Everyone loves a good villain.
Three years ago, I remember my high school put on a production of Miss Saigon, a musical adaptation of Madame Butterfly, but set during the Vietnam War. As you might imagine, the production fell a bit short of representing the complexity of the Vietnam War in its entirety, though I was secretly hoping for something more Rushmore-esque. Anyway, during intermission people were leaving in droves and not coming back. But I stuck it out. Was it for the hit-and-miss singing? No. Was it for the choreographed Viet Cong dance scene? No. I stayed for the Engineer.
Within the world of the play, the Engineer is a trafficker of sex slaves. The Engineer was also the most compelling character on the stage; the actor who played the Engineer had far more conviction in his role than anyone else. My point is, he was fascinating to watch.
Well, we're doing monologues in my intro acting class right now, and I've been assigned the role of a psychotic stalker-type. Though most people might simply write off my character as "evil" or "crazy," I've found that I've been forced to really think about what it is that pushes him to the edge.
The other night I spent some quality time with Anthony, my character. First he was in the bathroom mirror, and later he was staring at me through the window. There were some moments when I felt pretty uncomfortable making eye contact with him. That guy just gives me the willies.
4 comments:
Looove Rushmore!
- These are O.R. scrubs.
- O, R they?
I remember doing either a portion of the full deal of Madame Butterfly at Lakeshore. I'm pretty sure I didn't understand any of the nuance, nor really understand the Vietnam War in any meaningful fashion. I wonder what part I did...
/ wow I'd actually confused the two works in my mind, and thought they were the same. I... _think_ we did Madame Butterfly at Lakeshore. Probably, because I remember SF Opera people being there, none of this Orpheum madness.
When the opera people visited Lakeshore, I remember we staged our own mini-production of La Boheme. I think Marieke Thomas was the toy merchant. I forgot who was dying of tuberculosis.
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