.jpeg)
Synopses and Excerpts (Click on Images to View Video or Excerpt) Updated February 4, 2024 CLICK HERE TO SEE OVERVIEW
The University of Racing Thoughts, or
The Juvenant (2023)
Full 30-minute piece at http://stewartstation.net/racing
A retired academic begins an idiosyncratic, highly personal project upon his wife’s death: A collection of strange, paradoxical thoughts and formulations, something he calls his “bestiary of unstable ideas.”
Later he discovers that his younger self, whom he calls his "juvenant" also had a similar project, one that led him down a frightful rabbit hole. Full 30-minute piece at http://stewartstation.net/racing
A retired academic begins an idiosyncratic, highly personal project upon his wife’s death: A collection of strange, paradoxical thoughts and formulations, something he calls his “bestiary of unstable ideas.”
Later he discovers that his younger self, whom he calls his "juvenant" also had a similar project, one that led him down a frightful rabbit hole. Full 30-minute piece at http://stewartstation.net/racing
.jpg)
“The Shouting in My Head” (2024)
A newscaster on a national broadcast must report on a world crisis unfolding in real time while being bombarded by a cacophony of voices—literally “shouting in my head”—via earbud from his producers and handlers.
Other high amperage verbal and text inputs come from staff, family, lovers and rivals—as well as impossible to identify shouts from within his own mind.
Preliminary Version of full 30-minute piece at http://stewartstation.net/shouting
A newscaster on a national broadcast must report on a world crisis unfolding in real time while being bombarded by a cacophony of voices—literally “shouting in my head”—via earbud from his producers and handlers.
Other high amperage verbal and text inputs come from staff, family, lovers and rivals—as well as impossible to identify shouts from within his own mind.
Preliminary Version of full 30-minute piece at http://stewartstation.net/shouting
The Orph Pathways to the Underworld (2013)Excerpt (click on image above)
Concerns a world-famous composer, a man in perfect health, who must decide if he is to seek metaphorical immortality through the composition of a “multi-generational musical masterwork,” or instead, literal immortality, via an advanced medical procedure: The Transmutation.
Concerns a world-famous composer, a man in perfect health, who must decide if he is to seek metaphorical immortality through the composition of a “multi-generational musical masterwork,” or instead, literal immortality, via an advanced medical procedure: The Transmutation.
Adorno! The Undocumented Recollections of Gretel Adorno Concerning her Life with Theodor Wiesengrund Adorno A stageplay (2012)
I wrote this play back in 2012 before I’d discovered the wonders of being both in front and back of a video camera. It received a staged reading with visual and audio backdrops at Poquatuck Hall in Orient, NY. Adorno! recounted key points in the eventful life of prominent German-Jewish and Marxist cultural critic Theodor Adorno. Adorno came to New York in 1938 where he had to endure the “vulgar materialist culture” of America as he waits out the war in Europe and the suspension of civilization in Germany. When he returns to Germany after the war, “at home at last,” he must soon confront students of the 60s who find him insufficiently radical.
I wrote this play back in 2012 before I’d discovered the wonders of being both in front and back of a video camera. It received a staged reading with visual and audio backdrops at Poquatuck Hall in Orient, NY. Adorno! recounted key points in the eventful life of prominent German-Jewish and Marxist cultural critic Theodor Adorno. Adorno came to New York in 1938 where he had to endure the “vulgar materialist culture” of America as he waits out the war in Europe and the suspension of civilization in Germany. When he returns to Germany after the war, “at home at last,” he must soon confront students of the 60s who find him insufficiently radical.
The InterpretantThe Lives of American Philosopher Charles S. Peirce
An unfinished work begun in 2016, The Interpretant explores Peirce’s largely unacknowledged yet profound impact on the modern world from logic, and semiotics, to the mathematical underpinnings of modern finance. The videodrama references Peirce’s famous “triad:” Object, Sign, Interpretant, which he uses to “parse thought itself.” Peirce anticipates Kurt Gödel’s findings on the limits of logic in proving statements about a system’s own consistency.
An unfinished work begun in 2016, The Interpretant explores Peirce’s largely unacknowledged yet profound impact on the modern world from logic, and semiotics, to the mathematical underpinnings of modern finance. The videodrama references Peirce’s famous “triad:” Object, Sign, Interpretant, which he uses to “parse thought itself.” Peirce anticipates Kurt Gödel’s findings on the limits of logic in proving statements about a system’s own consistency.
The Alt-FuturistExtracts from 12 Lectures on Futurist Emilio Parigi (2018)Excerpt (click on image above)
About the Italian Futurist movement of the 1930s, exploring its odd fusion of iconoclastic art and reactionary politics. We hear psychotherapist Emilio Parigi expound on his exotic psychological theories to his would-be girlfriend, Futurist firebrand, cultural critic, Aliada Alliciano.
We are shocked when we first meet the lovely Aliada, that she finds the aestheticized cruelty of Italian fascism—despite her wholesome, middleclass upbringing—strangely seductive and compelling.
About the Italian Futurist movement of the 1930s, exploring its odd fusion of iconoclastic art and reactionary politics. We hear psychotherapist Emilio Parigi expound on his exotic psychological theories to his would-be girlfriend, Futurist firebrand, cultural critic, Aliada Alliciano.
We are shocked when we first meet the lovely Aliada, that she finds the aestheticized cruelty of Italian fascism—despite her wholesome, middleclass upbringing—strangely seductive and compelling.
PET Thoughts Ideas We Love (2016)Excerpt (click on image above)
An "opera of ideas" that uses the TED trope as a vehicle for engaging sympathetically “the expansive and the far out.” As the tale begins, our protagonist is encouraged by his comely video producer (“played” by Sarah Silverman) to take his sober, academic research, “to the next level,” to connect with a broader audience.
An "opera of ideas" that uses the TED trope as a vehicle for engaging sympathetically “the expansive and the far out.” As the tale begins, our protagonist is encouraged by his comely video producer (“played” by Sarah Silverman) to take his sober, academic research, “to the next level,” to connect with a broader audience.
The Doctor of Disputation (2018)
A Controversial New Rendering of the Gorgian Memoirs (2019)A dramatization of an imaginary academic tract, a “just completed translation of a recently discovered ancient Greek text,” accompanied by an eccentric commentary provided by the translator.
Gorgias is a real historical character who is mocked in the dialogues of Plato. Here he is allowed to defend his indefensible ideas on the role of power in rhetoric.
Gorgias is a real historical character who is mocked in the dialogues of Plato. Here he is allowed to defend his indefensible ideas on the role of power in rhetoric.
Quarrels with My Amanuensis Benvenuto Cellini and the Composition of His “La Vita” (expected completion 2024)
This fictionalized historical videodrama concerns the life of Benvenuto Cellini, the famous Renaissance goldsmith, as he composes his renowned autobiography, La Vita di Benvenuto Cellini. The actual Vita is an autobiographical masterpiece as historically important as his resplendent gold sculptures.
In historical fact, Cellini dictated his recollections to a scribe, his precocious, 14-year-old amanuensis. The conceit of “Quarrels” is that Cellini’s scribe was himself highly creative and argumentative; someone who, in this fictional telling, had a far greater influence on the Cellini autobiography than hitherto recognized. The one-man videodrama explores the tempestuous arguments between the two figures over the renderings, recapitulations, amplifications, and embellishments of the artist’s colorful and often violent life. References are made to Cellini’s masterworks, love affairs and not a few murders, some of which transpired during the writing of the Vita. Our fictional Cellini would complain that his scribe and collaborator, “Donato,” was taking too many editorial liberties with the text. Cellini would also resent the scribe’s attempt to intervene in his ongoing activities, which included numerous romantic affairs and acts of violence. The scribe must also fend off Cellini’s physical advances. Donato would fight vigorously for his own point of view, which he believed more faithfully captured the reality of the maestro’s life—all in the face of Cellini’s tantrums and wild and unreliable remembrances. “La Vita,” the resulting fabulous manuscript, was ultimately the product of their two minds, in conflict and collaboration.
This fictionalized historical videodrama concerns the life of Benvenuto Cellini, the famous Renaissance goldsmith, as he composes his renowned autobiography, La Vita di Benvenuto Cellini. The actual Vita is an autobiographical masterpiece as historically important as his resplendent gold sculptures.
In historical fact, Cellini dictated his recollections to a scribe, his precocious, 14-year-old amanuensis. The conceit of “Quarrels” is that Cellini’s scribe was himself highly creative and argumentative; someone who, in this fictional telling, had a far greater influence on the Cellini autobiography than hitherto recognized. The one-man videodrama explores the tempestuous arguments between the two figures over the renderings, recapitulations, amplifications, and embellishments of the artist’s colorful and often violent life. References are made to Cellini’s masterworks, love affairs and not a few murders, some of which transpired during the writing of the Vita. Our fictional Cellini would complain that his scribe and collaborator, “Donato,” was taking too many editorial liberties with the text. Cellini would also resent the scribe’s attempt to intervene in his ongoing activities, which included numerous romantic affairs and acts of violence. The scribe must also fend off Cellini’s physical advances. Donato would fight vigorously for his own point of view, which he believed more faithfully captured the reality of the maestro’s life—all in the face of Cellini’s tantrums and wild and unreliable remembrances. “La Vita,” the resulting fabulous manuscript, was ultimately the product of their two minds, in conflict and collaboration.