THE TEMPTATION AND CURRUPTION OF WILlIAM BLAKE

So for the month of January, I have been at two separate play rehearsals for two plays im sure only a handful of people know about (hehe, you should picture a handful of people.) One is called Museum by Tina Howe, and the other is called Fidgety Fairy Tales: a Mental Health Musical. I chose to talk about this cause they both have some pretty cool, and sometimes meaningful quotes.

Museum

The play is about a musuem and its last day of an important art show. It's a comedy and barely apropriate for children (partly for the Gaurd's line "I've caught men exposing their genitals in this room") I play the Gaurd (sounds lame, but theres ALOT of lines) When spending 5 months looking over the script and reviewing the characters, you tend to find more than the writer may have intended. At first glance, its a comedy, like SNL or The Office. But i found it to mean alot more:

- The world is alot more fun and interesting than we hear and see within ourselves. Meaning, if you sat on a bench in a museum and observed the people, overhearing their conversations, you may just be entertained.

- "The art of human experience... Find it"

- I kinda began to see through this script that people (and artists) are wierd. But thats what makes them cool

- There's a gazilliono things about everyone that can be found. you can write a novel about EVERYONE, you just have to sit down, and learn.

Fidgety Fairy Tales

This production is COMPLETELY different than Museum. Its a musical about Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Handsome (knock off of sleeping beauty) and Rapunzel, and the hidden side of the stories. For instance, Little Red had ADHD and got distracted on the way to her grannys. Sleeping Handsome had depression, and he just wanted to fall asleep forever (take that anyway you want. Is it symbolism for death? Or simply an example of how depressed people sleep alot) and Rapunzel had Anxiety, being afraid of open spaces, stairs, and being made fun of. The show has a mission to travel to schools and educate people about these mental disorders, but I have come to see that its more than just some lame group of people that come to your school to talk. The show has some great lines, catchy tunes, and some interesting plot twists. It was written just last year and i am in the second cast to perform it. I play princeton (the prince who saves Rapunzel) and the Granny (oh yes, thats enough for you to want to go see it)Some interesting parts and lines:

- the audience gets a glance into the mind of people with such mental disorders, and i think people will begin to see the truth about what depression, anxiety, and ADHD really are about.

- Features such songs as "Sit still " a song where little red's family are struggling to maintain the little girl.

- "The Way I Feel Today" a song sung in the Prince Handsom scence about having the depression and wanting to "go to sleep within the dark and deep, and in my dreams ill stay, in dreams ill run away, and maybe i wont feel the way i feel today"

- and "Rapunzels Flower Song" where Rapunzel, too afraid to leave her tower, sings to her flower that has become one of her only friends, telling her, "we are safe here"

- The whole show seems to be heartbreaking, entertaining, and informative, at the same time.

- Learn more at www.macmh.org


Thanks for reading this slightly less than humorous entry, and Join the cause: POWER TO THE MONKEYS