Shakespeare Scene

Blythe has Theater Foundation this year as one of her electives. They have been doing a Shakespeare unit and had to memorize a short scene with a partner. Blythe worked with Damian on a scene from King Lear; he was Lear, she was the Fool. They worked on blocking and their interactions for many weeks, and this evening was the performance. 

Yesterday, at rehearsal during class, Blythe forgot a line and when she got home, she said she wasn't going to do it tomorrow. That was going to put Damian in a bad spot as he would just be sitting there saying his one-word lines, but she didn't care. She wasn't doing it. She didn't want to be embarrassed in front of a whole auditorium full of people. I can certainly understand her nervousness, but we encouraged her to be brave. I even told her to break a leg. Off she went to prepare, and off we went to watch.

Turns out, Blythe was great. She was confident on stage, she spoke her lines clearly, she interacted, and was far more expressive than her partner who really just sat there mumbling his short lines. It is a delight to watch her perform and see her grow in confidence as she performs and puts herself out there. She came home with no broken bones but lots of pleasure at having done a good job. She said she did forget a line but from the audience's perspective, she did terrifically!

Below the pictures is the scene she performed.

King Lear

Act 1, Scene 5

FOOL If a man’s brains were in ’s heels, were ’t not in danger of kibes?
LEAR Ay, boy.
FOOL Then, I prithee, be merry; thy wit shall not go slipshod.
LEAR Ha, ha, ha!
FOOL Shalt see thy other daughter will use thee kindly,
for, though she’s as like this as a crab’s like an
apple, yet I can tell what I can tell.
LEAR What canst tell, boy?
FOOL She will taste as like this as a crab does to a crab.
Thou canst tell why one’s nose stands i’ th’ middle
on ’s face?
LEAR No.
FOOL Why, to keep one’s eyes of either side ’s nose, that what a man cannot smell out he may spy into.
LEAR I did her wrong.
FOOL Canst tell how an oyster makes his shell?
LEAR No.
FOOL Nor I neither. But I can tell why a snail has a house.
LEAR Why?
FOOL Why, to put ’s head in, not to give it away to his
daughters and leave his horns without a case.
LEAR I will forget my nature. So kind a father!—Be
my horses ready?
FOOL Thy asses are gone about ’em. The reason why the seven stars are no more than seven is a pretty
reason.
LEAR Because they are not eight.
FOOL Yes, indeed. Thou wouldst make a good Fool.
LEAR To take ’t again perforce! Monster ingratitude!
FOOL If thou wert my Fool, nuncle, I’d have thee beaten for being old before thy time.
LEAR How’s that?
FOOL Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been wise.
LEAR O, let me not be mad, not mad, sweet heaven!
Keep me in temper. I would not be mad!

Twelfth Night

This afternoon we went to a performance of Twelfth Night by BYU's Young Company.  It was a western themed show, complete with singing cowboys, stick horses, a trombone playing rodeo clown, and a yellow chaps wearing Malvolio.  It was so well done, the actors had us all in stitches.  I love these productions aimed at children, for while the sets are minimal and the casts are small, they are always fast paced and fun and make Shakespeare accessible.  As we were walking out, Blythe said, "Mom, I really like Shakespeare."  Words to warm this mother's heart.

Olivia and Orsino

The whole cast:

Olivia, Sebastian, Viola, Orsino, Sir Toby, Maria

Malvolio and Feste

Valentine's Day Activities

We have had a very busy day, moving rather quickly from one activity to the next, some more Valentine's oriented than others.

Bright and early at 7:30am, Kent went over to help clean the church.  Our dear home teacher, Brother Glen Stubbs, died on Tuesday, and his funeral was today.  They wanted to have the building cleaned before the funeral, so they had to start early.  It was a good thing Kent went, for though they had plenty of people to help, the regular person in charge of cleaning was not there, so Kent spearheaded the efforts.  He got home and then he and I returned to the church for the funeral.

We had planned to have a cousin Valentine party today, so we dropped the kids off at Guy and Mikayla's house so they could go play while we were at the funeral.  Kent and I joined the party after the funeral.  When we have these cousin parties, we generally play games, do a craft, have a treat.  That was the plan, with the addition of exchanging valentines.  When we arrived, lunch had been eaten (heart shaped pizza, fruit, salad), and that was all.  The kids had been playing outside, just happy to be together, and the adults had been sitting around talking, happy to be together too.  We did exchange valentines, and we frosted and put "frinkles" (per Donovan) on heart shaped sugar cookies, but that was all.  It was enough.  Everyone was very happy.

We left the party early to go see A Midsummer Night's Dream at BYU.  It was a Theater For Young Audience production and included puppets for the four lovers and the mechanicals who put on the Pyramus and Thisbe play.  I thought it was a darling production and I loved the puppets, but everyone spoke so fast, including Puck who was supposed to be giving us an idea of what was happening in the scene, that Brandt and Blythe understood about three words in the whole play.  They liked it, there was plenty of action, but they didn't understand anything.  I had given them a brief synopsis before it started, but everything moved so quickly, they were lost.  A Midsummer's Night Dream does seem an appropriate play choice for Valentine's Day as it is all about love (and fairies and magic and transformation and plays).

This is Titania and Bottom, who was a puppet.

Oberon and Puck,

Titania and Bottom

The players and their puppets.

To make two of them women (Hermia and Helena), they put on funny wigs. The wigs came off several times, but they actors did a great job of working with it.  The whole head of the puppet on the far right came off during one scene, but again, the actor just went with it.  He held the puppet's hands up and make him feel around for his head while Puck (not a puppet) leapt to the front of the stage, scooped up the head and stuck it back on the body.  The audience, laughed and laughed.

Here we are, very blurry, outside the theater.

It's not a great picture, but proof that we were there. 

Even though we had just come from a party where we ate lots of sugar cookies with frinkles, we went for ice cream after the play.  The Creamery on 9th was packed, with a huge line for ice cream, so we bought two cartons and came home to make milk shakes.  After an interval wherein we once again became hungry, we decided to have our Valentine's dinner at Bangkok Grill, our favorite restaurant.  It was very busy, but the food is always delicious and worth the little bit of extra time we might have had to wait.  Happy Valentine's Day to us!