And yes, the week closed out well. I am delighted to say I am completely off-book. Like - I called for "line" maybe twice during the blocking process. So, my homework before coming down was of a suitable amount. On Sunday, the stage manager came up to me and asked if she could speak to me. She pulled me aside and said she loved working with me and thinks I'm "freaking incredible"....I think I have a far way to go before I'm THAT, but DAY-EMN it made me feel good to receive an unsolicited compliment from someone in the biz. This girl needed it. It's been a while.
The week ended with a couple nightcaps and a nice buzz remedied with cheap pizza shared amongst the bad boys of the cast. The customary "cast drink" was appropriately-timed....I longed for it. I always feel that - since we are our bodies and our bodies are our careers, this little bonding moment is vital to building the ensemble. It helps this introvert feel herself. It gets me feeling creative.
ENOUGH about me! Basta! Fine!
Blessed Monday off. Tonight, looking at Shakespeare's Acts I and II, which is what we will be reviewing and running tomorrow: Top of the show through the wooing scene. I am thinking about how to MAKE KATE MORE OF A HUMAN. And seeing the importance of just READING THE DAMN SCRIPT. Because it automatically helps me SEE THE THROUGH-LINE, eventually, by repetition, QUESTIONS ARE ANSWERED. Via mere fatigue? I dunno.....but it's lovely to know that when I have hit a road-block, I can just read the script over-and-over and ideas (however small) will come to me.
Tonight, I thought about my POV (point-of-view) on Gremio & Hortensio: They are basically little annoying gnats. They interrupt me over-and-over and I respond violently, but it is basically me swatting my hand at a gnat.
The POV on my father is deep. On Sunday, during my final speech (from which we are - thankfully - cutting some lines), I found myself walking around the banquet table to Baptista. I gave some of the speech to him and he looked up at me (this actor is the kind of actor who affects you by doing "nothing"....he's that good. This is my only moment of connection with him in the play and it's unscripted). I gave him a peck on his bald head and was completely overcome and choked up and said some of the speech as this was happening. It was an awesome moment, especially because when I finished, our Petruchio had been crying as well. Not too bad for the first time through, just blocking.
So, I start out tossing these guys-who-don't-wanna-pay out of the saloon. I'm already pissed. My dad comes in with my stupid fucking sister and I really don't want to share the same space as they are in right now. I wanted some alone time. But nooooo....and to make it worse, dumb and dumber are out there too - making me feel like shit. Dad then offers me up LIKE A PIECE OF MEAT, so casually. So hurtful (I found this translation on shmoop that spoke to me: "if either one of you thinks my oldest girl is hot, feel free to have a go at her. I'm sure we can work out a deal.". So there's the page. Let's not worry about the lines.
Now that I created a little backstory about my Mother, I can forget that. It's all about Dad from here on out. It's all about the present (backstory work just to get the juices flowing).
Making Kate more human.....arises from working like this. I have just under three weeks, so I can repeat the play a couple times a day and maybe a human being will arise organically from the muscles in my mouth moving. I find this is especially true for that last monologue: MUST SAY THAT EVERY DAY.
The second scene, I enter with Bianca tied up. This wild-west Kate is going to use her sister as shooting practice. I don't really think I'll kill her, because I'm a real good shot. But I'm at peace if I happen to hit her. I am not sure as to why I am so intent on questioning her. My husband said it might be because my Dad is going to hook me up with one of them, so I really want to know which one I'm going to be mated with. This is a valid reason, but I still can't really wrap my head around it and believe it....I'm trying to. Another possibility is that I wants to know which one she wants so that I can physically beat him up. And the third option is that I just want to torture her and this is as good a reason as any. The fourth reason - and the one I like most at present is that I really do want to get married and this is a way to live vicariously through Bianca. I tie her up because I can...I'm hurt....and this is the most sophisticated way I know how to handle that emotion (which is to say, not very sophisticated). I think I have the upper-hand until Bianca implies I can have the suitors if I want them, since I'm an old maid. This just makes things worse. I am so consumed with my hurt from my Dad's oblivion to my situation and real heart's desire, that I act out the only way I know how: To take Bianca to the shooting range. She is the object of everyone's attention. This is about good, ol'-fashioned, revenge.
Acting in pages - from beginning to wedding, it's about me obsessing about my future. About this marriage. The pressure is intense. My dad is oblivious. My sister is hurtful. And the townspeople misread me. I am handling the situation as best I know how.
I think Kate is bored with how easy it is to beat people up. (Enter Petruchio). Yes, until Petruchio. I am bored with how easy it is. And this can also be exhibited in the WAY I exhibit violence. It's not enjoyable. I do it AGAINST MY WILL at times...(maybe?) because I'm fuckin' over it!
*********Something else to play with: When I LIKE what Petruchio is saying i.e. he's going to marry me (in front of Baptista) -- time to choose to NOT fight back. It's my way of playing coy. BEING VIOLENT WITH PETRUCHIO IS MY WAY OF PLAYING COY.
MARRIAGE is VERY IMPORTANT TO KATE. I make myself as unattractive as possible.
- 2.1.35: She yells at Baptista for agreeing to let her marry Petruchio, but she's later silent when Petruchio lies and says Kate wants to marry him.
This timeline helps with big-picture stuff:
From other blogs: "From the beginning we see that she is continually placed second in her father's affections, and despised by all others. " It's not that Kate is blameless.....her Dad sucked with his oblivion. But I was blind and now I see. I can also learn how to forgive."
I also like this: " The transformation, which she undergoes near the end of the play, is not one of character, but one of attitude. At the end of the play, we find out that her negative attitude becomes a positive one. "
& this: "However, understanding her position, one does begin to sympathize with her as in a public place, where such passersby as Tranio and Lucentio can easily overhear, Baptisa informs Bianca's suitors that he will not allow either of them to marry his younger daughter until a husband is found for Katherine. In effect, he is announcing that he wants Katherine off his hands".
"As Katherine picks up an argument with Petruchio, as she does with everyone she has spoken to up to this point, Petruchio is able to voice back at her without having to gang up with someone (Bianca to Baptisa) or use authority (Baptisa) to put her down. He counters everything she says and even when she loses control and hits him (Act 2, Scene 1, 233), he calmly uses words to check her temper."
MLA Citation:
"Katherine and Bianca of The Taming of the Shrew." 123HelpMe.com. 26 Aug 2013
<http://www.123HelpMe.com/view.asp?id=16685>.
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