anyone not familiar with the Writings to get a grip on it easily. That is my job, to bring the internal sense of the Word into clarity by infusing the external with the internal in the context of a theatrical endeavor.
I will post what was written in that regard here, when I can and try to set it up into the Acts as shown above. I may just use this blog as the medium for rewriting the material, since I can easily print it out as needed and it will end up on-line for posterity.
AG
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