Imaginative Worlds

To copy the truth can be a good thing, but to invent the truth is better, much better.—Giuseppe Verdi

I doubt that [Shakespeare] believed in portents, ghosts, and the like. But he certainly believed in their efficacy in shaping the audience’s expectations.—Kenneth Burke


As a composer and writer, I am fascinated by imaginative worlds—worlds that exist within the boundaries established by particular works of art, music, dance, fiction, and theater. What is “real” within such works is determined by the works themselves, by what the creative artists choose to include and convincingly portray.

Thus Shakespeare felt free to include sorcerers, witches, and fairies in some of his plays, and to limit himself to portraying only historical characters in others. Yet all of Shakespeare’s characters are “real” only in the context of the play itself. An actor who portrays Henry V does not remain a king when he leaves the theater, and an actor who portrays Prospero in The Tempest is only a sorcerer within the world of the play.

Fascinated by imaginative worlds, I’ve embraced a pragmatic, theatrical viewpoint that pushes me to create works that are vibrant enough to potentially hold an audience spell-bound.