thehefner | Exercises in Acting and Writing

Had Acting II yesterday, wherein I performed the only funny scene from King Lear, the scene where Edgar leads his father to the edge of the "cliff," and even then it's a pretty grim scene. Everyone's favorite blind, non-crippled Duke of Gloucester was played by Carrie Chapter, who played the bitch in "Blue Surge" and has since become a good friend of mine. Odd casting, I admit, but the result was better than I could have hoped. Dale, teacher and head of the Drama Dept. loved it, saying it "gave him chills," and it left him with very few suggestions to make it better. After seeing us, he said that he "couldn't imagine seeing it done any other way." I'm still riding the euphoria of hearing that.

Edgar, along with Sir Andrew Aguecheek, is my favorite Shakespearian character, but is also the most maligned major character in an already maligned play (Lear gets the least respect and attention of the Four Great Tragedies, IMO). Lots of productions give the brothers subplot the cold shoulder, some omiting it entirely. My Adren Shakespeare Lear, my favorite edition too, even asserts that the evil brother Edmund "offers a more satisfying part for a modern actor than the role of Edgar." Me, I completely, wholeheartedly disagree, and am desperate to play Edgar someday. The comments from yesterday's class only strengthened my resolve.

Then, it was on to Playwrighting I class, where I submitted a scene from my novel that I adapted to play format (and those who have read portion of my book know this is not difficult task). Wellllll... bad idea. While I am still clinging to the hope and belief that my off-beat mixture of coming-of-age, murder mystery, drug war, cop story, superhero, and swashbuckler will work in novel format... uh, as a play somehow I don't think it's as easy to swallow.

If I learned anything from the excruciated experience of hearing this scene read aloud and then torn apart by a handful of the folks in class, it's that I know there will be some people for whom my novel is *not* intended. Anyone who has the slightest personal distaste for anything other than real-life, down-to-earth relationships isn't gonna "get" it. So at least now I have a better idea of who my target audience is, and that is a good thing. I know some dialog and fights and whatnot may turn off some people, but at the end of the day I'm gonna write what I want to write and let my editor do the cutting.

I would very much still like, if I can, to make a career of my acting and writing. But for now, I know that only one is better suited for live public performance. At least I won't have to watch people as they read my novels.