Arabesque

ARABESQUE

TIME IN SPACE
Carol Bier

Synopsis
ARABESQUE: TIME IN SPACE draws upon the translated works of historical individuals, portraying a conversation across time about the nature of space. It encourages recognition of Arab and Islamic contributions to a philosophical discourse and its expression in the arts long before the dawn of modern Europe and the European Renaissance. In a sense, this is a “play with a curriculum.”

Plato, Aristotle, and Euclid are addressed by their names in Arabic – Eflatun, Aristo, and al-Uklidis. Two fictional characters, A. Square and Hayy ibn Yaqzan, are drawn from literature, and there are three characters of my own invention – Lizzie, Boy, and Balinas (Ar. Apollonius).

The spatial dimension as a subject of inquiry has a long history: it was perhaps first addressed in art and philosophy, then mathematics, religion, and physics. This drama is recursive, reflecting the subject historically and at present as the conversation continues.

In attempting to convey humankind’s efforts to make sense of our universe, physically and metaphorically, the dialogue follows a stream of consciousness. The participants at this symposium play with illusion and reality, sense perception and thinking, imagination and real space, relativity and the passage of time.

The first scene is set in Raphael’s School of Athens; the second scene takes place in the School of Baghdad.

ARABESQUE

TIME IN SPACE

A Symposium in One Act

Carol Bier

Prelude David Masunaga, English Horn

Niobe, Six Metamorphoses after Ovid, Benjamin Britten (1913-76)

An Informal Participatory Reading (Selections)
Postlude Rachel Hall, Concertina

Victoria Hart and Godfried Toussaint, Drums

Mandra’s Tik, Traditional Greek Dance

Bridges Conference

Winfield, Kansas

Friday, 30 July 2004

ARABESQUE

TIME IN SPACE

A Symposium in One Act

Carol Bier

Dramatis Personae

(Listed in order of appearance)
EFLATUN Dave Masunaga

Plato, Greek philosopher (c428-347BC)

ARISTO Jay Kappraff

Aristotle, philosopher, Plato’s student (384-322BC)

LIZZIE Mary Williams

Eponymous female student, named

BOY George Hart

Anonymous male student, unnamed

AL-UKLIDIS Donald Crowe

Euclid, Greek mathematician (fl. 300BC)

EINSTEIN Paul Gailiunas

German-born American physicist (1879-1955), introduced special and general theories of relativity

SIMPLICIO Carlo Séquin

Simplicius, Neoplatonist philosopher; character in Galileo’s Dialogues (Florence, 1632)

BALINAS Rachel Hall

(Arabic, Apollonius), a progressive educator, teacher of Lizzie and the boy

RIEMANN Gary Greenfield

German mathematician (1826-1866)

PLOTINUS Douglas Dunham

Neoplatonist philosopher (205-270AD)

HAYY IBN YAQZAN Chris Palmer

Named “Alive, Son of Awake,” a character from the

Arabic works of Ibn Sina and Ibn Tufayl (10^th-12^th C.)

IBN SINA Victoria Hart

Avicenna, Muslim philosopher (980-1037)

Special Thanks

Dick Merriman, President, Southwestern College, Andrew Sheppard, Academic Vice President, Southwestern College, Sharon Wright, Adminstrative Assistant to President and Academic Dean, Southwestern College;

Dan Daniel, Integrative Studies Program

Reza Sarhangi, Director, Bridges Conference
Travis Ethridge, Production

Pete Wells, Alternate Reader and Eflatun’s Assistant

AL-GHAZZALI Rinus Roelolfs

Muslim philosopher/theologian (1058-1111), initially

a skeptic, who later called for a return to orthodoxy

IMMANUEL KANT Kaz Maslanka

German philosopher (1724-1804)

A. SQUARE Simon Morgan

Character from Edwin A. Abbott, Flatland (1884)

NEWTON Judy Engels

English scientist (1642-1727), developed calculus

LEIBNITZ James Murrell

German philosopher/mathematician (1646-1716), a contemporary of Newton who also developed calculus

IBN KHALDUN Dan Daniel

Arab philosopher/historian (1332-1406)

AL-KINDI Doris Schattschneider

Arab mathematician (801-866AD)

AL-FARABI Robert Moody

Muslim philosopher/musician (c870-950)

AL-KHWAREZMI Arthur Benjamin

Muslim mathematician (9^th c.), introduced algebra

BRUNO Craig Kaplan

Italian philosopher (1548-1600), burned at the stake

IBN RUSHD B. Lynn Bodner

Averroes, Arab philosopher in Spain (1126-1198), who sought to integrate Aristotle and Islamic thought

GALILEO GALILEI Daylene Zielinski

Italian physicist/astronomer (1564-1642), forced to renounce the Copernican heliocentric system