"Cling-ting-clangety-clang!"

Saturday! In my heart! (I wish I knew how to make music notes) Anyhow, we did a double header today in tech week. The MWF cast (that's my cast) went in the morning, and the THS cast went later. I've been at rehearsal today since 9:45 AM and finally got into my car to go home at 11:11PM. It took us that long, but only because the Tech crew had to work on putting all the finishing touches on all entrances and exits.
At the beginning of our run, the Rochefort sword broke during the Luxembourg fight. I had just finished off my first Cardinal guard in the scene and I turned towards my next opponent and I heard a "cling-ting-clangety-clang" as a shiny silvery sword tip was heading in my direction. Of course the clangety-clang part of the sound was it hitting the ground well before it got to me, but still. As my son Noah would say and still does say, "Whew-da whas close!" We stopped and changed swords and started again, but I really hope that doesn't happen again, although I have a feeling that it just might, because it happened again today, to our cast even. I agree with Brad on this, and I think it's because we are hitting too hard in our fights. I like what one of my fight partners said, "we need to really work on pulling back on every hit, every parry, every floor touch." It really is a team effort in the sword fights. Although one person is winning and one is losing the fight, it still takes both of you to make it all happen the way you want it to in looks and in relation to how the story goes. It really is telling a story in of itself. Like a dance. I think the second break occurred with a d'Artganan fight. We had a little kid in the audience (a child from the parents of someone in the THS cast as they ran final dress rehearsal) who we all looked at because Brad pointed him out to us, and it really did make me think about how horrible it would be to see something happen that would damage that child, physically or mentally. He doesn't need to see anyone get hurt, (parent, patron, actor, or otherwise) or seriously injured.

**Just a side note, we don't use blood packs in the show, and I am thankful for that for a few reasons, but it's clear to the audience when we make a kill, or a slice to an arm, so there is no need to make our costume and the changes any more difficult than quick costume changes already are by themselves. (We have a few of them in this run and it's no picnic, but it's also kind of a rush. It's a great feeling when you pull it off with time to spare, a real thrill in the theatre biz.)***

I'm really excited about the performance of this show. It's been great to see the actors really step up and take on this character. I think it's even greater for me as someone cast in this show to see how a fellow thespian takes on their role and develops it into something real and tangible, and intriguing at the same time. The characters they all play are not what the actor is really like, in fact it's often times a long way off from how their characters really are. It really helps to see them off stage to realize that when they are on stage, they truly are that character, that person. Who knows if Porthos was ever a real person. History says that all the Three Musketeers characters were real, but may or may not have been the person that is being portrayed in this play. I would like to think that Porthos did exist and he was written about and mentioned in journals from back in the seventeenth century, so he must have been someone worth noting, and someone worth noting must have done something that was quite exceptional to have someone else write about you. So what was it really? Was Porthos a pirate? Was he a womanizer? Was he foppish, or just someone who really liked to look good? Was he a brawler, or did he just like to fight because he was really good at it, and it was something that was put to service back in those days? Did he want to honor the King and protect the Queen? To me a Musketeer is a lot like someone from our secret service would be in the U.S.A. A Musketeer was probably the first service where a body guard could say, "I took a bullet for them." However they were troublemakers, and great fighters to have lived as long as the stories say they do. I think the real Porthos is smiling at the way that I am portraying him, and I really enjoy what choices others are making and playing off of them for their character.