THE CRUCIBLE by Arthur Miller

THE CRUCIBLE: Arthur Miller's account of the REAL single greatest witchhunt in American history.

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I am a very young-looking actress.  I'm often cast to play quirky, sweet, and shy teenagers.  But I love it when I get the chance to use my youthful appearence in a super twisted way.  That's what I'm doing today.

THE CRUCIBLE

By Arthur Miller

Although Abigail Williams may look sweet and innocent,  she is anything but.  She's a kid who got rejected for the first time in her life.  She's hurt, and she's angry.  So, she makes an accusation.   Suddenly, she becomes the most powerful person in Salem.  

This intimate look at the Salem Witch trials is not completely historically accurate.  The historical facts that were changed are noted at the beginning of the play.  Arthur Miller created these characters from trial records and letters.  The play takes place in 1692 and it was written in 1953, when "witch hunting" was happening in America again- this time, the fear this time was communism.  Miller himself was questioned by The House of Representatives Committee on Un-American Activities.  The original production received bad reviews, but still went on to win the Tony, and to become a classic of the American Theatre.

Reverend Parris' young daughter, Betty lies motionless.  He begs Abigail Williams, a seventeen-year-old orphan and friend of Betty's, to tell him what she and his daughter were doing in the woods before Betty got sick- he suspects witchcraft, curtousey of his maid Tituba, who was also in the woods that night. Abigail denies everything.  Other young girls arrive, including Mary Warren (seventeen, a "subservient, naive, lonely girl").  We learn that they did dance and practice witchcraft that night, although Mary Warren claims she only looked.  Abigail drank blood- a charm to kill Goody Proctor.  Abigail violently threatens the girls so that they promise not to say anything.

Enter John Proctor. (Husband of the woman that Abigail tried to kill.)  All of the girls except for Abigail quickly leave.  Abigail attempts to seduce John Proctor- they've slept together before.  John vows that he never will again, but Abigail is distraught- how dare he show her a whole new part of the world and then deprive her of that?

Fear is spreading throughout Salem.  Children are dying and the people want answers. Abigail gives them the scapegoat they are looking for.  Abigail is so cunning and manipulative that she gets Tituba to confess to witch craft.   Betty rises from the bed with "a fever in her eyes."   The act ends with Abigail and Betty accusing over a dozen women.

Act 2 begins with John Proctor and his wife, Elizabeth (an amazing two-person scene.)  Elizabeth catches John in a lie about Abigail, and loses all trust in him.  Mary Warren enters to tell John that he must go back into Salem- thirty-nine women are now accused, and some of them will be hanged.  She also reveals that Elizabeth has been accused.  Abigail is trying to get rid of Elizabeth and take her place with John.

Mary Warren had given Elizabeth a puppet that day and when Elizabeth is questioned, the puppet is discovered to have a needle in its stomach.  Ealier that night, Abigail had been having dinner.  All of the sudden, she screamed and fell to the floor.  When he went to help her, the Reverend discovered a needle plunged two inches into Abigail's stomach.  Elizabeth is immediately arrested.  End of Act 2.

Act 3 begins with the witch hunt spreading beyond Salem.  Four hundred women are in jails and seventy-two are condemned to hang.  The officials believe that because they've seen people choked and possessed with their own two eyes then it must be the truth.  Mary Warren is brought into court.  She breaks down, and admits that she has been lying.  The rest of the girls are brought in.  Abigail refuses to confess.  Mary Warren is asked to prove that they were lying by pretending to faint the same way she did when she was "possessed."  She cannot do it.  But then Abigail says "A wind, a cold wind has come." And all the girls are freezing.

In the chaos, John admits that he slept with Abigail.  In another room, his wife is being questioned.  She is asked if John has ever slept with Abigial.  To protect John, she says no.  The count assumes that John is lying.  Elizabeth is taken away, John is arrensted and sentanced to hang.  Elizabeth visits John (another fantastic two-person scene) and he asks her if he should confess.  She says it does not matter- it is his soul, not hers and she believes that he is a good man.  The play ends when John is taken away to be hanged.

A WILD THING MAY SAY WILD THINGS.  BUT NOT SO WILD, I THINK.  I HAVE SEEN YOU SINCE SHE PUT ME OUT; I HAVE SEEN YOU NIGHTS.

I HAVE A SENSE FOR HEAT, JOHN, AND YOURS HAS DRAWN ME TO MY WINDOW, AND I HAVE SEEN YOU LOOKING UP, BURNING IN YOUR LONLINESS.  DO YOU TELL ME YOU'VE NEVER LOOKED UP AT MY WINDOW?

I KNOW YOU, JOHN.  I KNOW YOU.   I CANNOT SLEEP FOR DREAMIN'; I CANNOT DREAM BUT I WAKE AND WALK ABOUT THE HOUSE AS THOUGH I FIND YOU COMIN' THROUGH SOME DOOR.  

I LOOK FOR THE JOHN PROCTOR THAT TOOK ME FROM MY SLEEP AND PUT KMNOWLEDGE IN MY HEART!  I NEVER KNEW WHAT PRETENSE SALEM WASS, I NEVER KNEW THE LYNG LESSONS I WAS TAUGHT BY ALL THESE CHRISTIAN WOMEN AND THEIR COVENANTED MEN!  AND NOW YOU BID ME TEAR THE LIGHT OUT OF MY EYES?  I WILL NOT, I CANNOT!  YOU LOVE ME, JOHN PROCTOR, AND WHATEVER SIIN IT IS, YOU LOVE ME YET!

JOHN, PITY ME, PITY ME!

Anna Ziegler's 'Life Science'

Hi!

It's Eileen!

I'm back!

And I have three awesome plays coming your way- stay tuned!

Today's monologue is from -

LIFE SCIENCE 

BY ANNA ZIEGLER

Anna Ziegler is an amazing playwright.   Her other plays include "BFF," "Boy" (which was just Off-Broadway at Keen Company/Ensemble Studio Theatre), and "Actually" (which will be performed in the Williamstown Festival this year.)  "Life Science" is one of her lesser known plays.

Typical teens trying to determine what they mean to the political world and trying to cope with everyday teenage troubles.  Dana, Leah, and Mike are all Jewish, and are trying to figure out what that means to them.

DANA  17. Asks big, slightly inappropriate questions at slightly inappropriate times.  "An alpha girl, very pretty, and outwardly confident."  Pretends to be less smart than she is.

LEAH 17.  Feels 19.  "talkative, high-strung, a little nervous, very intelligent.  The kind of slightly geeky girl who has a handful of cool friends but isn't quite cool herself."  A self-proclaimed sad and thoughtful person.

TOM Asian.  Adopted. "Quiet but not a dork, even-keeled, modest measured, smart.  A respected loner."

MIKE "A bit of a jock, but no dummy even though he thinks he is.  He's popular and attractive."

The play begins with Leah and Tom discussing the political climate in the middle East, Antisemitism, and Jewish identity.  Well, Leah talks, and Tom just listens.  The scene quickly shifts to the most awkward sort-of date ever.  Leah's drinking.  Tom is not.  They sort-of like-like each other.  We also learn that Dana and Mike went out for eleven months and nine days, Mike wanted to sleep with her and she wasn't ready, but it's obvious that Dana still likes him.

Everyone thinks that Dana is having a "mid-life crisis"- she has decided not to go to college.  Then, she sees a news report about a twelve-year-old boy named Abdul from Lebanon whose parents were killed.  She is inspired to adopt him.

Leah and Tom make out.  It's awkward at best.  Leah says things like "your parents go away alot... don't they love you" and just as they're about to kiss "Has anyone ever told you that you look a little... I mean, young for your age?"  And then after they kiss "Did you know, you kind of... no offense or anything, but you kind of kiss like a fish? ... I wouldn't call it good.  It felt a little... inexperienced."  Leah reminds me a lot of Lucy from Charlie Brown.  Despite all of this, Leah wants to date Tom.

Neither one of them has dated before, so her idea is that they date for one year, just to have the experience.  But before he answers, Tom falls asleep.  Leah then has a short monologue where we begin to understand her problem- despite everything and everyone around her, she feels completely alone.  (This is a great monologue, though a little short- the one we'll be looking at comes a bit later in the play.)

Everyone judges Dana for wanting to adopt Abdul.  She has taken steps forward and has begun the adoption process.  Leah especially thinks she's crazy.  They fight.  It ends with

DANA. So you're afraid of who you are?

LEAH. Yes!

DANA.  Well, good.  So am I!

Dana and Mike have a fight in art class.  Mike thinks that if she wasn't ready to have sex with him, how could she possibly be ready to adopt a child.

Leah is sitting in the stairwell freaking out about college applications.  Mike begins to comfort her and quickly kisses her.  Leah immediately goes to text Tom.  She accidently texts Dana.

Leah tells Mike he kisses really well.  Mike tells Leah she's pretty.  Leah tells Mike she's imagined this happening since about the fifth grade.  Mike has trouble finding words for the way he is feeling.  Leah comforts him- "You're lonely. that's all."  They have a deep conversation- the kind of conversation that Leah has been trying to have all along.

Leah and Dana have back-to-back monologues.  We'll be looking at Leah's.  (Dana's is great, but harder to understand outside the context of the show.)  Leah is apologizing to Tom.  Dana is at her interview to see if she is a fit parent for Abdul.  But, during the interview, she has a change of heart. "From what I've heard, people become their parents; they become the parents their parents were, whether they want to or not and I just can't... inflict that on Abdul.  I just can't.  I mean, look at me.  Look at me."

Next we see a split-stage.  Mike and Dana on one side, in bed together.  They've just had sex.  Leah and Tom on the other side, making ammends.  Dana reads Mike a letter from Abdul.  She feels terrible.  Leah and Tom talk about more typical high school topics- fear of college, fear of sex, wanting to be ready for all of it.  Mike tells Dana he had sex with someone else when they were broken up, then he tells her he loves her.  She's not okay.  And that's it- that's the end of the play- a crazy conction of stereotypical high school drama, morbid thoughts, and mature existential life questions all through the lens of a couple of teenage friends.

Now, for the monologue.  Leah is apologizing to Tom.  (In the play, she is leaving him a voice mail.  I perfer to perform it as though he's standing in front of me.)

LEAH

I have an iPod Nano.  I have a Dell laptop.  I have a Samsung cell phone.  I have a J. Crew credit card.  I have eleven applications out at eleven schools.  I have a younger brother and two anxious parents.  I'm not sure who I am and what I'm meant to do.  I'm sorry that I got confused.  My mom says confusion is just this natural human thing, and unavoidable, but my dad thinks it's the mark of a weak person and I really don't want to think of myself that way, as a weak person.  Do you think I'm...?

No, what I'm trying to say is... there are just so many things... My mother was crying last night because what if I don't get into college, and what if I do?  And Dylan's obsessed with the Civil War now and his room is filled with these awful daguerreotypes and you look in these soldiers eyes and just see how they don't know this is the last picutre that they'll ever have taken of them, that tomorrow they'll be thrown onto this battlefield and they'll never come home again.

Um.  What I really mean is... I didn't mean it when I said I only wanted to go out with you temporarily.  I'm sorry for saying that.   I think it was a kind of... weak thing to say, or do to you, because I'm realizing more and more that words are acts, or deeds or whatever... and I wish I could have used mine better, impressed you more by saying the right things.  No.  I wish I could have earned your respect.  So maybe you'll give me another chance to do that?  I don't know.  I mean, it would be great if you called me.  I mean, if you wanted to call me.  But.

Okay.  So... Bye.

Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya"

HI.

IT’S SHANNON.

ONE YEAR, GUYS.

One whole

Huge

Crazy

Intense

Inspiring

YEAR!

I started this blog so that I could make content -- to explore new plays as well as reach out to those who wanted to do the same. And that’s exactly what has happened. I have never solicited this blog in any way -- never mentioned it to the masses on Facebook or bought Google AdWords, but already we have over 3,500 views and counting. That’s more than almost anything I’ve ever made.

It’s almost like being famous.

So thank you.

ANYWAY. Enough of that.

(Feelings? Gross.)

This week we’re celebrating the anniversary of the blog by revisiting the playwright we started with: Chekhov, in another of his brilliant works.

UNCLE VANYA

by Anton Chekhov

Like most Chekhov this one is a little hard to explain.

I think the best way to do it is to start with what IS at the top of the play:

Vanya’s been supporting Alexander Serebraikov (hereafter called The Professor), his dead sister’s husband, for years. He breaks his back and wastes his youth to provide The Professor a living in Moscow. At the top of the play The Professor has come to live on Vanya’s plantation, and what Vanya has learned is that the man he has been giving his life to support was never the shooting star he thought he was: The Professor is in disgrace with the academic community. On top of this, Vanya is desperately in love with The Professor’s young, beautiful second wife, Yelena, making him extremely jealous of the sick man (The Professor has gout). The Professor’s gout draws Doctor Astrov to the plantation. Doctor Astrov is a handsome, overworked county doctor quickly enchanted by Yelena. The Professor’s plain daughter, Sonya, who is in love with Astrov and already resentful of her stepmother because of their proximity in age, carries her resentment for Yelena openly at the start of the play. Also present on the plantation is Vanya’s mother, Mrs. Voinitsky, who still adores The Professor; Marina, the family’s old nurse; and Telegin, a poor neighbor.

That’s where we begin.

Then… they talk. Vanya confesses his love to Yelena (again); she rejects him. He rails against The Professor. Astrov comes to visit, and drinks and complains about how busy he is. Sonya and Yelena make up over Sonya’s love for Astrov, and Yelena realizes she’s enchanted with him, too. Sonya pleads for Yelena to ask Astrov if he loves her, and if he doesn’t, to ask him to please leave. Yelena does so (he doesn’t love Sonya), but really ends up telling him that she loves him. He asks her to run away with him and kisses her (Vanya sees) and it’s way more than she bargained for. The Professor announces to everyone that he has a great plan -- sell the estate and live off the profits! Vanya, enraged, tries to shoot The Professor. The Professor and Yelena decide to leave. They do, it’s tearful goodbyes -- Astrov begs Yelena to come with him, she says no. The Professor and Vanya make up, with Vanya agreeing to go back to supporting The Professor the way he always has. The couple leaves. Then Astrov leaves as well, making Sonya miserable because she knows he’ll never be back. Sonya, Vanya, and Marina are left onstage, proclaiming that the only way to combat their misery is to work. Sonya consoles Uncle Vanya by reminding him of the promise of eternal rest, and the play ends.

Comedy, guys.

Comedy.

(No, but seriously, Chekhov wanted all productions of his plays to be hilarious.)

Anyway.

Today we are looking at

YELENA

In this monologue, Sonya has just left the room after asking Yelena to please ask Astrov if he loves her. He doesn’t, and Yelena knows this. At the top of this monologue, Yelena has no idea that she loves Astrov, but by the time she’s sympathized with Sonya, she’s realized just what she’s missing out on. The two things characters in this play say about Yelena is that she’s bored, and she’s beautiful. I (personally) think this is true, but she’s frustrated with both, in a way. Something to think about.

Sidebar: Uncle Vanya’s words to Yelena are: “My darling, my heart’s delight, use your imagination! You’ve got mermaid’s blood in your veins, so be a mermaid! Let yourself go at least once in your life, fall head over heels in love with a merman, dive in with a big splash, and leave the Herr Professor and the rest of us standing on the shore, helplessly waving our arms!”

YELENA:  (Alone.) There is nothing worse than knowing someone else’s secret when you can’t help them. He's obviously not in love with her, but why shouldn't he marry her? She's not pretty, but she's so clever and pure and good, she would make a splendid wife for a country doctor of his years...  No, that’s not the point, it’s not the point.

[A pause] I can understand how the poor child feels. She lives here in this desperate loneliness with no one around her except these colourless shadows that go mooning about talking nonsense and knowing nothing except that they eat, drink, and sleep. Among them appears from time to time this Dr. Astrov, so different, so handsome, so interesting, so charming. It's like seeing the moon rise on a dark night. Oh, to surrender oneself to his embrace! To lose oneself in his arms! I'm a little in love with him myself! Yes, I'm lonely without him, and when I think of him I smile. That Uncle Vanya says I have the blood of a mermaid in my veins: "Give free rein to your nature for once in your life!" Perhaps it's right that I should. Oh, to be free as a bird, to fly away from all your sleepy faces and your talk and forget that you have existed at all! But I'm a coward, I'm afraid; my conscience torments me. He comes here every day now. I can guess why, and feel guilty already; I should like to fall on my knees at Sonya's feet and beg her forgiveness, and to cry.

This play also has a couple other truly spectacular monologues. That final monologue of Sonya’s is one of the most famous in the western canon, but Sonya also has an excellent soliloquy about what it’s like to be plain. And Yelena has at least one other truly excellent monologue as well. So check those out!

As always,

Buy

READ

And post back!

Thanks guys!

Again, it’s been amazing to have had a full year with you.

This has been

SOMEONE MONO-BLOGGING

and again,

I’M SHANNON

ENJOY!

"Saint Joan" by Bernard Shaw

HI.

IT’S SHANNON.

So you may not know this,

but I have a BA in History.

(I know, random, right?)

Therefore:

I love doing history pieces (inaccurate though they often are).

This week’s play is by Bernard Shaw, who we’ve seen before for Heartbreak House, writing one of History’s greatest, most notable women. Joan of Arc. She was 17, schizophrenic, and led France to victory during the Hundred Years’ War. This in 1429, when women weren’t allowed to own property, much less lead an army. She was (rather famously) burned at the stake in 1431, and later canonized by the Catholic Church. What a woman! Now, there’s something interesting to consider here: Shaw is English. Joan of Arc led the French to defeat England at this point in the war, and therefore by English playwrights is often (literally) demonized. Shakespeare does this when writing her in Henry VI Part I. Shaw refrains from it, and paints a very sympathetic Joan in this play. But he’s still writing from an English perspective, so in performance, adding… insanity? to her might not be uncalled for. Just something to think about.

SAINT JOAN

By Bernard Shaw

#herstory, ammirite?

We enter the play in 1429 with Captain Robert de Baudrincourt, a swaggering squire. His chickens are not laying eggs, and Baudrincourt’s oft-berated servant claims that the cause is a local maid who has taken up at Baudrincourt’s door and won’t be turned away. Already the soldiers are loyal to her. Baudrincourt demands to see her, and Joan enters, young and docile, asking for an escort of three soldiers and a horse to get to Charles, the defeated Dauphin. Her voices have told her that God has commanded her to help Charles drive the English from France. Eventually, Robert gives in. The scene skips to the Archbishop and the rest of the court, arranging a deception for Joan -- she’ll have to spot Charles, even though he’s swapping places with one of his nobles. She does so easily, and the population and Charles are convinced that it is a miracle, giving the reluctant prince the courage (with God) to go to war. He sends Joan to Orleans, and the west wind that had been plaguing the French for months suddenly disappears upon her arrival, earning her a loyal friend in Dunois, Charles’s general. But pride begins to overtake Joan, and as she crowns Charles at Rheims and gains power through her popularity and visions, the members of the court begin to turn against her, most specifically the Archbishop, who vows against her as she demands more battles. She is captured by the English, who try her for heresy after debating the nature of it. She is brought to court, and under the pain of their torture, agrees to sign a confession admitting that her voices are of her own invention. When she learns of the prison sentence still in store for her, she accepts death at the stake in favor of it. They sentence her to burn at the stake and follow her offstage. Warwick reenters alone, and is soon met by the repentant Chaplain and Lavenau, who bear witness to Joan’s generosity, even as she was burning. The final scene is 25 years later, on the night that Joan has been cleared of the charges that burned her, as King Charles (now the Victorious) dreams that Joan and many of the others appear to him, asking Joan for forgiveness. She forgives them one by one, and they are joined from a priest from the 1920s, who announces Joan’s canonization. Joan recognizes that saints can work miracles, and offers to rise from the dead. All characters in the room, including Charles, despising having professed to love her, ask her to remain dead. Joan’s final words are “...”

We are looking at the only woman in this play:

JOAN

Joan actually has two great speeches in this play, one at the end of Scene 5, and this one. This is the final scene. Joan has surrendered the only thing she has left -- the truth of the voices she believes comes from God. Tortured to the edge of sanity, she has finally admitted to preserve herself that the voices are of her own invention, that she lied about being led by God, and that her preference of dress, hair, and warlike spirit are sins. She has given up everything, signed listlessly away. And then they condemn her to perpetual imprisonment: “the sorrow of bread and the affliction of water”. She tears up her confession, and says:

JOAN: Light your fire: do you think I dread it as much as the life of a rat in a hole? My voices were right. Yes: they told me you were fools (the word gives great offence) and I was not to listen to your fine words, or trust in your charity. You promised me my life, but you lied (indignant exclamations). You think that life is nothing but not being stone dead. It is not the bread and water I fear. I can live on bread, when have I asked for more? It is no hardship to drink water if the water be clean. Bread is no sorrow, water no affliction. But to shut me from the light of the sky and the sight of the fields and flowers, to chain my feet so that I can never again ride with the soldiers or climb the hills, to make me breathe foul, damp darkness and keep from me everything that brings me back to the love of God when your wickedness and foolishness tempt me to hate him. All this is worse than the furnace in the Bible that was heated seven times. I could do without my warhorse, I could drag about in a skirt, I could let the banners and the trumpets and the knights and the soldiers pass me by and leave me behind like they leave the other women if only I could hear the wind in the trees, the larks in the sunshine, the young calves crying through the healthy frost, and the blessed, blessed church bells that send my angel voices floating to me on the wind. I cannot live without these, and by your wanting to take them from me, from any human creature, I know that your counsel is of the devil, and mine is of God.

Powerful. I'm so into it.

And there you have it! Enjoy! As always, read the play (you can get the .pdf of it online!) and post your version!

Once again, this has been
SOMEONE MONO-BLOGGING

and

I’M SHANNON.

ENJOY!

Game of Love and Chance, by Marivaux

HI.

IT’S SHANNON.

This is a very old and virtually unknown play (by anyone who doesn’t have a BFA in Theatre Studies). Marivaux, a contemporary of Moliere in early 18th-century France, was one of the first writers to give the upper classes and lower classes equal say onstage. The France he was writing from was only 50 years from its famous revolution, and several of Marivaux’s plays were outlawed because of increasing social tension. But they’re funny, farcical, and short, so there’s no reason we can’t include them on this blo. They make a very good “Oooooh, you’re doing that?” When an auditioner asks you for a Classical monologue (because really, who hasn’t seen a hundred Rosalinds?).

Without further ado,

I announce

Le Jeu De L'Amour et du Hasard

(The Game of Love and Chance)

By Pierre de Marivaux

The story tells of Sylvia, the high-born daughter of Orgon, who is betrothed to Dorante, a noble whose father Orgon knows well. Sylvia has never met Dorante, and prior to meeting him is nervous about what kind of man he is. With her father’s blessing, she decides to trick Dorante by switching places with her maid Lisette. Little does she know that Dorante, equally nervous, has decided to do the same thing and has switched places with his valet, Harlequin. The two nobles hit it off right away and immediately fall in love with each other. The two servants, playacting the part of noble, fall for each other, as well. But everyone is torn with the impossibility of their predicament! They each know that they’re not the class they’re pretending to be, but at the same time, can’t stand the person who they *think* is of the same class they are. Orgon, knowing both sides of the story, is highly amused. Finally, Dorante confesses to Sylvia (dressed as Lisette), that he is noble and therefore must fight the love he has. Sylvia, thrilled with the knowledge that the man she loves is in fact her betrothed, plots to make him marry her despite thinking she’s a servant, and involves her brother Mario to make Dorante jealous. Her plot works, and as soon as he proposes she confesses her true status to him. Both couples, happy in their respective pairings, dance offstage.

It’s a cute little farce, and Sylvia and Lisette both have brilliant monologues throughout the play. In fact, everyone talks quite a bit, and quite grandly to boot. Very fun.

This week we’ll be looking at

LISETTE

In this scene, she is talking to Dorante, who she thinks is Harlequin’s valet by the name of Bourguingnon (Borgin-yon). She has asked him what he thinks of his master, and Dorante (as Bourguingnon), while doing his best not to speak ill of his own name, tries to justify Harlequin’s behavior by citing that the ‘true’ Dorante is “a very different person.” Lisette, who has been entirely charmed by Harlequin’s verbosity and forthrightness, is offended on his behalf:

LISETTE: Disheartened? I’m not at all disheartened! How dare you speak this way of your master! I have found him to be much more discreet, more modest, and blessedly more down to earth than I expected, and have no reason whatsoever to complain of him! What is more, although I was at first surprised by his high spirits and although I  have learned today that men present to the world quite a different face from the one they wear in private, I am absolutely certain that that man, whoever he is, is very much himself! Furthermore, I like him, and would consider myself very fortunate indeed if, at the end of the day, he found it in his heart to ask for my hand. You may not think he is a gentleman, but I do, and I will thank you to take your divisive remarks back below stairs where they belong. I know what servants are, better than you might suppose, but I have never seen one quite like you! I had heard that you had spoken disparagingly about your master, and now I see that it is true!

DORANTE: I have never spoken disparagingly about Monsieur Durante!

LISETTE: Ha! It is obvious that you have a low opinion of him!

DORANTE: (Suppressing his anger) Madame, I wrongly sensed that you were concerned, when you asked me to tell you about him.And so I was attempting to do so candidly.

LISETTE: I think you were attempting to do something else entirely. There is something very presumptuous about the way you look at me. I don’t trust you. Bourguingnon. I don’t trust you, and I don’t like you.

All of this should be delivered with top working-class pizazz and sass. Lisette is a recurring character throughout Marivaux’s plays (as the sassy maid, basically) and always has lots of comedic relief and attitude to provide to the play. So have fun!

And as always,

Buy, Read, Post!

This has been

SOMEONE MONO-BLOGGING

and again,

I’M SHANNON

ENJOY!

Proof, by David Auburn

HI.

IT'S SHANNON.

This is a very smart, moving play made into a movie in 2005 starring Gweneth Paltrow, Anthony Hopkins, and Jake Gyllenhal. I'm not 100% in love with the casting of the movie, but the play itself has some very well-written scenes and excellently characterized arguments. A teacher I had once told me that fight scenes are all about characters trying NOT to fight -- just like crying onscreen is about trying NOT to cry and playing drunk is about trying to sober up. It's the conflict of resisting the impulse that makes a character compelling, and this play has some brilliant scenes which flourish by merit of that struggle.

PROOF

By David Auburn

Proof tells the story of Catherine, the brilliant, math-minded daughter of an even more brilliant mathematician (Robert). Her father's brilliance dissolved into lunacy not long after a mathematical discovery that made him famous. Catherine was left to care for him, quitting school and living in their Chicago home while her sister Claire moved to New York and got a job to fund their father's care. At the onset of the play, Robert has died. Hal, one of Robert's students in later years, is at the house, going through the graphomaniacal scrawls Robert wrote in in a series of notebooks. He asks her out, but an argument ensues. The next day is the funeral, and Claire, Catherine's sister, has come in from New York to take control. At the funeral, Hal and Catherine hook up, and he spends the night. She gives him a key to a specific drawer in her father's study. The next morning a hungover Claire breaks the bad news: She is sure she knows best and suspects that Catherine, who inherited Robert's genius, might have inherited some of his tendencies towards insanity as well. She urges Catherine to return to New York with her, and confesses that she's already sold their father's house. Catherine (understandably), is furious. Hal comes out, amazed and bearing a notebook -- the proof in the notebook is a mathematical discovery beyond belief. Catherine reveals: she wrote it. Claire and Hal refuse to believe her -- it doesn't end well. The next day, Claire rebukes Hal for his behavior towards Catherine, but urges him to take the notebook and investigate it at the University. The following morning, Catherine prepares to leave with Claire to go to New York -- she is resigned and has no choice.  Hal comes to see her off, and asks him to please, please explain the proof to him. She accepts, and the play ends.

We will be looking at

CATHERINE

(Claire’s also a great part)

This scene happens at the beginning of the play, during Hal and Catherine’s first fight, and he’s asking to continue to come back and go through her father’s notebooks, claiming that someone needs to know whether or not Robert was actually insane, or whether there’s genius in one of the books that could be published.

HAL: Please. Someone should know for sure whether ---

CATHERINE: I LIVED WITH HIM. I spent my life with him. I fed him. Talked to him. Tried to listen when he talked. Talked to people who weren’t there… Watched him shuffling around like a ghost. A very smelly ghost. He was filthy. I had to make sure he bathed. My own father.

HAL: I’m so sorry I shouldn’t have…

CATHERINE: After my mother died it was just me here. I tried to keep him happy no matter what idiotic project he was doing. He used to read all day. He kept demanding more and more books. I took them out of the library by the carload. We had hundreds upstairs. Then I realized he wasn’t reading: he believed aliens were sending him messages through the dewey decimal numbers on the library books. He was trying to work out the code.

HAL: What kind of messages?

CATHERINE: Beautiful mathematics. Answers to everything. The most elegant proofs, perfect proofs, proofs like music.

HAL: Sounds good.

CATHERINE: Plus fashion tips, knock-knock jokes -- I mean it was NUTS, okay?

HAL: He was ill. It was a tragedy.

CATHERINE: Later the writing phase: scribbling, nineteen, twenty hours a day… I ordered him a case of notebooks and he used every one.

I dropped out of school… I’m glad he’s dead.

HAL: I understand why you’d feel that way.

CATHERINE: Fuck you.

The last line of this monologue is optional, but since so much of it is directed at someone not in the scene, I thought it would be good to kind of clue back into Hal as your scene partner at the last moment. Take it or leave it. :)

As always,

Buy, Read, Post!

This has been

SOMEONE MONO-BLOGGING

and again,

I’M SHANNON

ENJOY!

Fool for Love, by Sam Shepard

FOOL FOR LOVE

By Sam Shepard

This play is to be performed relentlessly without a break.

Brace yourself for Sam Shepard.  His plays are crazy, physical, slightly confusing bundles of emotion.  From “Buried Child” which just finished an Off-Broadway run, to “Fool for Love,” which was recently on Broadway, and which we will be looking at today.

Like all Sam Shepard plays, physicality is one of the most, if not most important element of storytelling.  Do not cross out or ignore the stage directions.  You will be completely lost.

In the introduction to the Seven Plays collection by Batnam Books, Ross Wetzsteon gives “four ways in which his theatre has transformed the rigid categories of naturalism in order to achieve a kind of hyperrealism.”

1. Space is emotional rather than physical.
2. Tim is immediate rather than sequential.
3. Narrative is a matter of consciousness rather than behavior.
4. Character is spontaneous rather than coherent.

To me, it is easiest to think of a Sam Shepard play as a nightmare- stakes are incredibly high, everything seems incredibly read and immediate, and none of it quite makes sense.  But, it’s terrifying nonetheless.

Today we are looking at

MAY

When we first see May we see her on the bed “feet on floor, legs apart, elbows on knees, hands hanging limp and crossed between her knees, head hanging forward, face staring at floor.  She is absolutely still and maintains this attitude until she speaks.”

Her half-brother, her love, is back.  Again.  Her half-brother, who she didn’t know was her half-brother until they were way  too deeply in love.  Their dad fell in love with two women and split his life in half to have a life with both- he’d spend months with one, then leave without a trace to spend months with the other.  

Eddie,, the half-brother, takes after their dad.  He’s in love with May, he can’t help himself, but he leaves for months with other women, but always comes back to May.  This time he was off with “The Countess.”  He comes back to try to get May to run away with him.

But this time, she doesn’t fall for him.  She’s done.  Except it’s never that easy.  She can’t quite say no.  She says no multiple times, but the more he insists, the more she waivers.  She has an out this time though- a man, a date, named Marty, who’s coming over to take her to the movies.  When he shows up, and May leaves them alone together, Eddie insists on telling him a story- the story of their dad and his mom.  May overhears this, and finishes the story- telling how she and her mom tracked down the dad, and finally found him- it broke her mom’s heart.  But May didn’t even care- she was in love with Eddie.

This monologue comes from various points in the play, all before Martin enters.  May and Eddie play a constant game of cat and mouse, and we are never quite sure which one is which.

I don't understand my feelings. I really don't. I don't understand how I can hate you so much after so much time. How, no matter how much I'd like not to hate you, I hate you even more. It grows. I can't even see you now. All I see is a picture of you. You and her. I don't even know if the picture's real anymore. I don't even care. It's a made up picture. It invades my head. The two of you. And this picture stings even more than if I'd actually seen you with her. It cuts me. It cuts me so deep I'll never get over it. And I can't get rid of this picture either. It just comes. Uninvited. Kinda' like a little torture. And I blame you more for this little torture than I do for what you did.

You can't keep messing around like this. It's been going on too long. I can't take it anymore. I get sick every time you come around. Then I get sick when you leave. You're like a disease to me. Besides, you got no right being jealous of me after all the bullshit I've been through with you.

Okay. Look. I don't understand what you've got in your head anymore. I really don't. I don't get it. Now you desperately need me. Now you can't live without me. NOW you'll do anything for me. Why should I believe it this time?

It was supposed to have been true every time before. Every other time. Now it's true again. You've been jerking me off like this for fifteen years. Fifteen years I've been a yo-yo for you. I've never been split. I've never been two ways about you. I've either loved you or not loved you. And now I just plain don't love you. Understand? Do you understand that? I don't love you. I don't need you. I don't want you. Do you get that? Now if you can still stay, then you're either crazy or pathetic.