Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Dramatic Ditzing

After last autumn's theatrical catastrophes involving unwilling thespians, puerile, putrid script, no rehearsal time, and that little in a hectic, boisterous atmosphere, myself and two others who had been victim to these depressing circumstances decided there was only one thing to do -form our own troupe. Partly at my suggestion as pertaining to our personalities, we gave it the eloquent, sophisticated name Totus Mundus Agit Historionem - before it was even formulated. We thought to save ourselves the chaos and panic of last-minute planning, so we began recruiting in May. Alas, what with being perpetually absented from each other all summer, and other activities obtruding themselves on our schedules, we were unable to fix a day until August, by which time many, many others had conflicts. In spite of this we have a group of fifteen energetic and talented Dramatis Personae, and a script portraying Alice in Wonderland with undiluted satire and vocabulary.

Everything is going well and we've been having great fun. For example, yesterday we were trying to synchronize the 'ALL' lines during the croquet scene and the trial. We sat solemnly (or otherwise) in a circle, one person would say the line, then repeat it. On the repeat the next person joined them, matching there expression and meter. So it went, around the whole circle. It can easily be imagined that by the time everyone was chanting together, it became most rhythmic, and how could we keep from dancing? A few even improvised descants and percussion. From here it was but one step to the fact that we must do a musical. We got halfway through casting before coming back down to earth.