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Mungo's Page
[Ed.] Mungo is, of course, Dr. Don Elwell, founder of the Grindlebone Theatre, the Grindlebone Arts Collective, Grindlebone Films, The Greylight Theatre of Illinois, the Southern Illinois Renaissance Festival, the Warren G. Harding Festival of the Subversive Arts, the Citrus College department of Technical Theatre, the Carroll College Department of Theatre, and a bloody pain in the ass of those of us trying to keep track of him in our address books.
Dr. Elwell is the author of the Coyote Trilogy of Plays (Coyote, Cyberpunk Opera, and Dub for Babylon), the Novels "In The Shade" and "The Ganymeade Protocol", the acting texts "The Actor Reflects" and "The Actor's Workbook," numerous screenplays, articles, short stories, poems, spoken word pieces, bits of grafitti, boxtops.....Mungo leaves us a bit breathless at times. [I.N.] |  |
The Dream
The dream has always been this: A group of convivial, like minded individuals living and working together in a supportive community, existing in a kind of creative, caring frenzy. A place where everything is possible, where needs are met, where disasters are headed off through intelligent forsight, and where people can be happy.
I was first drawn to the theatre, I think, by this idea of community. In the theatre, a group of disparate (that was "disparate" not "desperate") individuals--actors, writers, technicians, scenic artists, businesspeople, audience members--all come together to create somthing meaningful, something remarkable. They do it in spite of differences in religion, age, race, gender, personal foibles, or income (and we sure as hell don't do it for the money), but it happens all the same. The things that need doing get done, get done low down on the totem pole before they're a problem, and we all get along. The Theatre is kind of the ultimate collective meritocracy. If the least of us fails, if one spear carrier drops their spear in the middle of a climactic scene or one of the leads drops a crucial line, we all fail. We're all in this together, and we know it.
|  | | But I look around me at the world and I go "why the hell isn't this happening anywhere else?" Why are the gutters full of trash, why is education in a shambles, why are people slicing each other's throats for minor fine points of religion when they could be laughing with each other and building things? Why? We all know the things that need doing. There's plenty of money washing around to make things happen. What's stopping us? |  | | I don't pretend to know the answer to that. I just know what works. So here's the dream: to create a community of artists and scholors who will work together on project after project, plays, shows, installations, educational seminars, retreats, concerts. . . .all without anyone going "are you qualified" or "what are you getting paid for that". . .a place where children can make an orderly transition to adulthood, can make a real and visible contribution to the projects of the community (as opposed to being relegated to medium security "educational" prisons and told to sit down, shut up, and spit back information for the standardized tests). . .a place where the elderly (and I'm barreling in on that) can be honored for their knowledge and experience, the vital for their enthusiasm, and where the community acts to take care of its own basic needs, without the angst of modern consumer culture or anyone having to say "would you like fries with that" over and over and over just to eke out a living. In the 17th century, the sheer cruelty of life, particularly at sea, drove many men and some women to piracy to find a survivable life and a degree of autonomy. The result, among many other things, was our liberty as a nation. No, I'm not kidding. Pirate vessels were foundries for democracy and self governance. We have in mind something a bit less bloody, but just as profound. |  |
Who ISN'T Grindlebone?
Grindlebone isn't a bunch of hippy flakes (though some of us WERE part of that movement in the 60's and 70's), nor is this a multilevel marketing scheme, a religion, a club, a bunch of bored college students, or a work of fiction. Some of those who have worked with or are working with the Grindlebone include the brilliant composer and physicist James Henriques, playwright and author Dr. Lance Tait, talented actors like Paul Meyd, groups like the Hamilton Arts Collective,. . . .I'm leaving out tons of people, there are so many who have made the Grindlebone happen, past and present, that I can't list you all. You know who you are.
My point is this: The arts community has a huge amount of strength, a massive cultural cache', and talents from programming to welding to public speaking that can serve a community well. As artists and educators, we are the voice of the body culture. It is up to us, then, to create those communities, using models that suit us and that we know will work, and then to go viral, to help other, like minded people to create their own dreams, one town, one field, one gallery, one stage, one sandlot at a time. . . . |  |
We've made an heroic start. After a more than successful season of new works in Baltimore, we began in earnest. We acquired Wild Shore Press, a small arts house that had been around for decades, as a publishing showcase for Grindlebone and our talented friends. We took it onto the web. We have assembled an artistic family literally across the planet, a kind of cybercommune running from Paris to Los Angeles, with stops on Second Life, Myspace, YouTube, Tribe, LiveJournal and others. Now we are ready for the next big jump. Taking it real. |  |
Who IS Grindlebone?
You are, at least if you want to be. Come and help us. Come help us find and acquire land, build a community, build theatres, shops, galleries, performance spaces, in our place and your place and on the web. More than that, come an help us take care of one another, our children, and the earth beneath our feet. Come help us make it all work, in both the real and virtual worlds. Then help us make it viral, help us assist other like-minded people in making their dreams--on the web and in the real world--a reality.
I am convinced, after many many years, trials, and tribulations, that the world can be changed. That life can be good, and kind, and productive, and free. We have only to make it so.
Mungo |  |
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