"All the world's a stage..."

"... and all the men and women merely players."

Tuesday morning, my Shakespeare's Comedies discussion group performed selections of As You Like It. I think it went pretty well. I only forgot one line (which wasn't even one of the lines I was tripping over in practice-- what's up with that?), I didn't fall on my face when I jumped up on the stage-left stump, and people laughed more than I expected (though not quite in the places I'd expected).

Things I learned from this experience:
1. I should have been an actress. Not a movie actress, because even though they're more likely to be famous, they don't get to experience the joy of a live audience. Seriously though, it's awesome. Movies are stop-go-stop-go, and cast will spend upwards of an hour and a half just waiting for the set and lighting departments to do their thing before they get to act for thirty or forty minutes. But stage actors have rehearsal time and then perform the show a whole bunch of times for people who laugh and clap and give instant feedback. So much cooler.

2. When costume-hunting, trying to find something specific in Goodwill or Salvation Army is practically impossible. Unless, of course, you're looking for shapeless shirts from the 90s.

3. Putting on a play (or anything this big) will automatically take 1.5 times as much preparation as you'd originally thought.

4. Rehearsals are always more fun when there is plenty of chocolate to go around. The more, the merrier.

5. When possible, always try to have someone married on your team-- especially when their husbands are handy carpenters (hence, our awesome tree).

6. Playing a woman pretending to be a man pretending to be a woman is quite amusing. And lends itself very well to discussing transvestitism in Shakespeare in as many papers as possible.

7. Learning your lines is always more fun with friends (which leads me to #8).

8. Road trips make for particularly captive audiences.

In my Ganymede costume, standing next to the
AWESOME tree that Amanda's husband made for us.

Props for the show.

Anyway, so glad that part of my semester is over. Time to think about other things.

"... that reason wonder may diminish/ how thus we met/ and these things finish."