Allen Barton’s play “Disconnection” opening in L.A.

[CommunicatorIC]

Broadway World: Skylight Theatre Launches 2015 Season with DISCONNECTION Tonight
http://www.broadwayworld.com/los-an...2015-Season-with-DISCONNECTION-Today-20150123

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Launching their 2015 Season, shortly after garnering the most Ovation Awards of any intimate theater in 2014, Skylight Theatre Company opens with Allen Barton's newest work, DISCONNECTION (2013-Years To The Day was his critically acclaimed world premiere with extended run in LA/NY/Edinburgh).

Based on true events and current headlines, DISCONNECTION is a powerful indictment of contemporary religious intrusions into personal relationships. A successful lawyer, his classical piano mentor, and his estranged daughter all confront the dark side of dedication to a Church whose aged founder faces the end of his life in isolation and regret.

"Disconnection was inspired directly by my experience with Scientology, and its notorious policy of the same name, whereby members must renounce their affiliation with anyone deemed to have gone against tenets of the Church. After watching this odious policy affect the life of one of my mentors, and again experiencing its interference in my own relationship with my cherished piano teacher, I was compelled to write this story. Scientology is just one of many controlled-thought systems that have taken hold throughout history, but the play is designed to be a metaphor for all those systems. It is not just an indictment of Scientology's disconnection policy, but of all of its ancestors, and hopefully, its progeny as well" -- Allen Barton (Playwright)

ALLEN BARTON (Playwright) is a Los Angeles-based writer-director, and classical pianist. Last season's Years To The Day attained international critical acclaim after an extended run at the Beverly Hills Playhouse. Allen has written & directed five short films and his first feature screenplay; REAL MUSIC was a top-three finalist in the CAPE New Writers Award Competition. He is author of several one-act plays and has earned numerous stage, TV, and film credits as an actor. As a pianist, Allen performed Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" at the 25th Annual S.T.A.G.E. fundraiser (Wilshire Theatre), was a prizewinner in the 2002 Los Angeles Liszt Society Competition, and has recorded five CD's (available on iTunes). In 2010 he was made a Steinway Artist. A graduate of Harvard University, his selected directing credits include Speed-The-Plow, Oleanna, The Heidi Chronicles, Engagement (writer), The Interview, The Real Thing, Rabbit Hole, and The Last Five Years.

DISCONNECTION opens at 8pm tonight, January 24th at the Beverly Hills Playhouse 254 South Robertson Blvd. Beverly Hills, CA. 90211 Performances are at 8:30pm Fridays 8pm Saturdays and 7pm Sundays thru March 1st. Tickets are $30-$34. For reservations call 213-761-7061 or online at http://skylighttix.com.


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[Little David]

I wished I lived close enough to honor LRH's death anniversary by attending this play tonight.

 

[Type4_PTS]

Larry Anderson (star of the Scientology "Orientation" recruit film) posted a great review of this play in another thread:
http://www.forum.exscn.net/showthread.php?38198-Review-of-Allen-Barton-s-quot-Disconnection

 

[AnonyMary]

Larry Anderson's message from a separate thread:

Hi everyone...

Larry Anderson here -- of "Orientation" fame (or perhaps more aptly, "infamy"). It is a rare thing for me to post on Scientology blogs or forums, but I felt compelled to reach out to the "Ex" community and share an urgent message about a remarkable experience I had last night. [..]

Please see the rest his post for info on upcoming showings of it, Larry's review of a "preview performance" last night, and most important, his request for support of Allen's show by ex-scientologist community.

Look for the cool photo at the end of his post

Review of Allen Barton's "Disconnection:
http://www.forum.exscn.net/showthread.php?38198-Review-of-Allen-Barton-s-quot-Disconnection

 

[Type4_PTS]

Larry Anderson's message from a separate thread:

<snip>

In his post Larry included the link to a post from Mike Rinder which is very good and includes a post written by Allen Barton himself:

Disconnection — The Play

December 19, 2014 By Mike Rinder

2015 is kicking off in grand style.

Allen Barton’s new play opens on 24 January, the evening before the premiere of Alex Gibney’s documentary at Sundance.

Anyone who does not know Allen, he is a highly acclaimed playwright (I include at the end of this posting some of the many kudos for his last play).

You may recognize his name from this story on Tony Ortega’s blog about Mario Fenninger.

Allen has translated his experience into a new play which promises to be a tour de force.

This is what Allen has to say about it:

<snip>

Read Full Post: http://www.mikerindersblog.org/disconnection-the-play/

 

[CommunicatorIC]

Disconnection The Play about Scientology

Disconnection The Play about Scientology

[video=youtube;X2qqdKFDsCQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2qqdKFDsCQ[/video]

Published on Jan 25, 2015

Tonight I had the pleasure of seeing "Disconnection", a play about the serious abuse that happens within the "church" of $cientology where people are forced to Disconnect from loved ones. The play takes place and the Beverly Hills Playhouse at 254 S Robertson Blvd Beverly Hills, CA 80211 I hope you all here in LA go! Congratulations to ALL who were a part of this play! My best, Tory/Magoo

 

[CommunicatorIC]

BWW Reviews: DISCONNECTION - A Potent Message from an Ex-Scientologist

BWW Reviews: DISCONNECTION - A Potent Message from an Ex-Scientologist

http://www.broadwayworld.com/los-an...nt-Message-from-an-Ex-Scientologist-20150126#

 

[CommunicatorIC]

Stage Raw: Some Of My Best Friends Were Scientologists - Allen Barton, on his new play, Disconnection

http://stageraw.com/2015/01/25/some-of-my-best-friends-were-scientologists/

 

[CommunicatorIC]

LA Splash Magazine: "DISCONNECTION" at Beverly Hills Playhouse Review – Riveting, mesmerizing production

http://www.lasplash.com/publish/Los...w-riveting-mesmerizing-production_printer.php

 

[CommunicatorIC]

Arts Beat LA: Allen Barton on “Disconnection” – interview for Stage Raw – Los Angeles theater review

http://www.artsbeatla.com/2015/01/allen-barton/

 

[CommunicatorIC]

The Allen Barton play DISCONNECTION is being covered in Germany

The Allen Barton play DISCONNECTION is being covered in Germany.

http://www.shortnews.de/id/1140188/...eine-wirksame-nachricht-von-einem-ex-mitglied

 

[CommunicatorIC]

Novelist and Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Roger L. Simon - PLAY REVIEW: Barton Disconnects
​

http://pjmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2015/01/25/play-review-barton-disconnects/

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Indeed Disconnection often puts you in mind of other totalitarianisms, including today’s radical Islamic versions where apostasy is, of course, penalized in even more draconian manners than in Scientology, although there are imputations, both in and out of Barton’s play, of brutal, even homicidal, behavior for the more modern religion.

The play is unconventional in its form, at times breaking the fourth wall, and includes, in one of its best moments, a soliloquy by Oldman (well played by Robert L. Hughes) justifying why he has created this bizarre monstrosity. It almost had me taking the plunge to get an e-meter reading. (I didn’t.)

The production was skillfully directed by Joel Polis and produced by Gary Grossman for Skylight. Barton’s previous work Years to the Day was highly acclaimed and was performed in Paris, New York, Kansas City and at the Edinburgh Festival. The superb Disconnection seems destined to follow in its footsteps. If you’re in the SoCal area, see it.

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[Caroline]

Based on true events and current headlines, DISCONNECTION is a powerful indictment of contemporary religious intrusions into personal relationships. A successful lawyer, his classical piano mentor, and his estranged daughter all confront the dark side of dedication to a Church whose aged founder faces the end of his life in isolation and regret.

http://allenbarton.com/disconnection/

"Regret" is a Scientological reference to where Rathbun at least placed Hubbard on Hubbard's pseudo-scientific "Tone Scale."

So where was he on the Tone Scale? Dominant tone was -8.0, Hiding. With resonant, secondary tones ranging from 0.1 (Victim) to -1.3 (Regret). He was a train wreck in every sense in his last days.

https://markrathbun.wordpress.com/2013/09/06/emotions-iv-the-top-of-the-tone-scale/

It has been reported that Hubbard experienced psychotic delusions at the end of his life, and was in self-imposed isolation for fear of public appearances in legal proceedings. But afaik, Hubbard did not face the end of his life in "regret," at least not regret for the lies he told and lives he hurt to win, and for his abusive alter-ego, the "Church of Scientology." (Ref. Breckenridge Decision.)

He might have regretted not being more merciless when his command intention was crossed. I think that's a theme throughout his writings.

You can be merciless when your will is crossed and you have the right to be merciless.

From The Admissions of L. Ron Hubbard

I don't think Hubbard ever expressed regret for his mercilessness. I think it is important to make this distinction, as regret for one's actions can be a feature in a moral awakening. Evidence of real regret is absent from every account I've heard of Hubbard's last years or days.

 

[CommunicatorIC]

LAist: Once A Gateway For Scientologists, Beverly Hills Playhouse Critiques Church In New Play

http://laist.com/2015/01/29/disconnections_scientology_play.php

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Barton's criticism of Scientology in Disconnection has nothing to do with its theology (no snarky references here to thetans or Xenu) or its celebrity promoters (no snarky allusions to Tom Cruise or John Travolta, either). His primary accusations concern the Church's mistreatment of its own adherents and its policy of enforced separation of members from any friends or family who try to challenge its authority or credibility. (The Church of Scientology itself, for the record, denies that "disconnection" necessarily demands this extreme alienation.) Scenes at the beginning and end of the play also suggest that the culture of Scientology may be more enticing to a susceptible person in a vulnerable position than most people recognize: "Don't be too comfortable in your judgment," one character directly advises the audience. "More of you would sign on than you think—trust me."

Premiering just as Alex Gibney's new documentary film based on Going Clear receives accolades at the Sundance Film Festival, Disconnection rides in on a wave of critical examinations of the Church and its activities. Thanks in large part to a very strong cast, Disconnection merits a look as well. It's certainly not what anyone would have ever expected to see at the Beverly Hills Playhouse back in Katselas's heyday.

Disconnection plays Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings through March 1 (no performances on Super Bowl and Oscar Sundays). Full-price tickets $33 and $38 ($22 and $26 for seniors, $10 and $15 for college students, free for high school students). Discount tickets to some performances $13.50-$21.75 on Goldstar, $19 and $21 on lastagetix

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[tetloj]

Great reviews - thanks for collecting them CIC

 

[CommunicatorIC]

https://twitter.com/katebornstein/status/561295954360688641

 

[Wants2Talk]

bump

 

[Gib]

"Regret" is a Scientological reference to where Rathbun at least placed Hubbard on Hubbard's pseudo-scientific "Tone Scale."



It has been reported that Hubbard experienced psychotic delusions at the end of his life, and was in self-imposed isolation for fear of public appearances in legal proceedings. But afaik, Hubbard did not face the end of his life in "regret," at least not regret for the lies he told and lives he hurt to win, and for his abusive alter-ego, the "Church of Scientology." (Ref. Breckenridge Decision.)

He might have regretted not being more merciless when his command intention was crossed. I think that's a theme throughout his writings.


I don't think Hubbard ever expressed regret for his mercilessness. I think it is important to make this distinction, as regret for one's actions can be a feature in a moral awakening. Evidence of real regret is absent from every account I've heard of Hubbard's last years or days.

The only place I recall Hubbard having regret was in KSW, having to eat crow, for excepting solutions from others, and KSW puts hisself on a pedestal, source.

I can see why people involved in the 1960's were shocked and dumbfounded by Hubbard's KSW. And I can see why folks then were declared SP's, they were whistleblowers.

KSW is pure rhetoric, in the wrong way.

I am not advocating scientology, just stating my opinion here.

 

[Caroline]

The only place I recall Hubbard having regret was in KSW, having to eat crow, for excepting solutions from others, and KSW puts hisself on a pedestal, source.

I can see why people involved in the 1960's were shocked and dumbfounded by Hubbard's KSW. And I can see why folks then were declared SP's, they were whistleblowers.

KSW is pure rhetoric, in the wrong way.

I am not advocating scientology, just stating my opinion here.

Hubbard of course targeted specific conditions that might undo his programming, and stimulate people to wake up and blow. Regret would be a key component in that kind of moral turnaround.

Hubbard required Scientologists to thoroughly denounce and reject regret and associated emotional responses by, among other things, placing them well below the analytical zone and into the "reactive bank" zone on his "tone scale."

Scientologists are supposed to promise to "Never regret yesterday. Life is in you today and you make your tomorrow." (Ref. PAB 40 26 Nov 1954 "The Code of Honor")

"Shame, blame and regret" is a well-known and early-learned meme in Scientology. It expresses a range of emotions expected in Scientologists who "see the light" or wake up to the consequences of their Hubbard/Scientology/Miscavige-justified abusive behaviors, and to the evilness of the purposes and command intention they served as Scientologists.

Here are some examples of Hubbard and the Scientologists' recitation of the "shame, blame and regret" meme. I think these show its place in indoctrination and how Scientologists would be expected to relate to and process these human responses.

If you know those things you can be like Izaak Walton’s Compleat Angler; you can be the “compleat auditor.”

Now, every once in a while you see somebody around dabbling at a case, monkeying with it and so forth, but nothing is happening. There is only one reason nothing is happening: they just aren’t using an up-to-date procedure; that is all.

An auditor had to be awfully clever a year ago to get the computation on a case.

You run shame, blame and regret on a case—just those. The preclear has a visio: make him run shame on it, make him run regret on it. He has this visio and you just say, “Well, can you feel regret on it? Feel it a few times. All right, feel it again; feel it again; feel it again.”

“Well, this reminds me of the time I drowned all of my grandmother’s kittens, and my little brother got sick with the measles and I was on the other side and they kicked me down. And, my God, I’d forgotten all about that, and that’s horrible, and that—that’s why I’m in the shape I’m in today! My, you’re a clever auditor!”

It is interesting that you can do that.

Hubbard, L. R. (1951). The Chart Of Attitudes. Second Annual Conference of Hubbard Dianetic Auditors. Wichita, Kansas.

Some people playing against another assume too rapidly they have won; they achieve the idea that they have done an overwhelming. Indeed it is an old tactic to make the enemy think he has won and then knock him flat: not Queensbury but effective. When this last has occurred a "winner" becomes suspicious of having overwhelmed and is liable to become too anxious. Indeed he can become so unsettled about overwhelming others that at length he has to prove it to himself with stiff corpses and nothing short will serve. And a "winner" can become more anxious than this, as most people have now become; he can suppose that no evidence of having overwhelmed others is valid and so he shuns the idea of having overwhelmed. To start to win anything sets up an anxiety which brings about a counter-postulate in him. Restimulating locks and engrams of anxiety, he becomes uncertain and indefinite. Shame, blame, regret occur at the very thought of a win. Why? He cannot get the idea of overwhelming another with any positiveness. Thus he may go through life winning on every hand and feel a completely defeated failure; no evidence is valid to him that he has overwhelmed anything; he has to get big, try harder; but the cancer stays with him and he finally concludes all is defeat.

The usual freedom-monger, the agitator, in his unreasoning and damaging insistence on no rules or barriers anywhere, is able to achieve only a no-game condition. He got that way because he cannot feel a win is possible. At the same time he may be complicated by a certainty that he himself is being defeated at every hand, no matter the evidence. Thus he has to assume more and more vicious and convincing roles until at last there's shooting in the streets. Thus the regicides of France could not be free even when they had murdered their king and had killed all their nobility; they were so unconvinced that they had won that they promptly lost by setting up Napoleon as an emperor. Dead, the king and nobility had still won in the minds of the French radicals BECAUSE the radicals could not get the idea of having overwhelmed.

Hubbard, L. (1980) PAB 80, Scientology’s Most Workable Process. Technical Bulletins. Los Angeles, Bridge Publications, Inc.

In this reference, Hubbard provides some of the philosophy that allowed him to eliminate any guilt, even for what he actually did to victimize people, by blaming his victims for being there. Scientologists, of course, postulate this condition for themselves. It can sound so attractive to have no shame, blame and regret in one's life, but just insouciance. It can sound so OT to accuse their victims of being victims.

You mock something up over here and you say, "Joe mocked it up." You did it, and then you say Joe did it and it would then continue. Why does it continue? Because to unmock it, it is necessary to conceive of its creation -- and part of its creation is who created it.

Part of every creation is who created it. And you have to get that idea of who created it at the time that you look at it, and it will simply go fffst! It's quite interesting.

That's why shame, blame and regret are so interesting. Somebody is so ashamed of what he did. And you check up with him and you find out that he, usually, is upset about things somebody else did. Now, you have a whole philosophy in existence in this modern age which is quite interesting: that is, if you take all the blame on yourself, if you did it all yourself, if you alone were totally responsible for everything that is wrong everyplace, and if you just own up and admit this, you'll feel a great relief.

Well, the funny part of it is, is you might have done a lot of it, but somebody else did too. Always remember that when you're going over your shames, blames and regrets. Otherwise, the bank will collapse on you. It'll get totally solid.

Why? Well, you aren't guilty of everything that ever happened in this universe. You personally are not guilty. You're guilty for some of it -- guilty of some of it but not all of it. And this philosophy, then, whereby you take the blame for everything, is simply an effort to do what? It's simply an effort to have more solids, to make the things which you have unmockable -- in other words, un-unmockable, I should say -- fix them up so that nobody can trace where they came from, so there's no getting rid of them. They're there.

And the idea of trying to put an object there by masking who created it, where it came from and so forth, is quite prevalent. But it only gets us into trouble when we run into shame, blame, regret, and we say, "Well, I'm responsible for it. I'm guilty" -- by which we mean, "I'm guilty. I'm to blame. That's the way life is. Oh, look at all the horrible things I did." When, as a matter of fact, nearly every crime of the body required somebody else. See that? There's usually two present. Maybe there was just you and your body. There's still two present.

Hubbard, L. R. (1957, 5 July). Basic Theory of CCHs. Freedom Congress Lectures. Washington, D.C.

Hubbard's even linked "forgiveness" with an attempt to fix the "shame-blame-regret" condition:

DISCOVERIES AND ADVANCEMENTS IN TECH IN 1978

[…]

9. POWER TO FORGIVE. Making it possible for the pc to fully end cycle on any shame, blame, regret or guilt of the past.

Hubbard, L. (1978, 17 December) LRH ED 301 INT “Ron’s Journal 30, 1978 – The Year of Lightning Fast New Tech.”

Undoubtedly, Hubbard knew regret had to be stomped on hard if he was to keep his Scientology Working. He confirms shame, blame and regret as HE & R, and says they contribute to terrible things: ridges, mass and high T & A.

The truth is A THETAN CAN DO ANYTHING FOREVER.

To Audit “overruns” is auditing toward an untruth. Thus if carried on as a process it is really an out of ARC Process.

That which makes a thetan believe something can be overrun is the EFFORT TO STOP or THE EFFORT TO STOP HIM.

The effort to stop something, when generalized, becomes a “stop everything” and IS the entrance point of insanity. This has been known since 1967. But I did not earlier connect it with the OVERRUN phenomenon.

When a thetan has a long chain of efforts to stop or a chain of efforts to stop him (mixed up with protest, of course, and shame, blame and regret and other human emotion and reaction) he accumulates ridges. These make mass.

This mass makes the high TA.

In truth it is not possible to kill a thetan, so therefore any effort to stop a thetan would only have partial success. So the chain is also full of INCOMPLETES.

An incomplete cycle of action causes ARC Breaks.

Thus an OVERRUN is full of MASS and ARC Breaks!

As you possibly recall from the material of about 1955 the one process you must not run on a pc is “Look out of here and find something you can go out of ARC with.” This sends him into a dwindling spiral.

Hubbard, L. R. (1971). HCOB 3 June 1971 C/S Series 37R High and Low TA Breakthrough. Technical Bulletins. Los Angeles, Bridge Publications, Inc.

 

[CommunicatorIC]

Mike Rinder posts a review compilation (so far) for the play DISCONNECTION

Mike Rinder posts a review compilation (so far) for the play DISCONNECTION.

Mike Rinder: DISCONNECTION

http://www.mikerindersblog.org/disconnection/