FACING EAST OPENS IN SAN FRANCISCO -- ALERT YOUR FRIENDS! But first --

REVIEW FROM “VARIETY.” The last review of the Off-Broadway run came in “Variety”:
“[FACING EAST] resembles the last scenes of a Greek tragedy...a vivid rumination on grief, regret and shame.... Rather than advancing any one perspective as correct, Pearson crafts all her characters with sympathy. Her insightful writing proves that well-meaning love guides Alex's anger just as much as Ruth's insistence that she's honoring her son by refusing to accept his sexuality.... [There is] near-sacred stillness [and] elegance in this lament for a civil war.”
PLAYBOOK OF FACING EAST with pictures available at www.nomoregoodbyes.com.

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STORY--ON FIRE ON THE FOURTH OF JULY:

Last week on the Fourth, I recalled, as I annually do, a very unusual thing that happened to me when I was growing up. I had never looked at this event as anything but bad luck until I heard Deepak Chopra, in a seminar I was taking, remind us that Leonardo daVinci insisted that his genius came from looking for the hidden meaning behind everything that happened to him. Deepak asked us to look back in our lives for events that were highly unusual, against all odds, and see them as symbolic.
Hmmm. Against all odds. My family was living in Provo, Utah, and I was about thirteen. We attended the big Fourth of July event in the football stadium at BYU. First came the patriotic program, probably a pageant of some sort and speeches, and then the finale we had all really come for. Thousands of people in the stadium “oooed” and “ahhhed” as the fireworks, one after another, shot up into the night sky and exploded into magical, colorful patterns. And then, one of the fireworks malfunctioned. It shot up, failed to go off, fell down toward the crowded stadium, exploded directly above me, and landed in my lap, setting me on fire. My mother beat the flames out and I was taken to the hospital with burns on my abdomen and right thigh.
This was the memory that came back as I heard Deepak Chopra ask us to examine our lives for something “highly unusual -- against all odds.” Thousands of people in that stadium, and I was the one set on fire.
The symbolism? I have been on fire all my life. The elements? Those we were celebrating on the Fourth of July. Resisting tyranny, claiming independence and personal authority.
It was several years, after long observation of “synchronicity,” (meaningful coincidence) that I had to laugh out loud as I acknowledged that in truth I had been set on fire TWICE at BYU. Once in the stadium on the Fourth of July -- and some years later on the stage performing as Joan of Arc.
The symbolism? The same. Resisting tyranny, claiming independence and personal authority. And both of these burnings occurred at BYU, on ground owned by my church, in a context of entertainment, both of which have provided ground and context for my life’s work.
I remain on fire today, a result of which is my play, FACING EAST, my new book, NO MORE GOODBYES, and other works that ask us to re-examine how we are treating our gay brothers and sisters. I am quite aware that enthusiasm on a subject that can be controversial sometimes generates “more heat than light.” A response I find myself often giving as I answer the many emails I receive from gay people and their families, asking what they can do to help bring about a better world regarding this subject, is simply, “Shine as brightly as you can.”

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SAN FRANCISCO PERFORMANCES: Tickets now on sale!

August 10-26
THEATRE RHINOCEROS
2926 16th Street
Easily accessible by BART
TICKETS: 415-861-5079
$20
For tickets online, go to http://www.ticketweb.com and enter “Facing East” (under Search For Tickets on the left).


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NO MORE GOODBYES SPEAKS TO ALL RELIGIONS. Although the book is written primarily from Mormon territory, I continue to be gratified that it is touching people far beyond that religion. Here’s a note I received recently:

“I want you to know that I am a gay man of almost 56 years of age with an evangelical past. I love your writing and sharing from your heart! The last few pages of NO MORE GOODBYES brought me to absolute tears! I sat next to my partner…and shared the story with him, reading the last few pages aloud, but I couldn't read but a few words at a time.”

TO PURCHASE NO MORE GOODBYES, FACING EAST, GOODBYE, I LOVE YOU, OR MOTHER WOVE THE MORNING, VISIT www.nomoregoodbyes.com.

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“I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.”
--Jack London

Love to All,
Carol Lynn