Okay, so today we began blocking for Act 2 (our adaptation only has 2 acts, rather than Shakespeare's standard 5). For us, act 1 ends on Petruchio's incredible monologue about how he will "kill his wife [Kate] with kindness" by denying her food and sleep on their wedding night. Act 2 opens with Grumio (that's me) torturing poor Kate by teasing her with an offer of beef and mustard, which is quickly withdrawn.
It's a lot of fun, and I love that I get to come out with a somersault. Initially Dr. John had just said, "Come out yelling, and then I want you to trip and stumble and fall over. To that I replied, "Like a stumble like this... [insert trip forward with arms spread wide] or a stumble like this?" And then I did a no-hands somersault over one shoulder. It was hilarious because when I looked up, he had this awesome grin and said, "Oh, I didn't know you could do that!" So I get to do the awesomesauce flip in the show which looks and sounds very painful but really isn't. Hehe. It's not painful for me because (1) I'm young. I don't feel it... yet... (2) I taught myself how to do no-hands somersaults in elementary school, and (3) I took Tae Kwon Do and Kuk Sul Do for a few months each in middle school and they taught us how to fall and roll. It came in very handy last week when we did stage combat in "Fundamentals of Theatre Acting" aka Theatre Acting. Did I mention "the fall" is my favorite. I always like being on the receiving end of the stage combat stuff. It's so much more fun, in my opinion.
Speaking of falling, though, I had several in class today that were NOT on purpose. When we ran through the opening of Act 2 for the first time, we hadn't yet added me standing up on the line, "Why then, the mustard without the beef," so when Katie (who plays Kate... go figure) chased me, I had to scramble to stand up and I kept dropping my script and my beanie and tripping over my own feet. The second time through, I did stand up, but when I was backing up from her railing at me, I tripped backwards and landed on my back. Lucky for me, the stage combat falling stuff came in handy, so it didn't hurt, and my friend Ignacio (who plays Curtis) told me he'd thought that was on purpose and that it was just a stage fall.
After running through the beginning of that scene, we moved on to where Mike (our lead, Petruchio) berates and terrifies the poor tailor, who has come bringing a hat and dress for Katherina. The tailor and Grumio get into a rather heated (and silly) argument over how the dress was ordered...
TAILOR: Item: A loose-bodied gown.
GRUMIO: Master, if ever I said loose-bodied gown ... beat me to death with a bobbin of brown thread. I said "gown".
TAILOR: Item: With a half-circle cape.
GRUMIO: I confess the cape.
TAILOR: With two wide sleeves.
GRUMIO: I confess two sleeves.
TAILOR: The sleeves curiously cut.
PETRUCHIO: Ay, there's the villainy.
GRUMIO: Error in the bill! Error in the bill!
And during this, I needed to stand up (I was sitting at the edge of the stage) and confront the tailor. While catching my balance from standing up, I stepped off the stage and it really threw me off balance. Luckily Mike and Jacob, (our stage manager) who was sitting just off the edge of stage right, were there and caught me quickly, so no harm, no foul, and no bones broken. Whew!
And because Mike and I are not in scene 12, we got to go home early: 8:30, instead of 9 pm. Woot!
And now, as I depart, I give you some good ol' slapstick comedy: The Three Stooges (in honor of KC, Alaric, Connor, and Andy) in their famous, "Niagara Falls" skit:
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