DREAM: Black and gold octopus statue in the square / TPS actors

I dreamed that I was in an old stone, thick-walled Polish building -- as if in the Krakow main plaza, overlooking the square. I was looking out through a quiet window (although there was no window; just open air).

The square was covered by the statue of a giant octopus, with its head over 8 feet tall in the center, and the tentacles raying crookedly out to 8 corners of the square. The gold had been burnished in places, by years of children sitting on the tentacles. The head was also gold, with a black patch or leather cap covering about 1/3 of the head. The cap was made of leather (most likely), or possibly obsidian.

The octopus statue had two eyes, which gazed my direction. As I watched, the octopus blinked its eyes, and winced its head slightly, softening; then it straightened back up.

I was horrified to realize that it was alive. I felt like we were torturing it. It seemed calm and peaceful, though, and did not seem to be in pain. I ran down to the sea, and brought back a container of water, which I poured on its leg. I could not remember if octopi could live out of water or not; I thought not, although in the dream they clearly could, as this octopus had been there for years.

I realized that the octopus was almost entirely made of gold. Over 85% of it was solid gold, like the Tibetan buddha statues. If I could turn the rest of it to gold, it would come back to life, and return to the sea. Almost all of it was healed (gold), except the third of its head which was covered in, and made of, black leather or obsidian. (From my window, it looked like obsidian from my window, but close-up, it looked like supple well-used black leather.)

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INTERPRETATION

The octopus is me.

I have almost completely healed. But something -- a third of my head? -- still needs to be healed. I am not in pain, but am not alive either; and am not in my element. I am respected, loved, a fixture, a thing of formal power and beauty; a central part of the town square. I am almost entirely immobile. I am big.

I think the missing third is theatre; or body; or love; or the three, melted into one. The other two thirds, software/games and Core Protocols, are rich and fully developed. The other two thirds also refers to Ben and Chris, my DigiPen partners, who seem more fully realized to me.

I decided to hire actors from the Theatre Puget Sound regional auditions, to develop my next piece with and on, at least to the staged reading level.

You can never enter the river the same way, twice.

This is different, all right.