fandomtownies | The Boards - Tuesday - CASTING

Turtle blinked at the man at the curtain.

"Uhh, no..." she said, very slowly, the confusion evident in the frowning of her eyebrows. "Why would I do that?"

"Just checking."

Moving on!

"As for strong roles, the only one we actually have left is, er, possibly worse publicity. Even discounting Keanu Reeves."

He eyed her curiously.

"Unless you're interested in playing the villain of this piece?"

Turtle thought about that for a moment, her nose wrinkling at the prospect. She was a good guy, she didn't know if she'd really want to play a villain.

"Wait a sec," she said, turning back to the guy with a tilt of her head, because something wasn't adding up in her head here, "only one left? I thought you were still casting, though?"

"You said 'strong' roles. I'm still casting, but that's the last major role left. And I'd be crosscasting, not that it's unheard of. There's some gender dynamics that can be played using that kind of choice and I'm not against it."

Beat.

"And, of course, you'd have to prove to me you've got it in you to do it. Acting is required."

"...Right, clearly, but, I mean..." Turtle's frown deepened, unsure if she was following this right. "I know I've never really done a play, before, but...you've casted roles before everyone's even had a chance to audition? Doesn't that seem a little..."

She hesitated, the word unfair on the tip of her tongue, but she didn't want to sound insulting.

She sighed; she hated when people criticized how she did business, so she wasn't about to do the same thing to someone else. She did think it was rather unfair, and maybe a little stupid, because someone could come in, be the best for the role, but, if she was understanding him correctly, it'd be tough cookies because someone else already had it.

"Whatever," she decided. "So what roles are available other than the villain? Maybe it's better I take a small part, anyway, because I am a very busy person, but I told Hoshi I'd do this with her because I thought it would be fun."

"Generally," he admitted, "I wait. Because you're right, it is a little..."

He looked to her and tilted his head. He hadn't heard the word, since it hadn't been spoken, but he had a feeling he knew what was going to go there.

"But when someone fits the role, when the piece slips right in just the right way for the production..." he shrugged. "I admit, I'm used to professional theatre, even if I had my reasons to get out of it, and there you have your troupe and your cast is pretty well decided by the time you even figure out what you're doing. Something to think on, though, something to think on."

He scratched at his hair.

"I've got Ursula, one of Hero's waiting women, if you're interested. She's... smaller, but I think she's relatively strong in her own way. Especially with Margaret around."

Turtle gave the guy a look that made it clear that, yeah, she saw the last performance and he was sure as heck a far cry from professional theater. But she sighed again, and thought back to the script (of course she read it when she knew she'd be trying out), trying to remember Ursula. A waiting woman was hardly a woman-in-power role that Turtle liked, but...

There didn't seem a whole lot to her, to be honest, which made Turtle wonder how she could put something into her ~~not dirty~~.

"And since I'm sure they're already casted," Turtle said, with uninhibited bitterness, "who've you got for Hero and Margaret?"

She had to make sure, after all, that she wasn't serving someone she hated and that her BFF wasn't a tool.

"Hinata, actually," he said, his tone ignoring the bitterness even if the look in his eyes said very clearly that he'd heard it and taken it in.

"Hinata as Hero and Hoshi as Margaret."

He offered the stage with one hand.

"Did you have something prepared, or would you like me to pick something from my collection?"

I.e. the duffle bag sitting next to the stage.

Hinata and Hoshi. Oh, Turtle could definitely work with that, but she had to admit, she was a little surprised.

"Hinata? As Hero? What, you mean she didn't just die of nervousness once she tried out?"

She meant that, of course, with the utmost love and adoration. But really.

"And you can pick something. Hit me."

"She actually did pretty well," he said with a spread of his hands. "And I think the part fits her."

He didn't say anything else, however. Instead, he leaned over into the bag and handed her (http://www.mirroruptonature.com/shakespeare-monologues/female/tots-5-2-141-katherina.pdf) a script turned to a certain page.

Turtle took the offered script, looking it over real quick to make a game plan on how to approach it. She did need to take a moment to rub her forehead, muttering something about how she didn't understand why these people in these plays couldn't just speak plain old good English.

She cleared her throat. "Ahem."

"Fie, fie!" She flailed her free arm, "unknit that threatening unkind brow,
And dart not scornful glances from those eyes,
To wound thy lord, thy king, thy governor:
It blots thy beauty as frosts do bite the meads,
Confounds thy fame as whirlwinds shake fair buds,
And in no sense is meet or ami...amia..bull."

She cleared her throat again after the stumble. It was starting out as something that sounded a lot like what a polition might deliver at a rally for votes, but that was about to change.

"A woman moved is like a fountain troubled,
Muddy, ill-seeming, thick, bereft of beauty;
And while it is so, none so dry or thirsty
Will deign to sip or touch one drop of it."

At this point, Turtle had the urge to just finish with 'blah,blah,blah' but she kept going strong, "Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper,"

...ew, no. She shook her head, sighing,

"Thy head, thy sovereign; one that cares for thee,"

GAG. She rolled her eyes but kept reading,

"And for thy maintenance commits his body
To painful labour both by sea and land,
To watch the night in storms, the day in cold,
Whilst thou liest warm at home, secure and safe;
And craves no other tribute at thy hands
But love, fair looks and true obedience;
Too little payment for so great a debt.
Such duty as the subject owes the prince
Even such a woman oweth to her husband;"

Who the heck wrote this tripe? Oh, right. Shakespeare. It sound like something her mom would say to Angela.

"And when she is froward, peevish, sullen, sour,
And not obedient to his honest will,
What is she but a foul contending rebel
And graceless traitor to her loving lord?
I am ashamed that women are so simple
To offer war where they should kneel for peace;
Or seek for rule, supremacy and sway,
When they are bound to serve, love and obey.
Why are our bodi--"

"Okay," Turtle stopped abruptly, shaking her head, with her face twisting is disgust, "I so can't read the rest of this. Not even if you paid me."

"Good to hear," he said with a faint, unassuming smile.

"I hate that play. At least, when staged literally."

He plunked himself down in one of the chairs.

"I do have a question for you, though," he said as he held his hand out for the text.

"Why didn't you read it over before you started?"

"I skimmed it," Turtle said, defensively, "and, what, like I was going to let you just sit there while I read it to myself, wasting both your time and mine?"

Edited 2008-09-02 17:11 (UTC)

"It's not a waste if it's information you need to know," he pointed out placidly, "and I don't have anywhere to go."

"But I do," Turtle informed him importantly, shaking her head slightly. Didn't he know who she was? She sighed and explained further, "Look, I understand why you'd want us to have read the script once we're cast, and I'll do that, but I don't see the point in wasting precious rehearsal time on what I should be doing in my own time, you know? And I would have prepared something, but I thought I'd let you pick it because I probably would have just recited the Declaration of Independence, and you have a better idea of what would show my....actory qualities than I would. Also, letting you pick shows that I'm flexible," really, "and that I can handle a situation when it's just thrust upon me, you see?"

"Because," he said, slowly, almost carefully, "it says something about your actory qualities.

"You came in here, asking for a part. You seem to know the roles somewhat, so I'm assuming you gave the play a read. However, acting is not just reciting lines off a page."

He pointed to the text she'd just been reading.

"You can't act if you don't know what you're saying. If I can't see you act, then I can't cast you."

He considered the problem of explaining this for a moment.

"It would be like trying to put together a complex mechanism without even looking at the directions. No, really, this would be 'without even looking at the box to see what it's supposed to look like eventually'. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Turtle rolled her eyes. "And I'm acting like I'm not feeling insulted by that. Of course I understand. But you didn't even give me a sample from the play. So I can't act as," she glanced down to make sure she got the name right, "Katarina. But I'm not going to be Katarina, am I? I'm going to be Ursula. And I did skim it; I just didn't read every last single detail or sit here trying to figure out the meaning of every single word. Your metaphor doesn't quite work, does it? I totally looked at the box. I just wanted to see if I could put it together myself without the help of the instructions first."

"And, I mean," Turtle added after a small pause to collect herself, "you're the one trying to put the pieces together before looking through all the pieces you have.

"You skimmed it so well you missed the point of what the speech said?" he asked her, one eyebrow raised.

"I'm sorry," Turtle said, shaking her head, "but when a monologue starts out with 'Fie, fie,' all bets are off. The brain, it just shuts down and all it can think is, 'SPEAK ENGLISH, DANG IT!' And, yes, sir, I know it is English, but come on. We gotta keep up with the times here. The language may be pretty, but just think about toilet facilities back then. That might say something."

He nodded to what she'd said, his lips and chin resting on his fingers as he bounced them thoughtfully.

"'The brain, it just shuts down and all I can think is SPEAK ENGLISH, DANG IT!'"

He spoke slowly and precisely, obviously thinking over the words before he looked up at her.

"Why do you think people go to the theatre, Turtle? What do you think is the point?"

Curious. Definitely not condescending. Condescending was for the ones well-mired in their own idiocy. Everyone else got 'thoughtful', 'curious', and occasionally 'annoyed', but he was only human.

Turtle sighed, taking a moment to rub her face with her free hand, and then she drew in a calming breath. Counted backwards from ten. Held out a hand.

"Okay," she said, "I understand that a lot of this theater stuff is really important to you, but honestly? I don't have time for this. I only wanted to look into this as something fun to do with Hoshi, but if this is what it's going to be like, this is not going to be fun, and I have way too many things to do regularly. I still wanted to get involved, though."

Another breath.

"So let me sing a different tune for you, Mister Tennant. I don't think I got a chance to introduce myself; my name is Turtle Wexler, and I co-own Turtle & Canary here in town. The second most successful business on this island. I'm also very independently wealthy on my own right, quite possibly one of the most independently wealthy sixteen year old in the world. If you let me have this part, I will agree to provide any funding you might want to help improve not only your production but the theater as a whole."

She paused. Blinked.

"Under the approval, of course, of a reasonable and realistic proposal."

"It's very pretty," he said, sounding very very tired, "but it's not my tune."

"While the offer is appreciated, and don't think it isn't, money is still money, I'm an artist not a fool... the role is not for sale.

"If you would like to give reading another try with a different monologue and if you would like to take part as Ursula, it's yours. No funding necessary."

He sat up.

"Otherwise, I will thank you for your time and effort and invite you to try out for the next production."

What a tool. Turtle was trying to decide whether or not she should even bother with this, or if she should decide to boycott the whole production because, really, the man had awful public relations here.

Boycotting would be awful hard, though, since she knew both Amber and G'Kar liked to get involved.

"Will this monologue actually be more directly relevant to my actual part?"

"That monologue was directly relevant to your part, because it was relevant to you. The actress. In the part."

He shook his head.

"That said, I'll pull up something a little less odious."

Turtle sighed, because she knew that after all of that, she couldn't give a good performance even if she tried, and just decided to level with Mister Tennant. Ultimately, she figured, Hoshi would understand.

"Mister Tennant," she said, "do you even want me in this play? Because if you don't, then I can turn around and leave and you don't have to worry about it anymore, because, quite frankly, I'm not feeling like this is a working relationship that will be beneficial to me, and this will be especially true if you don't even want me here. I think it's extremely unfair, though, for you to be so difficult with someone who just wants to be a part of what you do here. I'm really upset right now, and I can't put out a good performance when I feel like I want to cry. If this is what your rehearsals are like, I'm sorry, I don't want to do it. I wanted to do something fun, not something that made me feel bad because I'm not the world's best actress for a relatively small part."

"You asked me what theater meant, and why people might go to it, and I always thought that they went to it to have a good time. Clearly, I was very wrong, because that's the last thing I'm having right now."

The Boards - Tuesday - CASTING - 9/02

Re: Geoffrey / Get Cast

Re: Geoffrey / Get Cast

Re: Geoffrey / Get Cast

Re: Geoffrey / Get Cast

Re: Geoffrey / Get Cast

Re: Geoffrey / Get Cast

Re: Geoffrey / Get Cast

Re: Geoffrey / Get Cast

Re: Geoffrey / Get Cast

Re: Geoffrey / Get Cast

Re: Geoffrey / Get Cast

Re: Geoffrey / Get Cast

Re: Geoffrey / Get Cast

Re: Geoffrey / Get Cast

Re: Geoffrey / Get Cast

Re: Geoffrey / Get Cast

Re: Geoffrey / Get Cast

Re: Geoffrey / Get Cast

Re: Geoffrey / Get Cast

Re: Geoffrey / Get Cast

Re: Geoffrey / Get Cast

Re: Geoffrey / Get Cast

Re: Geoffrey / Get Cast

Re: Geoffrey / Get Cast

Re: Geoffrey / Get Cast

Re: Geoffrey / Get Cast

Re: Geoffrey / Get Cast

Re: Geoffrey / Get Cast

Re: Geoffrey / Get Cast

Re: Geoffrey / Get Cast

Re: Geoffrey / Get Cast