ARS Day 35

Double-Show Day: Timon of Athens matinee + As You Like It on a Saturday night (! -- it's been a while)

No Epicene rehearsal.

We had a nice mid-sized crowd for Timon this afternoon. I thought the show went pretty well. BUT...

(sigh...) I called prithee at the beginning of my cave scene with Timon. (What we say instead of "line" at ASC.)

I went blank when I discovered "yond despised and ruinous man...full of decay and failing." It was a moment when I had no idea what was coming. I considered trying to struggle through it, but it was a little soliloquy, and my attempt to patch up the memory lapse would have resulted in laborious paraphrasing and stumbling that the audience would have wince at. After some quick deliberation, I called prithee. Chris, as prompter, was primed (probably alert to the longer-than-normal pause), spoke the next two words, I immediately knew where I was line-wise. It was pretty terrifying in that instant. But I think I handled the situation as best as I could.

I don't want to call "prithee" if I don't have to (I don't think anyone wants to, really). I fully expect that to happen in Epicene (not that I'm banking on it--I just know it's possible, if not likely for this particular show). There have been some moments in Timon when I've mentally jumped to other scenes. Flavius has language in speeches that, on paper, seem very similar in others. He repeats turns of phrase often enough.

Anyway, it's out of my system. It may happen again, and I'll just keep going along.

That evening we had a large crowd for As You Like It, which was a treat. We hadn't done a Saturday evening AYLI for quite some time, and it was fun. Saturday nights are often the big ticket each week. I knew we were in store for a fun show from the very beginning when people snickered throughout at Orlando's first speech. Greg has navigated it clearly, it's full of tension and some good little parenthetical remarks. He manages to create a young man with strong convictions, but also lets his doubts slip to audience members and Adam. And there's humor in that.