JFK: Light the World:
Sample Excerpts from the Play
From the Prologue: Processional and Invocation
Male Leader of Chorus
Almighty God of the Universe and all dimensions,
God of whatever is more and whatever is less,
God of all beings and all consciousnesses --
We lift our arms to you in supplication….
Female Leader of Chorus
We surrender to your power, submit to your wisdom and accept your judgement
As we make this humble request:
Male Leader of Chorus
Please bless our endeavor to honor the memory of a beloved man,
John F. Kennedy,
And through that remembrance
Help us rise above our deep partisan divisions
To be united as Americans again….
(Kennedy photo portrait from Warren Commission Files projected on flat screen.)
Female Leader of Chorus
We shall remember his heroic life
And his memory’s continuing rebirth.
We shall remember our hard grief,
And our righteous anger,
We shall remember
The terrible aftermath --
Male Leader of Chorus
And the vicious wounds and endless inflammations
That his monstrous, bloody assassins inflicted on our nation –
Those afflictions that have long caused bitter division,
Animosity, and pain.
We shall remember all this and more
As our journey takes us
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought
And into the vast, archetypal
Sea of Myth.
All Actors as Chorus
We shall remember all this and more
As our journey takes us
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought
And into the vast, archetypal
Sea of Myth.
From Part One: JFK’s Speeches and Deeds
Female Leader of Chorus
Now, when the center cannot hold,
When Hope has been betrayed,
And Love sacrificed,
Now when vendetta and hatred prevail,
Now when most of the old heroic voices
Are only echoes from far distant hills…
All Actors as Chorus
Now when most of the old heroic voices
Are only echoes from far distant hills…
Male Leader of Chorus
We return to the beginning point of this Tragic Cycle of American History
As we remember the life and times of John F. Kennedy,
The 35th President of the United States…
We remember his military service, and his Presidency,
What he said, what he did.
From Part Two: JFK’s Speeches and Deeds
Female Leader of Chorus
Now hear President Kennedy’s wisdom from his inaugural and other speeches.
Now hear again of his wartime heroism and his courageous political actions.
(Chorus Leaders return to their levels. All six Actors come to center stage.)
Male Actor Two
(Male Actor Two begins a round of quotations from JFK speeches and descriptions of some of his actions and deeds; the speech excerpts should be spoken as public speeches, loudly and with gestures where appropriate, and always with JFK’s vigor and enthusiasm.)
“Let the word go forth from this time and place to friend and foe alike that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans, born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed….”
Male Actor One
“Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we will pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure survival and the success of liberty."
Male Actor Three
“And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.”
From Part Three: Atomic Fear and Trembling
Male Leader of Chorus
…Old Ike, as he was sometimes called,
Warned us in his farewell speech
About the internal threat of
What he labeled
A growing “Military Complex.”
49
(Projected photo of Dwight Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States.)
Male Actor Two
He said, “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes.”
Female Leader of Chorus
We did not fully understand this warning.
We did not connect it to President Kennedy’s assassination –
At least not then.
Female Actor Two
In hindsight,
The “Complex” that Ike courageously identified
Was much more than men with “unwarranted influence,”
More than a secret rabbit warren of extremist military generals
And greedy weapons manufacturers,
More than a cadre of corrupt Bureaucrats,
Male Actor Three
More than a few bad Secret Service actors
And estranged Intelligence personnel –
More than a shiver of Black Op, wet-work sharks,
And more than a pack of
Underworld mobster wolves hellbent on revenge.
(Projected photo of Leviathan in the fresco "The Last Judgment” painted by Giacomo Rossignolo, 1524-1604).
Female Leader of Chorus
In reality
It was all of those and more –
It was an evil body of corrupt men
Conspiring together in secret
Who sought absolute power,
No matter the cost to our nation and its citizens.
Male Leader of Chorus
In symbolic and metaphoric language,
It was LEVITHAN…
An enormous and powerful Beast of prey
That rose from the shallow, foulest, most polluted waters of Chaos –
A Monster of truly Biblical dimensions.
Male Leader of Chorus
Somewhere in the gloom
On that cold November night,
A small lamp was switched on.
Female Actor Three:
Outside, the darkness was as thick and crimson
As Christ’s crucified blood,
And the season’s last dead leaves
Quivered in the night wind.
In another room, the screen flickered, glowed,
And the images, the voices, the questions
Were spun into a primal, wordless fear…
(AI generated image of raven in snow projected on big flat screen.)
Song: “The End of November, Nineteen Sixty-three”
Male Vocalist
(Original lyrics and melody.)
Darkness falls as the sun goes down,
Dead trees cling to the icy ground,
The black raven bird makes no sound,
The gyre is turning, it’s almost wound.
It’s the end of November, in the year…
Nineteen…sixty-three…
The crack of the rifle stokes our fears,
Radios scream but no one hears,
The smiles of old have turned to tears.
Like the prophet said, the end is near.
It’s the end of November, in the year…
Nineteen…sixty-three…
(Two more verses of song, then an AI generated photo of people in dark theater looking at screen is projected.)
From end of Epilogue and end of play: The Myth Makers
Female Leader of Chorus
President John F. Kennedy is dead,
Murdered by Leviathan assassins long ago.
But he is not forgotten.
His body lies in repose,
Beneath flame and stone,
Those ancient symbols of eternity.
Male Leader of Chorus
He was cut down in his youthful prime—
But his spirit is a light in the darkness…
And the images of him that remain
Keep him forever young in our Memory,
In our History,
And in our National Story.
Male Actor One
(The Actors and Leaders stop holding hands and Actor One steps forward as Herald.)
Hear ye! Hear ye! Remember his words again:
Male Leader of Chorus
“United, there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures. Divided, there is little we can do – for we dare not meet a powerful challenge at odds and split asunder.”
Female Leader of Chorus
“Let us not emphasize all on which we differ but all we have in common. Let us consider not what we fear separately but what we share together.”
Male Leader of Chorus
(He opens his arms wide in a invitation and speaks with energy and passion)
“Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer.
“Let us not seek to fix blame for the past.
“Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.”
Female Leader of Chorus
(She too opens her arms)
“Ask not what your country can do for you – Ask what you can do for your country?”
Together, what can we do for our country? And “together, what can we do for the freedom of man?”
Both Leaders of the Chorus and All Actors
(Pleading, with emotion)
Together, what can we do for our country?
And “together, what can we do for the freedom of man?”
(Music begins immediately for the final, shorter rendition of “The Golden Cup,” which is as the theme of the play appears several times. The melody is “Londonderry Air” better known as “Danny Boy.”)
Song: “The Golden Cup”
Female Vocalist
In Arlington beside the wide Potomac,
Your mortal body rests beneath the fire,
But your bright soul still lifts our hearts and inspires us,
From the crystal shores of Elysium.
You dreamed new dreams that made the gray world glow,
You told us we could reach the silver moon,
That Camelot was meant to be our earthly home,
But the golden cup was shattered that black day.
You dreamed new dreams that made the gray world glow,
You told us we could reach the silver moon,
And your bright soul still lifts our hearts and inspires us,
From the crystal shores of Elysium.
(Song ends. Lights slowly fade out. The image of JFK on the large screen is the last to fade.)
End of Play