Dallas Blood - Softcover

Nichols, Christopher P.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1934625043 ISBN 13: 9781934625040

Publisher: Nazca Plains, 2007

Synopsis

Drawing on experience as a premier stage director and member of a renowned family of artists, Christopher P. Nichols has written a novel filled with the struggle to find artistic expression while exploring the nature of tragedy. The central figure, Timothy, is challenged by the chance to direct the first American production of Federico Garcia Lorca's 'Blood Wedding.' His personal life is inextricably connected to his work, and over time we see his development as an artist and the flowering of a great love story. Set amid the details of life in Dallas during the 1930's, and covering an area from Europe to Highland Park and Taos. Dallas Blood documents a timeless journey of transformation rooted in historical fact. In this novel we see the living theatre, changing and evolving, searching for relationships that will endure. Among the pleasures of this novel are the Spanish headings of each chapter, talk about Packards and Auburns and the sonnets of Shakespeare; reflections on the joy

About this title

About the Author

Christopher P. Nichols was born in 1938, the year that Dallas Blood takes place. He is a fourth generation Dallasite. His father, a well-known painter, told him many times that his family was Dallas blood. Almost all of his educational training has been in Texas, first in the Dallas...

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Two o’clock in the morning. I had just finished a third reading of Blood Wedding and was suddenly scared that I had picked the wrong play to direct. It is a simple enough story: beautiful country girl in Spain is betrothed to a hard working young man who would give her a good life. But the wrinkle is that she still may feel a desire for someone in her past who perhaps lingers outside her window at night occasionally. This man is the only character in the play who has a name, Leonardo. He is married, has a child, and his wife is pregnant with another child. He is irresponsible, neglects his wife, and rides his horse , a rare possession for these folks, constantly off into the night. After the wedding ceremony at the celebration dance the bride runs away with Leonardo. The bridegroom goes after them. In the woods, the bride tells Leonardo to leave her, He hears the bridegroom coming, they meet and fight to the death. The mother of the bride, the bride, and Leonardo’s wife meet at what may be a church. The mother possibly cuts the bride’s throat. It is a constant rage of passion, filled with poetry, a large cast, and mysterious characters in the woods and I loved it. But it is so powerful that I wondered, even doubted that I could give it the full production it deserved. I supposed that almost every director has doubts while preparing for a play and I have certainly experienced it, but this was different. There were no precedents for the play because our production at the Civic Theatre may be the first in the States. The playwright, Federico Garcia Lorca, was known here primarily as a poet, but his plays were important in Spain. After the first couple of readings, I thought I saw the whole piece in my mind, and began to block it on paper, but it didn’t feel right. In the past, I had been able to block out a play in several late night sessions, go to rehearsal, and put it up on stage. This play needed music, dance, several sets, and terrific lighting and costumes...so my collaborators must be more special than I had ever worked with before. No more thoughts about it tonight, perhaps the next two days away from it will help. I turned off my reading lamp. I couldn’t sleep. Suddenly all of the loneliness of the past months came back in dark thoughts. The relationship with a terribly possessive actress had separated me from all of the people I considered to be my friends. She didn’t want to share me with anyone.

About this edition

• Publisher: Nazca Plains
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 1934625043
• ISBN 13: 9781934625040
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 329