Once v. forever

If Hollywood had made Once, the title would have been Forever and the young man and woman would have ended up together, going off into the sunset to live happily ever after and become famous musicians together. But in the film, each returns to a prior relationship.

Here is the difference between truth and fantasy. To be sure, I wanted, and I believe most audience members wanted, them to end up together. We like happy endings. If we identify with a character, we want them to be happy. They were so good together, why shouldn't they end up together? Because the real world has real obligations, which can be ignored in fantasy but not in reality and a true story pays attention to the difference. Not that the ending of Once is unhappy. Each character has grown to a degree, has learned how to live better within the parameters of the real world with its responsibilities and stresses. I return to the brilliant closing image of the film: the young woman at the piano, looking out through a small open window in a massive brick building. Here is her lifeline, here is her salvation within the restrictions of her roles as mother and wife.

Once won the audience award at Sundance, helping to propel its eventual commercial success, so stories do not need the fantasy of a Hollywood ending to be popular. Of course, here much of the attraction is the music. And most "true" movies actually have darker endings, some tragic endings. Such is life.

One thing I identified with in Once was the gift of a piano. In the past, when I was relatively wealthy (on a roll of getting grants and awards), I bought my girlfriend at the time, a talented musician and songwriter, a piano. It blew her mind! In fact, it blew her mind so much that it immobilized her, she felt pressured to produce now that she had a piano. It's as if not having one was a convenient excuse, and now she had to put up or shut up. So the gift actually didn't work out too well -- though now, many years later, she realizes the sweetness of the gift.

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I've let a couple people see Oregon Dream, and the response has been gratifying. One used words like "uncomfortable, heartwarming ... lovely and pithy and engaging." I especially like the response, uncomfortable.

One understands why I don't want it produced in my lifetime but another does not and thinks I should market it. If I were to change my mind, I wouldn't go the whole hog (as Pinter might say): it would be done anonymously or with a pseudonym. But I'm more comfortable not doing that. I don't need to see it, though I would like to workshop it with actors. I might do that myself down the road. Blessed to spend much of my playwriting career as a resident playwright, I am used to developing scripts with actors.

And now that I'm taking a course in Finale, and will be really up to speed to compose come summer, I'm thinking of storylines for a music drama -- and indeed, THREE LOVES, the posthumous play I'm now working on, has possibilities here, and so do other stories I'm considering for this series. I'd really like to start a music drama, finally, this summer. The Finale course is the perfect kick in the pants.