The Malcontent

So, I'm doing this play, and by "doing" I mean acting not writing. I understand there has been confusion before on that front. Anyway, I'm in rehearsals and we're basically just sitting around a table working out what everything means, what's going on in the plot, etc. And these sessions, for those of you that don't know, can take HOURS, especially when trying to dissect a Jacobean piece such as this one. It was confusing back in the day, so 400 years later, one can only imagine...

But I'm sitting listening to the script and to everyone talk about what this and that means, and tossing back and forth ideas about how to make everything clear to the audience, how to best communicate the characters' journeys and arcs, and it occurs to me, there here we all are. Just sitting in a room, talking about a play and its performance, and everyone, and I mean, everyone, has the same goal.

Through all our different perceptions and methods, in the midst of all our different histories and biases, the solution that we're looking for is the same. A story told well. And it occurs to me, that when a gaggle of people are in the middle of that search, they are at their finest. Despite the arguments and challenges and tempers, when seeking a common outcome, a common solution, all our crazy individual silliness suddenly has a purpose.

A group of people, sharing their thoughts, their true selves, in order to make something of beauty...well, it seems to me, that's a situation where you'd have to work really hard to be...a malcontent.

See what I did there? We open early May. Check out the website, www.antaeus.org

More to come...
A