Shawn's Script

Hey All!

We have opened Season 4 with Company Member Shawn Pfautsch’s Hatfield & McCoy. Shawn has been our Director of New Plays Development for years. He has helped the rest of us to organize and talk about our work, and so we are honored that he is now sharing with us his own incredible talent. I think you will agree that Shawn’s skill with language brings a new and wonderful element to The House brand of storytelling.

Matt Hawkins has directed every one of our stage combat sequences and was a perfect fit for this tale of bloodshed and bluegrass. In his main-stage directorial debut you will recognize his unique contribution to the ever-growing stable of artistic voices emerging from our ensemble. Matt has inspired this production with a deep respect for story and for the actor’s process. This dedication results in some of the most sophisticated performances yet seen on The House stage and a deeply moving night of theatre.

The run of Hatfield and McCoy is rolling along and its inspiring some great conversations in our audience and talkbalks. I thought I would bring you all into it by posting with Matt and Shawn’s Notes from the production. Note’s like these provide some great insight into the conversation that the artists are having about a production so it seemed a perfect place to catch some audience responses!

Have at it!

Nathan Allen
Artistic Director

A Note From the Director, Matt Hawkins:

I knew this was a show I wanted to direct as soon as I began reading Shawn’s script. As a fight choreographer, Violence is an integral part of my work. Being raised by a Southern Baptist family in Texas, Religion has also played a huge role in my life. Both the Hatfields and the McCoys were God-fearing families who centered their lives around the Good Book. Some of them justified violence based on their interpretation of God’s Word.

My hope is that this story brings up questions about Violence, Religion and Family. I hope the audience takes these questions home to their own families. I hope they keep talking for a long time.

A Note From the Writer, Shawn Pfautsch:

“For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told.”
- The King James Bible, Psalm 90:9

While doing research for this play I opened up my grandfather’s old bible, the one his family had bought for him when he went away to seminary, the one he said I should have after he passed on. The ribbon bookmark was placed in the middle of Psalms and I began reading. This psalm, this quote leapt off the page. It was almost like fate…

From the beginning this play has been about stories for me: the stories we know and tell ourselves when momentous things happen in our lives. I think we remember these stories as a way of decoding our difficult next steps. We have epiphanies that the story of our life is suddenly like the story of a half-remembered book, movie or play. A character flashes to our mind whose tribulations preceded our own and we contemplate our future. Those ubiquitous WWJD bracelets from a few years back come to mind…

The origin of this idea in Hatfield & McCoy came to me like this: one day, while doing some internet research for this play, I came across an anecdote. It said that the only two books on the McCoy family mantelpiece were The King James Bible and the Complete Works of Shakespeare. I began to image two families whose only resources for decoding the world around them were the poetic, severe morality of that bible and the histrionic, fatal psychology of the bard. Their mythic fates suddenly seemed possible in a real world.

I wanted to quote this anecdote at the top of these notes, it being so formative to this play, but I can’t find it anymore. I’ve turned the Internet inside out trying to recover it with no luck. It makes me wonder if it ever existed at all, and that this play’s foundation is, itself, a story I told to contemplate my future.

Point of View

Let it be the Bible be taught
Of some of our history that was sought
There is no proof in any doctrine
Words of men excluding authors of matron
The scriptures all claim valid but belies Satan
Full of glory to the one that they ascribe
Instead of worshipping life inside the tribe
Prejudice attitudes need be removed
Nothing in hatred can be proved

Chickens
To see chickens in your dream symbolize cowardliness and a lack of willpower. The dream may be a pun on being a chicken or chickening out of some situation. Chickens also represent excessive chatter and gossip. Listen closely to what people may be saying about you or what you are saying about others.����


To see a cult in your dream indicates that you are lacking any spiritual freedom.�


Enchantment
To dream that you are being enchanted indicates that you are being manipulated or influenced to your demise.�



Raid
To dream that you are in a raid represents your fears that some hidden aspect of your life will be discovered or made public.�



Mother
To see your mother in your dream represents the nurturing aspect of your own character. Mothers offer shelter, comfort, life, guidance and protection. Some people may have problems freeing themselves from their mothers and are thus seeking their own individuality and development.
To dream that you are having a conversation with your mother denotes a matter that has preoccupied your mind and you are not sure how to deal with it in your waking life. It indicates unresolved problems that need to be worked out with your mother.

Sirens
To hear sirens in your dream signifies a situation or problem that is giving you much stress. The sirens may serve to get your attention and focus on the problem at hand.


Police Car
To see a police car in your dream indicates that help is on the way for you. You are experiencing some inner turmoil and need intervention.




Police
To see the police in your dream symbolizes structure, rules, power, authority and control. You need to put an end to your reckless behavior or else the law will catch up to you. Alternatively, the dream refers to failure in honoring your obligation and commitments.

Fence
To see a fence in your dream signifies an obstacle or barrier that may be standing on your path. You may feel confined and restricted in expressing yourself. Are you feeling fenced in some situation or confined in some relationship?�Alternatively, it may symbolize a need for privacy. You may want to shut off the rest of the world.�

Backyard
To dream about your backyard represents your childhood memories or your unconscious. Alternatively, dreaming of your backyard refers to the secrets you are keeping. There are some aspects of your life which you want to keep hidden and out of the view of others. The dream also represents some aspect of your life that you have taken for granted. Consider also the phrase "not in my backyard." In other words, everything is okay as long as it does not happen to you or occur in your own home. The condition of the yard is also symbolic of how well you maintain and balance aspects of your life.�
To see a messy and un-kept yard denotes that aspects of your life are out of your control.


Yardstick
To see a yardstick in your dream. symbolizes rigidity and an unyielding personality. Alternatively, a yardstick represents good judgment and acceptance.

To see a blocked or windy path in your dream denotes that you need to give serious attention to the direction you are heading in your personal and/or business life. You need to take time out to consider and rethink the consequences before acting on your choices.

House

o see a house in your dream represents your own soul and self. Specific rooms in the house indicate a specific aspect of your psyche. In general, the attic represents your intellect, the basement represents the unconscious, etc


To dream that you are cleaning your house signifies your need to clear out your thoughts and get rid of old ways. You are seeking self-improvement.

To dream that your house is broken into suggests that you are feeling violated. It may refer to a particular relationship or current situation in your life. Alternatively, it indicates that some unconscious material is attempting to make itself known. There are some aspects of yourself that you have denied. To dream that a house has disappeared indicates that you are not feeling grounded. You feel uprooted by a particular circumstance or relationship in your life. To dream that you are inside a stranger's house indicates that there is something that you have yet to discover about yourself. It may mean that there are repressed memories, fears or emotions that you are not confronting.



Room
To dream that you are in a room represents a particular aspect of yourself or a specific relationship. Dreams about various rooms often relate to hidden areas of the conscious mind and different aspects of your personality. If the room is welcoming or comfortable, then it signifies opulence and satisfaction in life. If you see a dark or confined room, then it denotes that you feel trapped or repressed in a situation.

To dream that you find or discover a new room suggests that you are developing new strengths and taking on new roles. You may be growing emotionally. Consider what you find in the discovered room as it may indicate repressed memories, fears, or rejected emotions. Alternatively, such rooms are symbolic of neglected skills or rejected potential.

Stairs
To dream that you are walking up a flight of stairs indicate that you are achieving a higher level of understanding. You are making progress into your spiritual, emotional or material journey. The dream is also analogous to material and thoughts that are coming to the surface.�

To dream that you are walking down a flight of stairs represents your repressed thoughts. You are regressing back into your unconscious. It also refers to the setbacks that you are experiencing in your life. If you are afraid of going down the stairs, then it means that you are afraid to confront your repressed emotions and thoughts. Is there something from your past that you are not acknowledging?

To see spiral or winding stairs signify growth and/or rebirth

An account for poetry

God's words have been revealed to me in prose

If truth be told no book explains

Of accurate descriptions of what only Our savior knows

Of Godly things and heavenly planes

Knowledge is a history we did provide

Of rules that man should abide

There is no limit to what the human can obtain

However approach goes beyond insane

Riddle me this what you conceive

Just as is life God is but a dream!

The mighty ruler and supreme, portrayed in various books and scenes

Truly there are no words that can convey what it is our lord might truly say.

Love thy neighbor like your Queen, because that's the way it should have always been.

Mirrored Woman

She's constantly thinking
Constantly Digging
Always trying to learn All about the past
Hoping to change the unforeseen future
And then realizes she has a chronic disease
That plagues her finger tips
That seem to have become her imagined reality
Everything she researched wasn't nessecarily existent
But looking for it she opened so many doors to portals
That play with the time and ultimately created THE END OF DAYS

Pierre bible code

The First Book of Samuel 9:13
as soon as ye are come into the city, ye shall straightway find him, before he goeth up to the high place to eat for the people will not eat until he come, because he doth bless the sacrifice [and] afterwards they eat that are bidden. Now therefore get you up for at this time ye shall find him.



The First Book of Samuel 13:16
And Saul, and Jonathan his son, and the people that were present with them, abode in Geba of Benjamin but the Philistines encamped in Michmash.

The First Book of Samuel 13:17
And the spoilers came out of the camp of the Philistines in three companies one company turned unto the way that leadeth to Ophrah, unto the land of Shual

The First Book of Samuel 13:18
and another company turned the way to Beth-horon and another company turned the way of the border that looketh down upon the valley of Zeboim toward the wilderness.

The First Book of Samuel 13:19
Now there was no smith found throughout all the land of Israel for the Philistines said, Lest the Hebrews make them swords or spears


The Second Book of Samuel 22:38
I have pursued mine enemies, and destroyed them Neither did I turn again till they were consumed.

The Second Book of Samuel 22:39
And I have consumed them, and smitten them through, so that they cannot arise Yea, they are fallen under my feet.

The Second Book of Samuel 22:40
For thou hast girded me with strength unto the battle Thou hast subdued under me those that rose up against me.



The Second Book of the Chronicles 23:18
And Jehoiada appointed the officers of the house of Jehovah under the hand of the priests the Levites, whom David had distributed in the house of Jehovah, to offer the burnt-offerings of Jehovah, as it is written in the law of Moses, with rejoicing and with singing, according to the order of David.


Ezra 6:14
And the elders of the Jews builded and prospered, through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. And they builded and finished it, according to the commandment of the God of Israel, and according to the decree of Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia.

Ezra 6:15
And this house was finished on the third day of the month Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king.

Ezra 6:16
And the children of Israel, the priests, and the Levites, and the rest of the children of the captivity, kept the dedication of this house of God with joy.


The Book of Nehemiah 5:13
Also I shook out my lap, and said, So God shake out every man from his house, and from his labor, that performeth not this promise even thus be he shaken out, and emptied. And all the assembly said, Amen, and praised Jehovah. And the people did according to this promise.

The Book of Nehemiah 5:14
Moreover from the time that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year even unto the two and thirtieth year of Artaxerxes the king, [that is], twelve years, I and my brethren have not eaten the bread of the governor.

The Book of Nehemiah 5:15
But the former governors that were before me were chargeable unto the people, and took of them bread and wine, besides forty shekels of silver yea, even their servants bare rule over the people but so did not I, because of the fear of God.



The Proverbs 2:12
To deliver thee from the way of evil, From the men that speak perverse things

The Proverbs 2:13
Who forsake the paths of uprightness, To walk in the ways of darkness

The Proverbs 2:14
Who rejoice to do evil, And delight in the perverseness of evil

The Proverbs 2:15
Who are crooked in their ways, And wayward in their paths

The Proverbs 2:16
To deliver thee from the strange woman, Even from the foreigner that flattereth with her words

The Proverbs 2:17
That forsaketh the friend of her youth, And forgetteth the covenant of her God


The Book of the Prophet Ezekiel 1:21
When those went, these went and when those stood, these stood and when those were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up beside them for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.

The Book of the Prophet Ezekiel 1:22
And over the head of the living creature there was the likeness of a firmament, like the terrible crystal to look upon, stretched forth over their heads above.

The Book of the Prophet Ezekiel 1:23
And under the firmament were their wings straight, the one toward the other every one had two which covered on this side, and every one had two which covered on that side, their bodies.


The Gospel According to St. Luke 1:22
And when he came out, he could not speak unto them and they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple and he continued making signs unto them, and remained dumb.

The Gospel According to St. Luke 1:23
And it came to pass, when the days of his ministration were fulfilled, he departed unto his house.

The Gospel According to St. Luke 1:24
And after these days Elisabeth his wife conceived and she hid herself five months, saying,


The Second Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Cor 3:17
Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, [there] is liberty.

The Second Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Cor 3:18
But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit.

The Second Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Cor 4:1
Therefore seeing we have this ministry, even as we obtained mercy, we faint not

The Second Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Cor 4:2
but we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully but by the manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every mans conscience in the sight of God.

Desire Brown bible code

The Second Book of the Chronicles 21:18
And after all this Jehovah smote him in his bowels with an incurable disease.

The Second Book of the Chronicles 21:19
And it came to pass, in process of time, at the end of two years, that his bowels fell out by reason of his sickness, and he died of sore diseases. And his people made no burning for him, like the burning of his fathers.

The Second Book of the Chronicles 21:20
Thirty and two years old was he when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years and he departed without being desired and they buried him in the city of David, but not in the sepulchres of the kings.