Lord Byron's Don Juan update.

So after first weekend of the fundraiser, and I am full of emotion. Excited at allowing the public to see things that I have been working on for a while. Some good feedback and reaction from people that knew nothing about the project. It's always exciting to share your creative work with people.

This interpretation of Lord Byron's Don Juan is going to be unconventional and not what people expect. So it is fun to allow people to witness how it is coming together and being assembled.

People have such a preconceived notion of Don Juan. I initially tell people about the project and many people are like, "Don Juan, why do you want to do that? He was a seducer, what else is there to know." My response is always a small history lesson on the origin of the legend of Don Juan and why Byron wrote what he wrote. People then change their tune a bit, but it is enlightening how people have preconceived notions based on just pop culture references.

So here is my lesson. Don Juan was first written in 1630 by a playwright who penned what essentially was a morality play on sin. It took several other forms in writing over the years, Don Giovanni, and Camus and Kierkegaard had a crack at him as well. A version written in 1844, called Don Juan Tenorio, written by Jose Zorilla, is performed every November 2, every year, by all the theaters in Spain. This is a story that has impact and multiple interpretations. 

Lord Byron turned the legend on its ear and had the women seducing Don Juan. He explores the theme of romantic collision and the aftermath of its consequences. Life changing events that happen as a result of love and people that react violently to love. His romantic, 17 canto poem, was such a hot seller that it turned him into a rock star.

So our campaign to bring Lord Byron's Don Juan to the visual world has 6 supporters after it's first weekend of funding. I am determined to turn 6 into 60 and eventually into 600. One at a time and slowly with deliberate cause and intention. But it is exciting to begin sharing this dream with the people that I care about and with folks who have the "Didn't Johnny Depp do that?" look when you bring it up.

I am touched and moved when people donate and tell you how much they believe in your creative work. I am excited by people who tell me that they want to see this project come to fruition. Nobody said it was going to be easy. The fact that it is hard is even more exciting. Thank you 6 donors. Believers of the impossible.