The Wyrd Sisters

It's been a while, hasn't it? Summer went by in a relative flash, and fall has been pretty decent so far. There hasn't been too much to report, but I think I should start writing again, even if what I'm updating is inane or unimportant to anyone, including me.


So, what to talk about today? Well, let's start slow and relatively unimportant.


I got a couple of small parts in a play that the Walterdale Playhouse is doing. As you may remember, Walterdale is where I do most of my stage acting nowadays, since it's a great community theatre and it's the oldest of its kind in Canada. Most everyone is a volunteer, and budgets aren't great, but that doesn't prevent them from doing some amazing shows, including Shakespeare, some classic dramas, even musicals! I've been hankering to get involved in a musical again at Walterdale, but it seems that whenever auditions come up, I'm otherwise occupied or ill or gimpy or just plain blah.


This time, however, my gimpyness won't be much of a hindrance. I've got two small roles, one at the beginning of the show and one near the end of the show. In the middle, I suppose I'll be hanging out upstairs and snacking. Or reading. Or whatever. It'll be cool.


You know what's cooler? The play is a stage adaptation of Terry Pratchett's The Wyrd Sisters. If you're familiar with Pratchett's Discworld series of light-hearted fantasy novels, then you'll know the story. If you're familiar with classic tales of tyrant kings and long-lost princes usurping the throne, then you'll be familiar with the story. The directors have assembled a great cast, and they've even let me have some funny bits and a death scene.


Because I've been pretty gimpy lately, it's been no picnic to walk around without a cane, not even for short periods of time. Even with a new bottle of pills, for some reason I just can't get pain or swelling free. If it's not my knees, it's my feet, if it's not the feet, it's the heels, if it's not the heels it's the arch, if it's not the arch, it's the knees again. The ciiiiiiiiircle of liiiiiiiiiiiiiiife!


Anyhoo, we were blocking my death scene and the fight director was having a dickens of a time trying to find a way to get me to the ground without hurting myself. I couldn't kneel, couldn't bend my knees all the way, and even when I bent my knees as far as I could, I couldn't balance my weight effectively because my feet were hurting too. I'm better than that now, but at the time, it was a problem. After trying a few things, we settled on using the character who stabs me from behind. She would help to lower me to the ground, thereby removing the need for me to fall any distance or rely on my knees.


The result of this is that I get to prolong my death by a few seconds and give a pretty funny death scene. My face goes through a couple of expressions before death, ranging from "what the hell did you just do?" to "oh, you bastard, you did not just stab me" to "if I die because of this, I will KEEEEEEEEL you!" When we showed it to the group in rehearsal, we got a good laugh out of it, so it all worked out.


The only down side to being in only two short scenes is that I don't get to see what kind of awesomeness everyone else is coming up with, or how these other characters are developing. I miss that, but I don't miss having to go to rehearsal every other night. I've got Kow rehearsals, a wedding to attend and perform at, and a sci-fi festival to plan, not to mention things heating up at work! So this is for the best.