Hey, PO! Give me your quotes!

[Silver Adept]

The short version: Idea for play - person on stage, reacting to voices around them and the audience. Voices speak of great things, of terrible things, of horrors and of joys. Music to accompany. Need statements, quotes, religious, secular, inspiring, destroying, good and bad.

The long version: I've had an idea for a two-act play crunching around in my head for a while. There's only one person on the spotlight at any time, and the entirety of the play is phrases, quotes, and things being spoken through the sound system around the theater. The person in the spotlight will be reacting to those statements as they are said. The general sequence of my idea was religious or philisophical statements, and the person on stage might progress from boy to man (or girl to woman) as the play progresses.

General layout of quotes:

I.i: Spiritual quotes, of a positive nature - Things like the Kyrie, or the Nicene Creed (in fragments), or the She'ma. Not limited to any one religion, nor to any one language, so one could hear Om Mane Padme Hum just as easily.

I.ii: While the positive quote have gone on for a while, the underlying music behind them has begun to creep into a darker sound, and the audience should realize that the quotes have begun to take on a more combative, violent, and bloodthirsty caliber to them. Smite the Heathens, God Hates Fags, that sort of thing. The first act comes to a close with a scream of terror and pain as the actor on stage cowers from the violence in the quotes. Then the actor sings the only lines of the play that are not heard through the speakers system.

II.i: The music is dark - the long night of the soul begins. Philosophy, atheism, the search for the lost light. The quotes should attempt to drive home the apparent futility of wanting to be someone of virtue. The actor is taking the beating inside his own head, but will eventually come across a quote that begins the ascent back towards light.

II.ii: The music lightens, the quotes once again become happier and fulfilling in nature, although they are mixed in with the darker quotes as an undercurrent, and quotes that appear to recommend transcendence of the whole "good/evil" thing.

The audience should realize from I.ii on that the quotes being spoken could easily be their own voices, and ideally are able to see that they can be part of any of the acts, and that the choice is theirs to decide which acts they will emulate.

Anyway, what I want from you guys are some of those quotes. Although I doubt the idea would ever make it to a stage anywhere, it's stuck around enough in my head to make me want to see how it might turn out, even just as a piece of literature.

[Shinigami Banchou]

These come from the openings of the Bleach mangas, I have the first 9 volumes but only the first seven of mine have the page with the quotes for some reason, I hope some of these help

Vol 1
Because we are amorphous
we hold that in reverence

Vol 2
People are able to hold on to hope,
since death is that which cannot be seen

Vol 3
If I were the rain could I connect with someone's heart,
As the rain can unite the eternally separated earth and sky?

Vol 4
We come together, like drops of water, like astral bodies
We oppose each other, like magnets, like the colors of skin

Vol 5
Unless I grip the sword, I cannot protect you.
While gripping the sword, I cannot embrace you

Vol 6
Yes, we have no destiny.
Only those swallowed up by fear
who take false steps, shall plunge us into
the muddy waters called "destiny"

Vol 7
We must never shed tears.
That is the life form's defeat
and if we give in to the emotions
them it only becomes proof
of our inability to control it.

[Vash_Hiroshi]

If ya want some really good quotes visit any Trigun fansite for Vash the Stampede. I always loved those quotes. Some of them helped me through a lot. I think that'd be a good source.

[Zane]

This quote is kind of dark, it's from The Count of Monte Cristo. "The more one sees others die, the easier it becomes to face death oneself. Thus, death is perhaps an ordeal, but it is not an expiation."