Love, Fair Looks and True Obedience

Shakespeare tells us that these are the things a woman owes to her husband.  Shakespeare lived a long time ago and I think he really believed this.  His wife, Anne Hathaway, was eight years older than he was and she probably had trouble following this edict, as most women would today.  That might be why Shakespeare ran away from Stratford and Anne and headed for London to be an actor -- a dicey choice in any time.  Anyway, Shakespeare was a man of his time and even though I disagree with what Katarina says in "The Taming of the Shrew", it is still a beautifully written speech.

I had trouble obeying my director this week.  He suggested that I was "making a meal" of a speech in "Dearly Departed".  He said it wouldn't be funny if I made it as dramatic as I was doing.  I felt grumpy about his direction and at first I thought, "there's no other way to do that speech!  I CAN'T DO IT THE WAY HE SAYS!"  I try to get clues from the way the speech is written and it seemed to me that the words the author chose and the way he repeated some phrases meant that it should be really dramatic.  I made notes in the script about what the director had said, but I wasn't happy.

I saw one of the actors from the drama club at school (Paige) and I asked her to read the speech.  She did and then I asked her how she thought it should be delivered.  Paige said, "with calm acceptance".  I was dumbfounded.  That was just what the director was saying.  Well, two heads are better than one and I decided that I was wrong and worked on delivering the speech with "calm acceptance" and it seems to be working.  So a big thanks to Paige for her insight.  I guess if you disagree with someone's direction, you should always give it a fair try before you decide you can't do it.  And if you come to that decision, you should talk about it to the director and maybe the two of you can figure out some middle ground.

Please let Rachel know if you can't make rehearsal and if she schedules a rehearsal, please make an effort to come.  Bring a pencil, so you can write down your blocking so we can build on it for next time!