Co-published with Cross-Cultural Communications (New York). A multi-media prose and verse drama based on the life of California’s Big Sur reclusive sculptor Edmund Kara.
Marc Clopton, Director, of the USA premiere at The Actors Studio, Newburyport, Massachusetts: 'What an exciting opportunity to explore Peter Thabit Jones’ verse drama! Even though plays and poetry are first cousins, this is a new genre for me (Shakespeare not withstanding). The cast and I have been inspired by the rich language and vivid poetic imagery of this play. The addition of John Tavano’s spellbinding musical interpretations draws the whole piece into the realm of pure theatrical magic. We are most especially thankful to the playwright for birthing this beautiful play'.
'. . .Thabit Jones vividly brings the life of the Kara to the stage through poetry, movement, sound, film, and the voice of the ghost of Kara. In the verse play we hear from the young artist Kara and the voices of poets and friends of Kara.
The play is riveting as we get to inhabit Kara through his art and those who knew him and his work. The Fire in the wood is visceral. Sculpture is a physical art. Kara sculpted in wood and the physicality of his art comes through in the play. The audience gets the feeling that we know what Kara was thinking about as he created. Kara’s journey in the studio where he worked was a lonely one, he lived alone by choice and shunned the world of commerce.
The play is a creative montage that lets us in on the nature of creativity itself. Through the voices of the characters we experience in a vital way one man’s creative output'- Elizabeth Doran, Manager of the Grolier Poetry Bookshop, Cambridge, Boston, USA