"Napoleon's Teeth, thoughts on writing a play, and on creative
non-fiction as a means of thinking through history."
David is in the early stages of writing a play about who knows what; a
play is not an essay or a report and this therefore not ?about? anything
in the sense that a scholarly piece is about something. The play is
currently called ?Napoleon?s Teeth,? and some of it is on paper. The
drawback to discussing a play in progress is it can lose steam as a
consequence, so the presentation will be briefly about the play--with a
taste--and then move to a more general question of how members think
about creative non-fiction. Among David?s other projects is a book,
four chapters of which have been published, which attempts to write what
he thinks of as ?resonant? history, essays that don?t begin with a
thesis statement and work by Rousseau-like technique (the reference is
to Meditations of a Solitary Walker).
David Ritchie has written nine plays, all of which have been
performed. One, To End All War, was in Portland's Fertile Ground
festival and then entered the Yale ?emerging playwrights? competition.
It did not win. He has long been interested in new ways of bringing
history to the public. He mounted an exhibition on the Holocaust in
Beaverton library, was invited to a roundtable at CalTech on
alternatives to narrative history, has tried to paint history. His work
in progress is titled, Miles of Smiles: Five Views of Modern History.
