D/R PAINPANG (1926-1966)

1st edition

D/R PAINPANG (1926-1966):

A Tragedy of Small and Great Importance

First edition published in August, 2003.

First printing (of 1st edition) in August, 2003.

Made In the United States of America.]

PLAY-BOOK

This play-book is a three act tragedy that is meant to be read silently as well as performed. So for the purposes of pure reading pleasure, the book has been formatted less like a play script and more like other conventional reads.

SYNOPSIS

This first edition of D/R PAINPANG (1926-1966): A Tragedy of Small and Great Importance is a three act full length play.

What is this play about? I would prefer to let the work explain itself for the most part, because this tragedy is about many things. But if it is helpful, I will say that one of the things this drama is about is its tangential treatment of the Tiananmen Square Massacre that took place in China (1989) during its brief student-led democracy movement and its unprecedented explosion of hopes for freedom and openness in China.

There is no direct mention in the play of this tragic event in China, but I have created a central fictional character, Dr. Painpang, who through his book, Chinese Democracy, gives voice to China's dream of a true republic of the people in the face of communism and its (unpopularly elected, fraudulently elected or unelected) elitist reactionary hardliners... while also reflecting the larger world's democratic aspirations in the face of terrorism and violent extremism of all types.

But perhaps most significantly, this vehicle for the theater portrays these hopes in a very unique way: by showing democracy's current and future relationship to game theory, the dramatic arts, and so-called postmodernist relativism. Based on an actual 1966 academic conference on "Game Theory in the Behavioral Sciences," this play's emphasis on game theory's relationship to the spectacle in a true and robust "government of the people, by the people, for the people" is a microscopic look at the universal life-and-death drama being played out at the heart of every ideal, democratic and otherwise, as every ideal struggles for some sense of sure footing in the whirlwind of forces and appearances buffeting about in our minds and in the modern arena of public opinion.

BOOK SIZE

Heigth: 5.50 inches

Width: 4.25 inches

Pages: 500 pages

BOOK COST

$15.09 (plus $3.95 USPS Priority Mail shipping & handling).

PROJECTIONS

See Who Shot Painpang? and see RAT ...then look under the PROJECTIONS heading for information about foreground / background projections for live performances of D/R PAINPANG (1926-1966): A Tragedy of Small and Great Importance.

FLASH MOVIES

Flash movies can be made available upon request by those interested in using them for their live productions of D/R PAINPANG (1926-1966): A Tragedy of Small and Great Importance. Theater directors and designers may find these Flash animations of art posters and flyers (reflecting upon the imagery of message posters: social posters, political posters, propaganda posters, street posters and poster ads) to be as useful as static posters of the like.. if not more so.

• Flash movie sample 1 (10K)

• Flash movie sample 2 (12K)

reader-friendly version