The Invisible Vioce Manifest

Today I got to meet Steven Gridley--the playwright of "Sun, Stand Thou Still." After spending so much time on his script and working incredibly hard to put myself into the universe he created--becoming one of the characters birthed from his own personal experiences and imagination--it was like I got to meet god. An omnipotent presence in the play. Invisible, yet thoroughly sensed. After making discoveries from his cryptic text since last May, I was bursting with questions and practically bristling with fear that I completely interpreted everything wrong. It was kind of nerve-wracking! I told my friend before hand "I'm sure he wrote this role for a tall, curvy red-head...I'm none of those things..." I had this immense feeling of dread that he was going to size me up and down and wonder why I was the one cast. I also quite expected him to be creepy because of some of the grotesque things that happen in the play. He was neither creepy nor judging. I had the chance to talk to him for like five minutes earlier in the day, before he saw the show, and then afterwords for much longer.
He was quietly pensive and somewhat somber; I wondered what he was thinking. He listened to our accounts of our journeys with the script and preparation for the show. I stuttered a bit but managed to pass off the majority of my speech with coherence. The Old Testament references instances of theological allusions blew my mind and shaped my perception of the play.
When he spoke about his experience viewing his own show, I found it fascinating. He basically began with a monologue and then wrote the rest as a stream of conscious--following an emotion. Nothing was planned out before he began writing--and when he came near to the conclusion, he put it away for a year and a half, until he knew how it was supposed to end. He said that, as a playwright, when your plays are produced, it's like of like having your diary on display. Watching the play is sort of like time travel--projecting Gridley back to the time in his life when he wrote it. Now he understands more about what it was actually about. What the symbols meant--what themes and struggles from his personal life subconsciously manifest in his work. He said that he realized he is still writing about the same thing and hasn't really moved on (though he said it in a lighthearted manner).
The play is about dealing with tragedy and loss. The protagonist is dealing with the loss of his wife. What would you do if you could bring a loved one back? Would you do it? It would mean eventually having to deal with death all over again...sooner or later. There is so much to think about. I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to meet the man behind the play, and to have an appreciation for the mysterious events in his life that lead to this "diary" of his subconscious--this play that I am in. The other actors, and myself, have found so much meaning in "Sun, Stand Thou Still" that I am reminded why I am studying theatre. Theatre is a connection of the human experience; it shows me the world outside of my own.