Our trip to Nashville for the Past Watchful Dragons conference was a huge success. Greg's paper, "Sometimes a Film May Say Best What's to be Said," was very well received. Bruce Edwards, one of the keynote speakers,
called it one of the two highlights of the conference.
We were hosted in Nashville by Jack Vaughn and his parents Cliff and Mary. Though Jack is only two years old, everyone in that household knows who wears the pants. Cliff is a filmmaker and journalist whom Greg has gotten to know through film junkets. Cliff and Mary also both teach at Belmont University. Cliff reported on the conference at
Ethics Daily, including comments from both Jenn and Greg in the article.
C.S. Lewis' stepson Douglas Gresham was on hand at the conference to promote the upcoming Narnia film and his own new book,
Jack's Life. We picked up a signed copy for our friend Kathy Bledsoe, to thank her for taking care of Deet while we were gone—and later, Jenn got into a bit of a verbal sparring match with Mr. Gresham.
It seems that he took violent exception to my suggestion, during a Q&A session at a reception dinner the night before, that the new Narnia film's success depends, to a great degree, on the unique flavor that director Andrew Adamson will bring to the project. Gresham begged to differ, and kept begging and differing all the way into the following day.
Jenn pointed out to him that, despite his objections to my premise, his own comments supported it. Gresham acknowledged, as Adamson has pointed out in print, that the Kiwki director wanted to capture in his film the wonder of Narnia that he felt as an 8-year-old when he read
The Chronicles of Narnia for the first time. Alas, Gresham unrepentantly insisted to Jenn that any director would have done, so long as the director faithfully translated Lewis' tale to the screen. The story itself, says Gresham, can't possibly fail. Jenn quite graciously declined to point out that plenty of other adaptations have failed quite spectacularly. Oh, well.
The conference closed with a performance of Howard Shore's
Lord of the Rings symphony. The first two movements were thematically muddled, and the performance was hampered by a late-arriving crowd and on-the-fly tweaks to an amplification system necessary because the Nashville Symphony was performing in Belmont's basketball stadium. Not the best acoustics in the world. The young male soloist was nervous and had trouble hitting his notes squarely, and a prolonged (and uncharted) delay between the movements was necessary to finish seating patrons. After intermission, however, the final four movements, covering
The Two Towers and
The Return of the King, were magnificent and stirring. The female soloist was outstanding.
We wrapped up our trip with a journey to Kingsport to visit with Wes and Traci Patten. What a blessing! Good friends, great ministy. Get on board with what
Hope House is doing if you haven't already.
About Greg & Jenn Wright: Greg and Jenn Wright have been married since 1999, and share passions for God, drama, literature and movies (among other things). In 2003, they were honored as Best Actor and Best Actress in a production of While the Lights Were Out at Redwood Theatre in Redmond, Washington; since then, health issues have kept them off the stage. Freelance writers and editors, they both have degrees in Literature and Theology, and are proud to be members of Harambee Church in Renton. Greg is Writer in Residence at Puget Sound Christian College in Everett, Washington, and is the author of 
