I missed the photo exhibit at the MFA that Ilana suggested seeing, the one called Stories made up of evocative images that caused your imagination to conjure up stories (at least I think that was the gist of it.) Instead I opted to see The Mountain Song, which I highly recommend. TMS is steeped in storytelling, the kind of storytelling that can only be told on the stage, which is, afterall, the kind of storytelling playwrights concern themselves with.
This video was posted by someone on my Facebook page today. You’ll see the easy segue I made from pictures to storytelling. I think the point I’m trying to make is how powerful images, especially photographs and paintings, can be because they are static, like sitting ducks, and they allow us storytellers to just work them. As an example, August Wilson was influenced by at least two of Romare Bearden’s paintings for The Piano Lesson and Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.
In the world of things, images are very giving.
