Let it be made known that henceforth at Rusticanda "Brother J" shall be referred to as Zacharias, in keeping with his personal preference and my command decision as the one who is blogging. Readers take note.
This summer, Zacharias and Giselle and I are directing a production of The Taming of the Shrew with our local CM co-op. Yes, gentle readers: we are putting on a Shakespeare play! Being inveterate Shakespeare lovers all three, I need hardly say that we are excited about the prospect.
The genesis of the project came during one of our homeschool co-op's book club meetings this spring. (I wasn't there myself, but I've heard reports.) The moms were trying to think of ways to keep the co-op active through the summer, and they started talking about drama. Zacharias was there and said something about Shakespeare, and then Giselle (who was also there) got excited about the idea, and the end of it was that Zacharias and Giselle were put in charge of putting on a Shakespeare play with the co-op during the summer. Then they told me about it and I got excited about it; so we are now working as three co-directors overseeing different parts of production (coaching, costumes, props, scheduling, etc).
Since then friends from co-op, church, ballet, and college have joined the production, and there is now a full cast of 21 people. We've had three meetings so far, the last one yesterday. In some ways yesterday's meeting felt like the real end of planning and the start of production. For the first time almost the whole cast was together, and we were able to read through the first half of the play. We heard some people read for the first time. We've already had some pleasant surprises with how well people read, and how excited they are to be in the play; but there's plenty of work to be done still. The current date for the performance is at the beginning of August. Until then we will be memorizing lines, getting into characters, making costumes, finding a place to hold the perfomance (*fingers crossed*), collecting props, and rehearsing, rehearsing, rehearsing.
So, yes. If you should hear us muttering things such as "Why sir, what am I, sir, that I should knock you here sir?" or "Let him that moved you hither remove you hence: I knew you at the first you were a moveable," you will understand that our minds are not deranged (not entirely, at any rate), but we are only remembering our Shakespeare. Now I must hence; and farewell to you all.
