Ponderings

I've always been fascinated by Drama. In high school, I was just too busy to participate in any of the plays we produced. In college, I was even busier, working a part-time job off campus and as a work-study student on campus. I was active in Student Government, worked on the Annual Staff, and was on the Dean's List and in the Honor Society. All of that took a huge amount of time. I promised myself that I would try out for a play before I graduated, but continued to put it off - just too many other things competing for my time.

My last quarter in college, I was reminded of my promise by a friend. I quickly checked into the production that our school was performing that quarter - Henry IV, a Shakespearean historical play with only 3 female characters, one whose part consists of a single spoken line in Welsh and a Welsh song. Ugh! To complicate matters a little more, a professional Shakespearean actor was taking a leave from his Troup to teach an drama course at my school and star in that quarter's production. We had another "Visiting Professor" from Glasgow, Scotland who was a Scholar in Jacobian Drama and would also be teaching and starring in the play.

Try-outs extended over two nights. I went to the first night and told our drama teacher (whose class I had taken) and the primary director that I was just going to observe. All interested parties were given a copy of the script and different scenes were chosen. Each student tried out reading with the professional actor. There was about a page's worth of script in the middle of a scene that was being used for the women. After observing for an hour and a half, I decided I could do better than most of the women who were vying for the roles. I timidly (TRUE!) asked if I could take a stab at it.

Before I even realized what was happening, I was chasing the Shakespearean actor (whose name was Barry Kraft) around the room, wagging my finger at him. Instead of just reading, we instinctively began acting. Working with a professional was unbelievable. It was so easy. He played off my every emotion and bent to compliment whatever tone I took. I had never experienced anything so exhilarating. When we reached the end of the scene, we both stopped, looked at our script, and realized that we had acted out pages, not stopping or being stopped at the end of the excerpt being used for try-outs. We had acted out the whole scene.

I was quite embarrassed. The director hadn't stopped us and I was so caught up in the role and playing off this REAL actor that we just kept going.

Anyway, I got one of the two women's roles (I'm not counting the Welsh singer's part) and the director decided to take advantage of the expertise available that quarter and form a triumverate. He, the professional, and the Jacobean drama expert jointly were going to direct the play.

The three directors encouraged all the students chosen for different roles to research their characters and base their portrayal on their own interpretation after study. Henry V completes the story began in Henry IV and most of the characters carry over to the next play. I began study everything I could get my hands on relating to Lady Percy, including some articles written by T.F. (Fred) Wharton, the expert in Jacobean Drama who played King Henry.

I would show up for rehearsal, pondering the newest light I had uncovered on Lady Percy. Each day, her personality would change depending on the new slant I had learned. One day, she was petulant. Another, innocent and sweet. Yet another, calculating and shrewd. Still another, simple and kind, yet mature and wise beyond her years. By about the third week of rehearsals, Lady Percy had been through many different renditions.

By the fourth week of rehearsals, the Triumverate asked for a meeting with me.

"Patti, we love that you've taken our advice about developing your character so 'to heart'," they started, "but we're beginning to struggle. We never know from day to day who Lady Percy will be. It's impossible for us to rehearse when the role is changing daily."

Point well-made. In other words, pick an idea, make a decision who I believed Lady Percy to be, and stick to it. Play the part consistently.

I did, and had a wonderful time doing it. The play was one of the highlights of my college years.

This morning at breakfast, Dane began telling Deanna about a play that he must be studying in school. I listened for a moment, then exclaimed,

"That's Hamlet!"

"YEAH!" Dane yelled. Apparently, he couldn't remember the name, just the Plot.

We talked in great length about Hamlet's predicament. Then we began to discuss the in's and out's of the play, those concepts that are played differently by each actor who takes on this part. Was Hamlet trying to protect Ophelia by exclaiming, "Get thee to a Nunnery!" or was he protecting himself from the distraction Ophelia presented to him. And what about his relationship with this mother? Was it incestuous, as some actors have implied, or was he simply making a point that she was committing incest by marrying her dead husband's brother. And was Hamlet really going insane or was he simply pretending to "catch a thief", as it were?

As I posed and pondered these questions aloud between flipping pancakes in the pan, I glanced over at the table. The children were staring at me, wide-eyed and with mouths gaping.

Maybe that was a little too deep for ages 12 and under on a Tuesday morning before school.

That's me - Deep Mommy!