Art visual np2

W.B. Yeats’ constructed dramas for the stage that demanded unique vocal abilities from his actors. Through the use of  words intoned and spoken at specific pitches Yeats sought to enhance the emotional and poetic impact of his dramas. Decades before I saw a Yeats’ play produced; I heard the playwright’s words spoken. As a child it was the voice of Cyril Cusack, a member of the Abbey Theatre, who introduced me to the Lame Beggar in The Cat and the Moon , the Tramp in The Pot of Broth and the Old Man in Purgatory . Irish actress Siobhan McKenna’s voice conjured Emer in The Only Jealousy of Emer and Mrs. Henderson in The Words Upon the Window-Pane . My theatre work involves national and international travel. I’m always eager to attend theatre productions in Atlanta and elsewhere. Nevertheless, I’ve had only one opportunity to experience a production of a Yeats’ play. During the early 1980’s I met Dr. James Flannery - Winship Professor of Arts and Humanities and the Directo...

Photo: Mitch Birnbaum     Initiation and Reconciliation   Feathered God, ancient knowing let me drink again at The Hawk’s Well. Sandra Hughes, “The Hawk”, 1992           Where will I find the words to tell this story? I meet in a house with fourteen others. We sit at a table with books in hand to read aloud and discuss plays, poetry, essays and autobiographical excerpts written by a man dead for seventy- two years – a Nobel prize-winning Irishman who passed away before all but one of us was born.      Each time we meet the need to marry my thoughts with those of the deceased in an alchemical process that renders a whole that is more than the sum of its parts consumes me. I find I’m elated then dismayed by what I have in common with William Butler Yeats. It’s an intimate and, at times, painful experience that consistently requires acknowledgement of how deeply Yeats speaks to and of me. At its core ...