PEACEMAKER: THE DREAMS OF HUMANITY'S CHILD
CHARTER OAK THEATER, HARTFORD
May 6 & 7, 2016
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CHARACTERS
The Storyteller
Humanity’s Child
Grandfather
SpiritMother
SpiritFather
Aunt SpiderWoman
The People of the Tribe of the Two-Legged
Prelude
Members of an ancient tribal community gather at the council fire as have the ancestors of all the peoples of the Earth.
A singer and storyteller, relates the dreams of Humanity’s Child whose name is Peacemaker.
In the story, Great Mystery sends Spirits of the Upper and Lower Worlds into the dreams of an unborn child to tell the child stories of two paths: the path that leads to life and the path that returns to the whole. The Storyteller calls on many listeners to play roles in the stories. A pregnant woman and her husband become SpiritMother and SpiritFather. They tell the child story-songs of love and nature and experiencing both from a place of joy. Two other listeners at the council fire become Uncle Coyote and Aunt SpiderWoman who will tell very different stories. Eight women become the Spirits of the Sky Nation and eight men become the Spirits of the Rock Nation, aka "The Tribe."
Act I
As the play unfolds, the unborn child, moments before birth, asleep in its mother’s womb, is visited by beings who deeply love the child yet have differing views on what choice this “child of humanity” should make. SpiritFather and SpiritMother urge the child to choose the path of life. Coyote and SpiderWoman, knowing the depth of sorrow in the world, urge the child to choose not to be born, to abandon the physical body and return to origin as pure energy…one with the Great Mystery.
Act II
The dreaming Child seeks guiding visions. In a first vision the child is visited again by Grandfather’s Spirit, he sings of the child’s potential to become “a risk taker, an earth shaker, a peace maker.” But then, in a second vision, the many-headed monster HidesItsFace reveals a world of human cruelty, disrespect, ignorance and sorrow. The child is overwhelmed and questions whether its spirit is truly strong enough to face the world that the humankind has made. The child has a third vision in which Grandparent’s Spirit responds to each fear with support and compassion, promising a continuing presence on the journey that is life.
The child makes the choice to walk the path of life, to be a peace maker. But, HidesItsFace returns in a final vision with an ultimate challenge to self-awareness. Humanity’s child recognizes, for the first time, the duality; the child recognizes and accepts the full self. With this leap of self-knowledge, everything changes. The spirit beings come together into a single-minded unity...a sacred community. They set the child off on life’s journey with the hope that, on the Earthwalk, Great Mystery’s song will be remembered and sung by a peace maker.
Finale
Just as the child arrives at the place of emergence, the woman of the tribe playing SpiritMother goes into labor and delivers her baby. Humanity’s Child begins another Earthwalk time knowing that there will be many choices to make on each step of the journey. Similarly, each "witness" - each human being who encounters and perceives the spirit of the work, may also emerge from the experience, like the child, newly born and free to make peaceful choices in their lives. The play ends in a joyous celebration with cast and audience.
