Allusions and Illusions: A Collection of Plays, Short Fiction, Fragmented Memoirs, Poems and Songs

Allusions and Illusions: A Collection of Plays, Short Fiction, Fragmented Memoirs, Poems and Songs is a compilation of plays that allude to other literature, plays, movies, and spiritual, philosophical, and scientific concepts, leaders, and figures. It also contains plays, short fiction, fragmented memoirs, poems and songs which refer to the illusions of life and love. The idea is that life is a dream, a spiritual matrix, a hologram, projection of consciousness, and not what it appears to be. Or, that society and humanity on macro and micro/individual levels are not what we wish them to be, and are at times make life a waking nightmare/daymare. Love and romance are also illusory, intangible, hard to grasp onto, or too good to be true. Art imitates life, which imitates art. Everything that exists, including art, literature, plays, movies, spirituality, philosophy, science, education, and even people themselves, all allude to each other, in some way, and are all an illusion on numerous levels. Many of the works in this book also allude to each other, and the memoirs give insight into the inspiration used to create the plays, short fiction, poems and songs.

As a disclaimer: This book is primarily filled with plays and memoirs. There is one short story and one flash fiction. The poems and songs are mixed in with the memoirs. There is a Bonus Section at the end that contains two short M.O.S. screenplays, which also speak to the illusions of life and love.

Here is a list of what some of the plays and fiction allude to:

_American Afterlife_is a short comedic play, which takes place in a waiting room in Heaven or Bardo. It alludes to the characters Willie Loman from _Death of a Salesman_, Dave Moss and Shelly Levine from _Glengary Glenn Ross_, and Dexter Green from "Winter Dreams." They are all businessmen who have passed away and are waiting to be reborn into the next life.

_All-American Woman_ is a short, comedic play which takes place in a bar. It uses characters from the short stories _The Birthmark_ and _The Bachelors Paradise and Tarterus of Maids_, and the real life first wave feminist, playwright, and essayist Judith Sargent Murray. It is a commentary on what society believes American women should be like, which has not changed that much in the last hundred or so years, since these short stories were written and Judith Sargent Murray was alive.

_Existential Dilemma_ uses characters from the movies _The Truman Show_, _The Matrix_, _Existenz_, _Inception_, and _Vanilla Sky_, as well as the scientist Albert Einstein, and playwright William Shakespeare. It takes these characters and compares and contrasts the concepts in the movies that life is a spiritual matrix, a virtual reality video game, a computer simulation, a shared dream, or just one person's dream, all in our heads, and perhaps revolves just around one person's consciousness.

_Ascended Masters and Goddesses_ takes the religious, spiritual and philosophical figures Diogenes, Jesus, Buddha, Kali, Isis, Lao Tzu, and Star and puts them in a studio apartment in which they all attempt to assist a mid-20s grad student named Salma who is without a job and might get evicted, if her already late school refund check does not show up in time.

The plays _Last Call_, _I AM/I WILL_, and _Coming to Being_, and the flash fiction "Let the Devil Speak," and short story "Comfort in the Arms of B__" all allude to each other and the screenplay _Morningstar_. They all speak of the illusions of life, the idea that one person may be dreaming life, that the concepts of I AM and I Will end up both being the same, and that the Morningstar is both Jesus and Lucifer combined, which the Bible has used the term Morningstar to describe both.

_Row, Row_ monologues and the one act play _Life is But a Dream_ allude to the screenplay _Row,Row_, which uses the idea that life is a dream and spiritual matrix, and can all be in one person's head, or perhaps is a dream for two.