The Merry who of What, now?

Last Tuesday evening as we were wrapping up rehearsal, we had the first sighting of a man whom I've come to think of as kind of a good luck harbinger. He is a retired theater professor from SMSU who drops by a handful of times during our rehearsal process to see what is going on. There are always a couple of actors who had him in class, or worked with him on this show or the other, and he often has candies that he hands out with smiles and handshakes. To tell the truth, I had found his visits pretty intimidating--he is, after all, someone whose work and opinion I respect a great deal. So to have him there, observing the rehearsal process--and my direction-- kinda gave me the willies. It didn't take long for that to go away, however, as he has been nothing but kind and complimentary every time we've spoken.

One of the things 'Doc' was saying as we we're all standing chatting was that while he had read The Merry Wives of Windsor, he couldn't actually recall ever having seen it produced. That gave me a little pause; after all, a man who has made his carreer out of producing plays sees a lot of shows. It was thinking along these lines that partly led to me starting this blog.

So, what is MWoW about? Think of in terms of a modern situation comedy. There is love, mistaken identities, jealousy, silly accents, and just a little bit of naughty word play. The story centers on Sir John Falstaff and his attempts to woo and win the titular wives, not for the sake of love, but in order to make money and avoid turning to honest work. He makes a rather shoddy attempt and Mistress Ford and Mistress Page immeadiately set about to hoist Sir John on his own petard. There is all manner of of mischance and mischief leading to the wives concocting a elaborate scheme to show Falstaff the error of his ways.

Of course, being Shakespeare, the story also contains all manner of colorful side plots and characters. I will talk about the plot details a little bit at a time to make it as clear and easy to understand as I can. So more on the other characters and situations of the show later; till then, here is a photo of me doing this job I love to do on the set of 2007's As You Like It...


Till next time-
Justin