Portrait of the Critic as a Young Seeker

For most of my life, I have been obsessed with two things: theatre and the possibility of divine encounter. I participated in theatre from a very young age, mostly as a performer, and began an extensive exploration into various world religions from the time I was in high school. It began with encountering myths from diverse cultures and flowed outwards from there, as I eagerly acquainted myself with the many ways humans engage with the sacred. All the while I also had the good fortune to grow up in Texas in the nineties, when major arts funding and important artists were readily available. The Alley Theatre cultivated a relationship with Robert Wilson, and I learned from watching his Hamlet: A Monologue about what Robert Edmond Jones called the “livingness of light.” The second opera I ever saw was Wilson’s revival of Four Saints in Three Acts at the Houston Grand...