Synopsis:
From the argument at the beginning of the scenario: "In Venice lived a certain Doctor Gratiano who had a son named Oratio. Oratio loved a young woman named Isabella, who in turn loved him. At the same time, and in the same city, lived a gentleman known as Pantalone, father of a young woman named Flaminia. The equal of Isabella in beauty and nobility, she set out to make Oratio love her so much that he would forget Isabella; so strong was her feeling for him that she was determined to marry him. When Isabella learned of this, she planned her revenge. Disguised as a servant in Pantalone's house, she would do away with Flaminia and cut short the marriage. The outcome is revealed in the play."

Confused? It gets even more confusing before all is fixed and we have our happy ending!

Research and Design:
Most of our research is the same as before, and we have no design pictures. However, we did something different this year -- we did a semi-period form of improvisational theatre.

We couldn't do this show as completely authentically as was done in period. The reason is that in period each actor portrayed the same character for most of their lives. This meant that a new scenario could be worked out in a very short amount of time, because the actors knew the characters as well as they knew themselves, and could slip into character and come up with the appropriate phrase, reaction, and so on to any situation without thinking about it.

While the actors in the GSP are talented folk, they do things other than theatre to earn a living, and they very few of them are repeating roles that they have performed in the past this year. Add to this that most of the troupe have very little experience with improvisational theatre, and it meant that we had to work hard.

However, all that hard work paid off, as you will have seen at 12th Night (if you saw the play!). We had a very funny show, and while the lines did not vary a lot between run-throughs, they did change sometimes as we attempted to find the best approaches. What helped is that the scenario is extremely detailed. The scenario contains no real dialog, but very detailed descriptions of what happens in each scene and Act. This freed the actors up to concentrate on how they would do each scene, and focus on the characterizations, rather than having to try to make up the story as they went.

In order to get ready for this we had some improvisation workshops in the summer. These were to see what we could do, and see if the troupe was comfortable with continuing with a fully improvised play. After the workshops, we discussed it, and decided to go ahead. We were all pretty nervous, and the early rehearsals showed that. However, as everyone got comfortable with their roles and with the scenario, it came together very well.

The Performance:
The performance itself went over quite well.

We started a bit later than we would have liked, because the sets still needed the curtains added, and that required that they actually be up. This was a new set of curtains and they worked well, but it added to our setup time (if we had not had lots of rain at our final rehearsal this would have been done then ...). So ...

Bonefinder (Charles) was sent out to vamp the audience. He just went silly, and that was really funny. Some of the members of the troupe came out and helped sometimes, adding comments, talking to the audience in character, etc. It was very a riot.

This amped the energy level up. Normally when a play starts, the energy level is low and has to ramp up. We started with high energy, and it went from there. The troupe was on, and performed well. In a couple of places expected jokes didn't occur, to be replaced by something else, usually just as funny.

Incidents:
There have been no particular incidents of note. No one has gotten hurt so far (knock on wood), and while life has intruded in some particularly nasty ways sometimes, everyone has hung in there and is doing good work.

Rivkah (who was going to do the camera work for the play) came down sick the week before 12th Night and couldn't make it. Luckily Kiara was going to be there and was happy to run the camera for us.

There was a little scheduling foob. Not major, more of a comedy-of-errors type situation. Shortly after October Crown, when we knew who the incoming Royalty were, we started talking with the Royalty and the autocrats about scheduling the play between courts if possible. Everything was agreed with the idea that if the outgoing King and Queen (Jade and Eliana) were done by 2, we could go on and then try to be done by 4 with the court room set back up (thrones in place, etc.). Well, court ended at 2. However, Jade had forgotten (I assume) and the heralds were never told (communication foob) by anyone ... and Jade went into automatic mode and announced that court would resume in 30 minutes. The wording sounded like he had more business (as opposed to "Coronation will begin ..."). Sigh. So, I started telling folk that we weren't going on until after the last court, which was the second option. Oh well, we tried ... But wait -- a few minutes after I got word out to most of the troupe, Fabian (the Crown Prince -- soon-to-be-King) came running up to me and said "Wait! You're supposed to be going on! We're not ready for Coronation!" D'oh! So rushing like mad we found everyone (called some of them on cell phone) and got in there to get the thrones and such off the stage, and put the sets up ... Even with starting about 25 minutes later than planned due to the need to add the curtains, we were done with the performance, and had the stage cleared and the thrones back and ready by 4:15 or so. The Coronation Court still didn't start until much later.

Unfortunately we had a communication foob as well with Vyncent and Vittoria who were going to do the minor "musician" bits that were in the scenario. They showed up after the play was over, in appropriate costume ... they thought we were performing after all the courts. It was a shame, although it didn't hurt the play any. We had to let them know that we didn't think ill of them, or anything and still liked them. <g>

So, Seamus drove to 12th Night by himself, and he got to thinking ... and he came up with an idea, but didn't tell me (Hirsch) about it. He told everyone in the cast, but ... he sat out in the audience and looked like he was just wearing his normal 12th Night clothes, not his costume (which was under what he was wearing). When the prologue started, I was startled by a "I'm tired of this!" and so on ... basically improvising as he went, and after a moment's pause, it was obvious I was supposed to retort and so ... I did. We had a little "spat", he went backstage and changed into his costume, and I finished the prologue with some of what I had planned on saying.

Video/Photographs:
Video: This is a very good video, and Kiara did a nice job of following the action.

Photos: There are photographs at the West Kingdom History website, specifically: Photos of The Betrothed. The current set were taken by Aldith Angharad St. George, there may be more at a later date.

The Script:
As we decided to perform this play in a semi-period improvisation style, there is no written script. We worked from the Scenario, form character notes and information from a variety of sources, and with each other to create the performance. We do not have the rights to publish the scenario, so we cannot make it available here. If you are interested in the scenario, see the footnotes at the bottom of this page.

From The Program:

⁺First time on stage with the Golden Stag Players.

Special Thanks: Maestra Teresa le Marchant, for helping us out with using the Community Center for her area of residence to rehearse in for many of our rehearsals. Also very special thanks to the autocrat staff (specifically Euriol of Lothian, Theodora Groves and Catherine Lorraine) and the Royalty for helping us with the "storage of the set" problems at this site, and being patient ...

(In order of actor's appearance on stage)

Hirsch von Henford China – The latest offering from Spode for the Christmas Wedding Season is a 12-piece bone china dinner set. Each piece is charmingly decorated with a magnificent 24K golden stag delightfully surrounded by all of your favorite Commedia characters, bringing carnival cheer to your holiday dinner table. You'll love bringing it out once a year to delight your guests, then putting it away in a dark closet for the next 12 months.

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The Morgan mac Eoin 5000 – This toaster can handle bread products of any sort you feed it, ranging from just plain bread to bagels and muffins. One must watch out about toasting products using cheese with this toaster, as there may be some odd discharge from the equipment.

The Urtatim al-kitabkhaniyya al-Qurtubiyya bint 'abd al-Karim al-hakam al-Fassi Food Processor – It slices, dices, grates, grinds, and prepares food quicker than you can say its name. Additional feature: Uses unusual spices. Caution: Keep hands clear of whirling blades, stirring spoons, and hot spots.

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Reviews:
"I thought it was great. The "scenario" (was that the term?) format seemed to work very well -- most of the actors did a great job living in their characters' skins. (Arlecchino in particular stands out for me.) I also appreciated having it scheduled between courts." -- Adriana Tacita

Notes:
¹ Scenarios of the Commedia dell'Arte: Flaminio Scala's Il Teatro delle favole rappresentative, Translated by Henry F. Salerno, Limelight Editions, ISBN 0-87810-133-4.