Our Mission and Our Moment

Mel Nieves, the playwright of By the Dawn’s Early Light, shares his memory of ten years ago — his first blog post ever, but certainly not his last.

I’ve never actually written a blog before. In fact journal writing or even diary writing isn’t my thing. There’s a book titled, The Artist’s Way, which has been around for a while. I even purchased a copy of it once, but I couldn’t get into it. I always figured that if I was going to spend a couple hours a day writing it should be spent on a play and not some jottings about how my day went.

But here I am ready to blog away.

I’m an actor and playwright. I also teach theatre with various not-for-profit arts organizations bringing theatre to inner city youths. I’m also a member of the award winning LAByrinth Theatre Company, which brings me to the purpose of this blog.

During most summers the members of the company go away together for two weeks, usually to an upstate retreat to share, bond, reunite with old friends and discover new ones and finally to create some of the best theatre on the American stage (if you don’t believe me you can look it up). My first intensive was not a summer, but one that took place in the fall of 2001… Yeah, that fall.

When I arrived that fall, it seemed as if everyone who was there already had gathered around to meet me. They all wanted to know what was happening in New York, many were cut off from communication with family and friends living in the city and the concerns for their loved ones safety were itched deep in their faces as well as the stress from lack of sleep since the attacks. Later that very same night as President George W. Bush stood before a united Congress delivered his now famous speech: “Great harm has been done to us. We have suffered great loss. And in our grief and anger, we have found our mission and our moment…”

We collectively as a group held hands and our breaths as we watched and listen to this historic speech thinking amongst ourselves that perhaps we would soon be on the brink of another world war, and knowing that our lives would be forever changed.

17 June 2011 ·