Monday Night Rehearsal

Tonight is my one-week anniversary (um, wrong prefix. what's the prefix for "weekly"?), my first weekiversary, in my new career as an actress. A week ago I was shy, scared, and still. Tonight I was talkative, confident, and active.

We rehearsed our scene from "Much Ado About Nothing." I'm playing Beatrice in the scene where she overhears Hero and Ursula talking about how much Benedick loves Beatrice. The scene is difficult because I do not speak until the very end of the scene, where I give a very dramatic monologue to the audience about how I suddenly have reformed my prideful ways and love Benedick. While not speaking, I am supposed to creep around and not let Hero and Ursula see me, and yet react. I'm somehow going to incorporate the audience and gain their sympathy, so that they'll want to listen to my monologue at the end (it's very short--they'll listen).

The first couple of nights in rehearsal, I hated this scene. I had no idea what to do. Though I had no words, I carried the script around with me because I couldn't figure out how I wanted to react to words. Yet other cast members stood around and watched and critiqued and I felt incredibly on display. How in the world was I to act? I'm an English teacher/writer, not a prideful Renaissance woman too blind to notice love.

Over the past week, as I've become more comfortable with the scene and the people in the Company, Beatrice has also become more vocal with her shocking discoveries. Now she's even throwing bits of sassafras at the other characters while they badmouth her. I'm starting to have fun with this.

I cannot yet say that this is my favorite scene out of the three I'm in--but I think it's a fair assumption to make that it might be the one I have the most fun with by the end of it. I like it when that happens. Poetic Justice.