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...