Art Thou Romeo?

“Where’s Juliet?”

   “Ricardo, we told you, she’s not coming to Tuesday rehearsals, she has dance class.”

   “How is she going to keep up?”

   The Director bit his tongue. Benvolio laughed from offstage. Mercutio laughed from the front row, leaning back, and looking around for others to laugh with him.

The Producer and the wardrobe lady were shaking hands and talking to someone at the back of the seats where the Director’s table was.

   The Director came down, and stepped up onto the rehearsal stage, and took Ricardo aside. “Ricardo, she has theatre experience, she knows what she needs to do. Everyone here has more experience than you, but you have the best look for the part. You’re going to have to work a bit more, but you have a lot going for you already. Okay? Have you been working on the text, and the blocking?”

   “Yea, I got the Cliff notes, too.”

   “I mean the lines. You know your lines for tonight? It’s was on your schedule.”

   “No. Yeah, no, I know them.”

   “And you remember the blocking we did with Juliet on Sunday?”

   “Yea, so I just say the lines, and walk where I’m supposed to, and make believe she’s here?”   

   “Yes, make believe.” The Director smiled, dropped down from stage, and went to the big table at the back of theatre. The others were still saying hi to an old man sitting there. “Jim here has volunteered to be on book. Jim, Ricardo, Ricardo Jim.”

   Ricardo looked out and waved to Jim who didn’t wave back.

   “Places.” The Stage Manager called.

   “Benvolio, cue him in.” The Director called.

   “Good morrow cousin.”

   Ricardo walked on from offstage, thought for a moment of where he was supposed to be standing, then said, “Is the day young?”

   “Is the day SO young?” came Jim’s loud correcting voice from the back.

   “That’s what I said.”

   The Stage Manager spoke, “That’s not what you said. It’s got to be exact. You can’t paraphrase.”

   “You can’t improvise Shakespeare.” Benvolio nudged Ricardo.

   Barely a dozen lines more into the scene, and with almost as many mistakes, Ricardo proved he was not close to knowing his lines. Jim’s voice came in every time Ricardo spoke, righting the sentence or phrase, or at least restoring a missing a word in each line. Ricardo kept getting progressively worse.

   “Okay. The Director stopped. “Let’s go back to first places and run at it again.” This was the beginning of a number of restarts.

   Again, Ricardo butchered his lines. “Sorry.”

   “Please, don’t apologize.” The Stage Manager said. “It wastes too much rehearsal time, just call for line if you need a line.”

   “Alas, that love, whose view is muffled, Should without eyes…”

   “-whose view is muffled STILL, Should without eyes…”

   “-whose view is muffled without eyes-“

   Mercutio laughed.

   “Okay stop.” The Director came down to the front of the audience and took a seat beside Mercutio. Mercutio stopped smiling and squirmed a bit.

   “Alright, let’s try it again Ricardo, and don’t worry about the acting, the emotion so much, just concentrate on saying the lines.”

   “He should be on stage left at this point.” The Stage Manager called.

   “Yeah, the blocking isn’t fully nailed down, yet. We’ll firm it up later.”

   “Okay, first places again, please.”  

   The Director sent Mercutio backstage suggesting he practise his own lines while he waited. The Director had hoped to reduce the distractions, but it didn’t really help.

   The lines were getting duller, and angrier, as Ricardo failed to recite them clearly. Ricardo huffed and puffed to show he was close to giving up.

   The Director touched the shoulder of the Stage Manager. “Everyone take twenty.” She called. “And take it outside, please.”

   Jim stood up and turned around and pushed the walker he had been sitting on to the Men’s Room.

   The Director motioned Ricardo to the downstairs edge and invited him to sit.

   “I thought I knew them. I worked on them. I can’t be making that many mistakes. I don’t even think that that Jim can see the script. He doesn’t even give me a chance; he just shouts over me before I even finish a sentence.”

   “He’s not shouting, he’s projecting his voice. You’ll need to project your voice, too, but we’re not going to worrying about that this early in rehearsal. He’s here to help you.”

   “I know I’m not making that many mistakes.”

   “You are.”

   “And he says the lines funny all the time. Kind of sing song.”

   “It’s not sing song, it’s iambic pentameter. We’re going to work on that, too, later.”

   “And when he says the other parts, he does them all the same. I can’t tell whose lines he saying. I know when Benvolio and Mercutio are talking because they’re here. But when this Jim is talking, I don’t know if it’s guy, or a girl, or the Prince.”

   “He’s not here to act the parts, he’s only supposed to give you the other lines so you can do your lines. That’s his job tonight.”

   “Well, he speaks to me too slow, like I’m idiot.”

   “No, he speaks to you slow so you can get the words right.”

   “I’m trying. Look, can I use my script? Like, I’ll know the lines for sure for Thursday rehearsal. I promise. The first Act. The first two Acts. I’ll know the first two.” He pulled out his cell phone and started keying for the script to display.

   The Director took his phone.

   “Ricardo, ordinarily I might go for that, but Jim is one of the founders of this little theatre, and he’s been sick for a number of years, and tonight he wanted to volunteer to help out. And we really wanted him to be able to be here again, and give him a chance to be a part of things again. Just for tonight. He doesn’t have a lot of nights left, Ricardo. Can you try again? When he comes back. And maybe when he does correct you, maybe you could soften your tone, and maybe give Jim a feeling that he’s helping? Can you do that?”

   Jim propped the exit door while trying to work his walker back into the theatre.

   Ricardo nodded to the Director and took up his place again.

   Benvolio returned and they moved on in the scenes, with Jim speaking the other parts. Jim spoke clearly from the back of the theatre, and word perfect, as he had throughout the rehearsal. Ricardo managed to stumble along. Finally, the Director said, “Okay, that’s enough. In the time that’s left let’s see who wardrobe wants to fit, and there’s some scheduling and housekeeping stuff we can go over before anyone leaves.”

   Jim was alone as others were braking off into groups. Ricardo approached him. Ricardo was embarrassed, and wanted to show he was grown up and mature.

   “I wanted to thank you for, ah…”

   “Being on book?”

   “Yeah. Yeah. Do you have any advice you think might help me?”

   “Oh, it not my place. There’s only one Director, and that’s the only person you should take direction from.”

   “Yeah, I know, I mean, like general acting tips?”

   “Well, Ricardo, now that you’re close to me I have to tell you; you’re going to have to get a stronger deodorant if you’re going to have any chance of Juliet getting close to you.”

   “I did not make that many mistakes.”

   “I call them as I hear them.”

   “Most of the time you didn’t even look at the script.”

   “Oh, I can’t look at the script. I’m legally blind, Ricardo, I haven’t read a script in years. I still have my memory.”

   Ricardo reached down and shook Jim’s hand.

   “You’ll learn the lines, Ricardo, and you’ll learn them right. Break a leg.”