Do I wake or sleep?

So we've had our first few rehearsals for Macbeth, which I'm dramaturging/AD-ing for Andrew. (I frankly attach more importance to the former title than the latter--he told me I could do anything I wanted, I chose dramaturg, and later he added the AD function.) Rehearsal for this week has been all readthroughs and table work and hence at Christine's apartment down in Chelsea. I got there after 7 each time, since I get out of work after rehearsal starts so I didn't really get a chance to meet the cast per se but just sort of jumped in. Most of them are terrific--I especially like our Macbeth, Ross, Malcolm, Banquo and Porter. The first night I introduced myself after the readthrough had ended, and tallked about the various themes in the play and said "this is my favorite Shakespeare tragedy, not least because I'm related to the actual Macbeth." I looked at the guy playing him. "So don't fuck it up." (I said this humorously.)

I told them about Shakespeare's Advice to the Players and talked a little bit about the techniques discussed therein, and handed out some pages also discussing caesurae, scansion, etc. Andrew talked a little bit about my schedule--basically, very busy--mentioning that I was "going for her master's in history" and the guy playing Macbeth was asking me about that. I had to clarify--"yes, I'm going for it but I'm not actually in grad school right now, I'm in a program, at Columbia called the Post-Baccalaureate Studies Program. I'm trying to build a third major."

Last night (I can't do rehearsal on Sunday or Tuesday nights because of class) we had our second night of table work and I was on fiyuh. I really am Hermione in these situations--I have to force myself not to dominate the conversation too much. I talked about themes some more--time telescoping into itself as the plays approaches its climax (with the corollary that the witches are outside of time) was one. But I guess it was well-received--the two guys playing Malcolm and Ross were literally following me around during the breaks, and the Ross said to me "I love you--I want to squeeze every bit of knowledge out of your head!" I think I won him over when he asked me about a line in the beginning of the Lady Macduff scene--he wanted to elide two syllables to make it scan and wanted to know if that was okay. I whipped out my copy of the First Folio and said "that's the way it is First Folio so ask yourself this--why did Shakespeare add the extra syllable? Can you find an emotional reason for that? Maybe Ross is more nervous than he's letting on to Lady Macduff--he's stumbling over his words." He gave me this amazed look.

During Macbeth's Act V scene when he's struggling to put on his armor, I also talked a bit about clothing metaphors and how important clothing was as social/class signifier to the medieval/Renaissance mindset, how you could only wear certain materials/colors. There are a lot of clothing images throughout the play--I also talked about the body politic: the state of the nation is reflected in the body of the king--and this plays into the idea of Man is a micro-universe (the microcosm), which then leads to the blood imagery which saturates the play. (As I put it, "the blood in this play is like the elevator sequence in The Shining.") The complete disarray of the macrocosm, the body politic, is symbolized by the life's blood of the microcosm--the king whom Macbeth murders.

When we discussed the Act V battle, I brought up the fact that we see little of it--mostly we see Macbeth fighting one person after another. The Porter said something about a typically medieval mounted pitched battle and I said "that is actually less typically medieval than you'd think--it depends on the time period of course, and already for this production we're talking about three time periods--the mid-11th century, when the actual Macbeth lived; the early 17th century, when the play was written; and the 1930s, when this production is set. But there were a lot more sieges and raiding in certain periods than dramatically pitched battles." After rehearsal Banquo was asking me about medieval battle tactics and I launched into a discourse about the The Battle of the Golden Spurs, the ascent of the infantry in the 14th century, and how military tactics never really change or evolve, name-checking the Battle of Hoth at the end.

Saturday was busy--I had rehearsal for much of the day for both of my shows (Macbeth and my cabaret, about which more later) and then got a pedicure. Both rehearsals went well--for the cabaret I was sight-singing a lot of new music, and Donna was revising her score on the spot so I got to exercise my notation skills, which have lain fallow for lo these many years. For one song she extrapolated one cadence (used previously in the piece) to four measures instead of two. Since it was the final cadence, I suggested the sopranos go up to the C, instead of down to the G. "I'm feelin' it that way." She perked up, played it on the piano and said "That sounds great!" Bow down before my mad arranging skillz!

After that, Macbeth which went swimmingly. The three beyotches (Michelle, Laura and I) are going to ROCK--we blocked the later scenes when McB visits us and we show him the three Apparitions ("No man of woman born..." and the line of kings stretching out from Banquo). I was really into it, and our Macbeth, David, is very strong. I have been analyzing the text very closely and today I did a lot of research about the play and this history. God, I love this play. Soooooo moody and bloody and Celtic.

Saturday night, Michael, Holly and I hung out at Dalton's, half-watching the later NCAA game (*after* Mason got tromped by Florida :( . Mmmm, apple martinis.

I finally had a chance to sleep in on Sunday, but eventually roused myself to walk over to the Scottish Village in Grand Central Station. I was hoping they would have a sort of marketplace, where I could buy haggis and other kinds of food and goods (like at the Highland Games) but it was mostly booths promoting travel to Scotland and stuff. Still interesting but not what I expected. I did get a cute lil' pin with a Scottish flag crossed with an American one.

After that I went to church, and then over to Hoboken for an Actor Prepares meeting with Kelly, Jason, Alex and Don. That was very helpful.

I was talking with someone about how St. Patrick's Day is so huge in the North and Northeast and how the Scottish don't seem to have as much of a presence. I think comparatively fewer settled in those areas, but they're quite well represented in the South which was settled by the Scottish and English (which explains the Virginia Tidewater accent, plus the heavy fried diets, as well as the Cross of St. Andrews on the Confederate flag, plus the term Klan (Clan), plus the Klan's usage of the burning cross, an older Scottish means of summoning clans. The South has always had a hard-on for Sir Walter Scott and his romanticism!). In Virginia, Scottish Games are a big thing--Alexandria has them every July and they last a few days. They have the caber toss and the hammer throw, and dancing and a bunch of hot men running around in kilts ;) and a lot of booths where they sell all sorts of Scottish-themed products, like haggis, blood pudding, needlework with Scottish themes and designs, etc. It's a lot of fun.

I've been seeing signs for something called "Tartan Week" advertising a "Scottish Village" in Grand Central Station. I did some research and found this: Tartan Week is April 1-8. They have a parade and everything, and here is the site for the Scottish Village. Sounds like fun! At Tesse's shindig on Saturday I mentioned it to Kelly and she's quite familier with it, so we're going to go do some of these events together. Kelly, like me, is really, really whitebread-looking and nobody gives people like us credit for having an exotic ethnicity in this country! *sniff* Which is one reason I identify so much with my Scottish ancestry--I love my English blood as well, but it's English--it's safe, familiar, the default setting. Scottish is wild, romantic, hot-blooded, poetic, fey.