Last days

The last weekend of the show went well… as well as could be expected. One of the leads, the one who struggled with his lines the whole way, stumbled through each scene, slowing down the play. Thank goodness for Shanna and Christina, who play his daughter and wife, who kept the action alive.

I got stronger in the opening song, once I allowed myself to look at the audience. After I stopped acting in high school. I developed a debilitating case of stage fright. Exclusive only to acting, the anxiety did not disrupt my singing performances, because when singing, I let the audience melt away. I give all my attention to some architectural fixture, as if I were trying to drill a hole in the wall. Only when I was absolutely solid on a song would I dare look at faces, god forbid I interpret their expression instead of listening to my accompaniment.

But this weekend, I thought about my performance as a “street singer” and I fought to break down the “fourth wall” between the audience and myself. I looked at people, sang to them, and my performance improved exponentially.

Friday night was hilarious, not in a “ha ha funny” way, but in a “ha ha bad” way. One actress, an extra, thought it was a great idea to bring her Sudoku ON STAGE with her as “business to do” while the leads had the focus for a song. She became so involved with her stupid puzzle that she forgot her line, which was the LIGHTS UP cue. Great. So someone else stepped in to say it. That night, a bunch of us memorized all of her lines to fill in for her if some “unfortunate accident” befell her, preventing her appearance in the show. If only…

As an ensemble, we 13 were close and we had a lot of fun for warm-ups. After leading them in a vocal warm-up, we would choose a song from the show and sing it together. With Brecht’s words, all of the songs are hilarious, and we constantly sang the Jealousy Duet and What Keeps a Man Alive.

We also exchange epithets among ourselves from the show:

GUTTER LILY
STRUMPET
TART
BIG GIRAFFE
STUPID CALF
THICKEST ANKLES IN THE CITY

The lines that got the most laughs were:

When the whores visit: “Mrs. Peachum, there’s a bunch of sleepy lookin’ hens come to see you.” “Ah, the laying hens.”
“How would you feel if somebody fished the best trout out of your pond?” “It’s like this, Mr. Peachum, I haven’t got a pond.”

“A fine opinion of your daughter you have.’
“The worst, the very worst. A lump of sensuality, that’s what she is.”
“If so, she didn’t get it from you.”

MAC That’s pretty underwear you’re ironing.
WHORE From the cradle to the grave, it’s all about underwear.
OLD WHORE I never wear silk. Men think it means you’ve got a condition.
DOLLY But cheap underwear can worry them too.
OLD WHORE I get good results with cheap underwear.
VIXEN It reminds the gents of home.

Of course it helped that the “Vixen” was played by a man.

In other news, the Shakespeare Festival is going to be GREAT! We have 6 groups coming from public and private schools. The plays/scenes they are doing are:

A small class, “Shakespeare in Film,” six students, will bring a scene from Much Ado About Nothing, as will a group of Montessori middle schoolers. Their scene is great-- a combination of the eavesdropping scenes to trick Beatrice and Benedick.

The student council of Dober Elementary (4-6th grades) will bring the final scene of Hamlet. They are very excited about the sword play and dying.

The Honor Club of Muller elementary school will show us Macbeth- 4.1—the “Double double toil and trouble” scene, with Cameos of Macduff and Lady Macbeth.

A huge group of 50 students will work on five minute versions of Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and Twelfth Night.

Bethany and I have a class at Antilles who will bring a combined scene with “Dysfunctional Lovers of Shakespeare Comedy” featuring Petruchio and Kate (Taming of the Shrew), Viola, Orsino, Olivia, Sebastian and Malvolio (Twelfth Night), Biron, Rosaline, Longaville, Maria, Dumain, and Katharine (Love’s Labour Lost).

Then at Pistarckle, Bethany has five kids who will bring the love scenes of Midsummer Night’s Dream between Demetrius, Helena, Lysander, and Hermia.

I have also agreed to write a script for Pistarckle based on Alexanrdre Dumas’ Nutcracker Prince.

More on that...

Last Week!

Last night, a bunch of us (Ellie, Arley & Marlas, the Carolina Boys-Mike D, Lee, and Charles, and Sean, Kristin, and Me, and then Dan & Kristen) went over to Shanna and Kyle's for a big Italian fiesta. They have a new place that looks out over Magen's bay and Tortola. Kristin, Shanna's friend who just arrived on island, wants to throw me a going away party before I leave.

It's sad to think of leaving all these great people behind, but I know I'll be back soon (April 30-May 8) for the Shakespeare Festival.

Speaking of, I went to a great little elementary school on the waterfront last week and did a Shakespeare workshop with 30 honor students, 4th-6th grade. They were so great! One girl, a sixth grader, approached me confidently and said, "Hi, I'm Jenay, I'm the president. Welcome to our school." Then she shook my hand and turned to the class and shouted, "Alright, let's begin! This is Betsy, or Ms. Summers, from Pistarckle Theater.... What's her name?" And they all responded "Betsy!" It was adorable.

The way I structure most workshops is begin by asking how many students have seen theater. Most of these kids had seen things in New York or at Disney World: huge productions like "The Lion King," or "Aida." Then I ask what they know about Shakespeare's plays. They all know Romeo and Juliet. Then they totally surprised me with the information they knew about William Shakespeare. They knew where he lived, and who he worked for, which is great for 4th-6th graders.

Then I ask them how they feel about Shakespeare's language. They all say that it's scary and incomprehensible. And then I ask, "well, you know that famous balcony scene with Romeo and Juliet? What's the line, Romeo, Romeo..."

And most of them knew the "wherefore art thou Romeo." And we talk about what she means, and then I gave them the whole line:
"Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse they name,
Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I'll no longer be a Capulet."

Then I get them on their feet and act out the witches' scene from Macbeth: "Double double, toil and trouble..." with students being "witch-like" repeating that line while walking in a circle. When the others make eerie sound effects of a scary forest, the scene is really cool.

The festival is quickly picking up momentum, woohoo!

Second Weekend...

So this is our second round of performances. Yeehaw. The picture is Shanna and me in stage makeup, being funny.

Yesterday, I went motoring on JB's boat again, with Ellie, her mom Diane, Shanna, her friend Kristen from Tucson, and more friends, Rose and Scott. Full boat, we did the usual excursion: Norman Island for snorkeling (we saw a HUGE Barracuda, about 5 feet long under our boat), Smuggler's Cove for drinks and a beautiful beach, then to Jost Van Dyke for food at Soggy Dollar's. Soggy Dollar's always lives up to its name, because you have to wade ashore to get to the beach. There is no dock. Of course, with catamarans and double hulls, like JB's boat, getting up close is no problem.

So after lunch, and few Vanilla Painkillers later, we shoved off and returned to St Thomas. It was a lovely afternoon.

That night, I went back to the theater to see a reading of the "after-school" production that Bethany has been devising with a group of 6 teenage girls. The show is called "Superhero Girls Like Me" and these girls and Bethany have been writing a script based on their hopes, fears, anxieties, empowerment, etc, for 3 months. Each girl created her own superhero character, complete with specific powers, and costume. But with great power comes great weakness as well, and each of them have a crippling kryptonitic obstacle to overcome. For one, it is an abusive parent, for another, it's anorexia. You get the point. Anyway, it was incredible, and all the parents were there to hear their daughter's words.

I sat behind two mothers who, throughout the show, were giving each other the "I can't believe I'm hearing this from her mouth" looks. I just wanted to tap them on the shoulder and say, "I’m sorry, but your parental anxieties are distracting me. I'm trying to watch the show." At the question and answer part of the evening, the adults got caught up in the fact that there was no adult role model, and that the message was "rely on each other" rather than "rely on adults." To quell this whole fervor of parental grappling, Bethany said, "The reason why you will not find that theme in here is because we are trying to avoid 'parent speak.' We all know the 'right answers.' These girls wrote what they feel and live everyday, and we lose the whole point of this exercise if parents try to exercise control over their daughters' words. We also don't mind that you might come away from this feeling anxious and disturbed."

GO BETHANY!

So now I’m blonde and tan, so I have successfully enjoyed my Caribbean jaunt.