Final Session – Acting the Role: BEATRICE (Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing”) – The Rehearsal Room [Video, Audio, and Transcript versions]

Nathan Agin

Hi there, I’m Nathan Agin. Welcome back to the Working Actors Journey Rehearsal Room. As you’ve been following along, or if you’ve been following along, we’ve been working on the role of Beatrice from Shakespeare’s much to do about nothing this month. 

If, if, if you’re watching this and and you have questions, put ’em below. You know, we’d love to try to, you know, respond to any questions that come up for you about this play or this role. If you enjoy what you’re seeing, hit that like button. 

And I wanted to make a note that tonight may be the final session of this workshop, but what you’re going to see tonight is not meant to be a final performance. It’s rather just a continuation of the work in progress. This is just the next step. These are open rehearsals and this is just the next part of that rehearsal. I will also mention coming up next month for August, we’ll be doing weekly sessions of a scene from Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure with director Stefan Novinski. And we will continue posting the weekly sessions on YouTube for free for all to enjoy. So be sure to subscribe to our channel. Click for notifications. 

You can also listen to these sessions on our podcast, subscribe there so you don’t miss anything. And you can support the project via Patreon and get early access to all the sessions, plus a, some other perks there, starting at just $5 per month. And I’ll quickly say thank you to some of our patrons, Joan, Michelle, Christian, Jim Magdalene, evar, Claudia, cliff, and Jeff. 

And I think that is it. I, I’ll I’ll ask the group to very quickly introduce yourselves and, and what you’re doing tonight. You know, your, your role in this. We have a couple actors, actually three actors playing Beatrice. So I think the roles are pretty clear, but actually, and I say that you’ll see them all playing different roles as we go along. So there’s a lot going on tonight. But yeah, if everybody can just kind of quickly introduce their part in this, in this group, that’d be great. And we’ll do a little q and a afterward, you know, once you guys kind of wrap up the work you wanna do tonight. So with that said, I’ll hand it over to Erica, our director and let you kind of take it from there. 

I’ll, I’ll be back at the end. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Thanks Nathan. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Hi 

Erika Rolfsrud

everybody. I am Erica Sru and I have been the director during this session. I think before I get into anything, let’s everybody do a really quick introduction and I’m gonna challenge you, Kat, to give us as much of a CliffNotes version of this play for those who haven’t been in the rehearsal so far. Just to give them a little background as to what the scenes are, you know, what’s happening beforehand. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Great. 

Erika Rolfsrud

So, 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

so, so you’d like an introduction to the whole play so I don’t have to keep interrupting the scenes. Is that, or what do you like or a little bit before every scene, what’s your Preference? 

Erika Rolfsrud

Actually I’m changing my mind. How about a little bit before every scene you, you set up every scene and then when we’ll go back, make adjustments and then go forward. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Great. 

Erika Rolfsrud

So, 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

so my name is Kathleen Sheen, I’m a dramaturg and some of you may not know what that means. So it means I, I do a little bit of research, I look into text and like the history of language and sometimes the history of the plays and anything that I feel like gives the actors and the director some options, things to consider and weigh as they’re making their choices around a character. So I always say I’m just sort of the nerd in the rehearsal room and I absolutely love it. I love working with Shakespeare. I’ve taught Shakespeare for a long time and done drama churchy with Shakespeare for a long time. 

Sound at the beginning. Now 

Erika Rolfsrud

Actually let’s meet our two other actors. Great. And then I’ll say a little something. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Sounds good. 

Erika Rolfsrud

So Shannon, 

Shannon Clair

Hi, I’m Shannon. I’m an actor. I am gonna be playing Messenger and Benedict and Beatrice in, I believe that order. 

And let’s see, what else must I say? I played Beatrice last summer. That was a great, great opportunity in a beautiful place and it’s been really great to revisit and dig into a lot more of the nitty gries, including a lot of the stuff that they often cut ’cause it’s weird and confusing and now I get to spend time with it. Great. 

Erika Rolfsrud

There we go. Jules? 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Hi, I am Jules Hoover. I will be playing Benedict, Leonardo and Hero and then Beatrice and then Benedict again. I believe I have had so much fun throughout this process. I have not actually played Beatrice in full on stage, but I have done many of the scenes and played many of the characters throughout my career. And I was just saying I think that it’s such a wonderful opportunity here to actually be able to deep dive, especially with such an immensely talented company. Like just to have, yeah, this, this has been such a privilege and an honor. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Aw, thanks Jules. I, I say ditto to all of that myself. Okay, so just quick, for those of you who have been with us from the first week, Anna is actually not, well she’s fine, but she’s not up for doing this tonight. So I am going to step in and do the first scene as Beatrice. I played Beatrice twice before and she’s like a, a comfy sweater you just got, you just keep putting back on. And I will say that these ladies have just been busting it this whole month. We’ve been having such a great time and I, I will say, Kat, you are the, you’re like the Beatrice Dramaturg. You’re very, very smart and I love that your jokes about it makes me think, hmm, wouldn’t it be interesting to play Beatrice is sort of a book form at the beginning that just sort of 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

went, 

Erika Rolfsrud

ooh, it would be a very different take. So don’t anybody steal that. Okay. So very, very first scene at the top of the play Cat, you wanna give us just a little bit of a running start? 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Absolutely. So you’ll, for those of you who are unfamiliar with the play, you’ll right away hear that we’re in Messina, we’re in Italy and we’re expecting soldiers to come back from war. It has not been luckily a terribly traumatic war. So there’s a lot of heightened expectation and we hear two names to pay attention to, I think are Claudio and especially Benedict. So there’s a young, so soldier Claudio who we’ll hear about and then we’ll hear about Benedict and we hear about Benedict initially from Beatrice. So the person to kinda keep an eye on is like, what’s going on with Beatrice? Why she’s ask why sorry, why is she asking about Benedict? What’s that all about? 

So very clearly in the story we get a sense of two potential pairings in a way. We have Claudio and hi young people who seem very attracted to each other and Benedict and Beatrice who very, very often very vocally talk about how they do not wanna get married but they spend an awful lot of time talking about and to each other. 

Erika Rolfsrud

They have a history and They 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

have a history that Beatrice will hint at. One little fun fact, if I may, is also one of the things that’s interesting about, about this play is it’s been pretty consistently in production from the time that was written, which is not always true of Shakespeare’s play. Sometimes they kind of fall out of favor and especially the characters have, Benedict and Beatrice have been like really consistently a draw to famous actors through the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries 20th century and now the 21st. Yeah, I 

Erika Rolfsrud

mean you see it in in rom-coms all the time. That couple that just nitpick at each other. But you know that underneath something is a fire. You know, you nailed it with this one. Okay, so shall we, let’s give this one a shot. Okay, so I, I’m taking it just from, who am I asking? I’m directing. 

Okay, you got ready? 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Yeah. Would you like me to take it from a kind overflow? 

Erika Rolfsrud

Yeah, that’d be great. Thanks. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

A kind overflow of kindness. There are no faces truer than those that are so washed. How much better is it to weep at joy than to joy at weeping? 

Erika Rolfsrud

I pray you. Is senior mount onto returned from the wars or no? 

Shannon Clair

I know none of that name lady. There was none such in the army of any sort. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

What is he that you ask for Niece? My cousin means senior Benedict of Padua. 

Shannon Clair

Oh He’s returned and as pleasant as ever he was, He 

Erika Rolfsrud

set up his bills here in Messina and challenged Cupid at the flight. And my uncle’s fool reading the challenge subscribed for Cupid and challenged him at the bird bolt. I pray you. How many have he killed and eaten in these wars But how many have he killed for indeed I promised to eat all of his killing. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Faith, nice you taxing your benedict too much but he’ll be meat with you. I doubt it not 

Shannon Clair

He has done good service lady in these wars. 

Erika Rolfsrud

You had musty victory and he have hoped to eat it. He is a very valiant trencherman. He had an excellent stomach 

Shannon Clair

and A good soldier to lady Gotta 

Erika Rolfsrud

go soldier to a lady. But what does he do? A lord. 

Shannon Clair

A Lord to a lord. A man to a man stuffed with all honorable virtues. 

Erika Rolfsrud

It is so indeed he is no less than a stuffed man. But for the stuffing, well we are all mortal. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

You must not sir mistake my niece. There’s a kind of Mary war betw senior Benedict and her they never meet but there’s a skirmish of wit between them. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Alas, he gets nothing by that. In our last conflict, four of his five wits went halting off. And now is the whole man governed with one. So that if he had wit enough to keep himself warm, let him bear it for a difference between himself and his horse. For it is all the wealth that he had left to be known. A reasonable creature who is his companion Now he had every month a new sworn brother 

Shannon Clair

Is possible. Very 

Erika Rolfsrud

easily possible he wears his faith. But as the passion of his hat, it ever changes with the next block. 

Shannon Clair

I see lady, the gentleman is not in your books. 

Erika Rolfsrud

No. And he were. I would burn my study but I pray you who is his companion? Is there no young square now that will make a voyage with him to the devil he 

Shannon Clair

Is most in the company of the right noble Claudio 

Erika Rolfsrud

Lord. He’ll hang upon him like a disease. He is sooner caught in the pestilence and the taker runs presently mad God help the noble Claudio. If he have caught the Benedict it will cost him a thousand pound. Dare he be cured. 

Shannon Clair

I Will hold friends with you lady 

Erika Rolfsrud

Do good friend. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

You will never run mad niece. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Nope, not till a hot January. 

Shannon Clair

Don Pedro is approached 

Erika Rolfsrud

So everybody enters brief greetings to everyone and then be Benedict. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

If senior Leonardo be her father, she would not have his head on her shoulders for all messina as like him as she is, 

Erika Rolfsrud

I wonder that you will still be talking Senior Benedict. Nobody marks you. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

What my dear lady disdain Are you yet living? 

Erika Rolfsrud

Is it possible disdain should die when she has such meat food to feed it. A senior Benedict courtesy itself must convert to disdain. If you come in her presence 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Then is courtesy a turncoat. But it is certain I am loved of all ladies only you accepted And I would, I could find in my heart that I had not a hard heart for truly I love none 

Erika Rolfsrud

Dear happiness to women they would else have been troubled with a pernicious suiter. 

I think God and my cold blood, I am of your humor for that. I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow then a man swear he loves me 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

God keep your ladyship till still in that mind. So some gentlemen or others shall escape a predestinate scratched face 

Erika Rolfsrud

Scratching could not make it worse. We’re such a face as yours. Well 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

You are a rare parrot teacher. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Bird of my tongue is better than a beast of yours. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

I would my horse have the speed of your tongue and so good a continuer. But keep your way in the God, in God’s name I have done 

Erika Rolfsrud

You always end with a jade’s trick. I know you have old, 

right? That’s scene one, UNO and now we’re going to go to two one. 

And so Kat, if you could like fill us in with a little bit of now. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Yeah, happy to. So I think that there’s sort of three things maybe that are helpful here. So one is we’re in a really celebratory mood. There’s been a big meal. Now we’re gonna have a dance. And just to make it more fun, we’re gonna wear masks. This will be important later because there’s sort of this teasing about who knows who’s you know, do you under, do you know who you’re talking to? Especially with Ven and Beatrice. So people are generally in a very good mood. Claudio has also expressed romantic interest in Hero. 

He seems to have a little bit of a hard time talking to her. So he is enlisted the help or his friend Don Pedro has volunteered to get involved and help kind of arrange and engagement possibly questionable choice doesn’t work out very well. So all that’s happening. And then we get this other person who’s helpful to know about who’s Don John because you know the course of true love never did run smooth as the bar tells us. So Don John is very determined to basically ruin anybody else’s happiness. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Yeah, because he backed the war against John Pedro. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Yes. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Older brother and his brother has forgiven him. Be trained, 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

he’s Sort of reconciled, but it’s very new, right? He is been sort of accepted because of that. He’s also an illegitimate brother and it’s a whole thing in Shakespeare. But 

Erika Rolfsrud

Please Edgar Edward thing, we don’t have 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Whole thing. Whole 

Erika Rolfsrud

thing 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

because I’m, you know, I’m not trustworthy. People don’t treat me like I’m trustworthy. So why should I be trustworthy if I can mess up anybody else’s joy? Good on me. 

Erika Rolfsrud

He’s awesome. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

This will be important later 

Erika Rolfsrud

Will. So, okay, is everybody ready? 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Ready. 

Erika Rolfsrud

I will be playing multiple roles. We have Beatrice doing jewels. Benedict Shannon, I’ll be playing everybody else here we go. 

Was not Count John here at supper. I saw him not How 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

tarly that gentleman looks. I never can see him, but I am heartburn an hour after. 

Erika Rolfsrud

He is of a very melancholy disposition. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

You were an excellent man that were made just in the midway between him and Benedict. The one is two like an image and says nothing. And the other two, like my lady’s eldest son, evermore tattling 

Erika Rolfsrud

Ben, half senior Benedict’s tongue in count, John’s mouth, and half count John’s melancholy in senior Benedict’s face 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

with A good leg and a good foot uncle and money enough in his purse. Such a man would win any woman in the world if he could get her goodwill. 

Erika Rolfsrud

I troth niece that will never get the husband, if thou be so shrewd of thy tongue in faith, she’s too cursed. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Too cursed is more than cursed. I shall lessen God. Sending that way for it is said, God sends a cursed cow, short horns, but to a cow too cursed. He sends none. 

Erika Rolfsrud

So by being too cursed, God will send you no horns. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Just if he send me no husband for the witch blessing, I am at him upon my knees every morning and evening. Lord, I could not endure a husband with a beard on his face. I had rather lie in the wool. 

Erika Rolfsrud

You may lie on a husband that has no beard. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

What would I do with him? Dress him in my apparel and make him my waiting. Gentle woman. 

He that hath a beard is more than a youth. And he that has no beard is less than a man. And he that is more than a youth is not for me. And he that is less than a man, I am not for him. Therefore, I will even take six pence in earnest of the beer bear herd and lead his apes into hell. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Well then go you into hell. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

No, but to the gate. And there will the devil meet me like an old couple with horns on his head and say, get you to heaven, Beatrice get you to heaven. Here’s no place for you maids. So deliver I up my apes and away to St. Peter for the heavens. He shows me where the bachelor sit and there live. We as Mary as the day is long. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Well niece, I trust you’ll be ruled by your father. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Yes, faith, it is my cousin’s duty to make curtsy and say, father, as it please you. 

But yet for all that cousin, let him be a handsome fellow or else make another curtsy and say, father, as it please me. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Well niece, I hope to see you one day fitted with a husband. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Not till God make men of some other medal than Earth. Would it not grieve a woman to be over mastered with a piece of valiant dust to make an account of her life to a claw of wayward moral. 

No uncle i’ll none. 

Adam’s sons are my brethren. And truly I hold it a sin to make to match in my kindred 

Erika Rolfsrud

Daughter. Remember what I told you? If the prince do solicit you in that kind, you know your answer. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

The fault will be in the music cousin. If you be not wooed in good time. If the prince be too important, tell him there is a measure in everything. And so dance out the answer for hear me. Hero, wooing, wedding, and repenting is as a scotch jig, a measure and a synco paste. The first suit is hot and hasty like a scotch jig. And full as fantastical the wedding mannerly modest as a measure full of state and age entry. 

And then comes repentance. And with his bad legs falls into the sink, paste faster and faster till he sink into his grave. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Doesn’t you Apprehend passing shrewdly. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

I have a good eye, uncle. I can see a church by daylight. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Ah, the ERs are entering, brother make good room. And so 

we have a couple of different couple exchanges keeping in mind that the men are masked and the women are not. 

So the, the Prince Don Pedro and Hero have an exchange. 

And then Benedict and Margaret, one of the upper house students, servants have an exchange. Then Azar and Margaret, Ursula and Antonio, who is Leonardo’s older brother. And then we get back to Benedict and Beatrice. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Will you not tell me who told you so? 

Shannon Clair

No, you shall pardon me, 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Nor will you not tell me who you are 

Shannon Clair

Not now 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

That I was disdainful and that I had my good wit out of the hundred Mary tales. Well, this was senior Benedict that said, so 

Shannon Clair

What’s he, 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

I am sure you know him well enough. 

Shannon Clair

Not I believe me. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Did he ever make you laugh? 

Shannon Clair

I pray you. What is he? 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Why? He is the prince’s gesture. A very dull fool. Only his gift is in devising impossible Slanders. None. But libertine delight in him. And the commendation is not in his wit, but in his villainy for he both pleases men and he both pleases men and angers them. And then they laugh at him and beat him. I’m sure he is in the fleet. I would, he had boarded me 

Shannon Clair

When I know the gentleman, I’ll tell him what you say. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Do, do he’ll break a comparison or two on me, which per adventure not marked or not laughed at, strikes him into melancholy. And then there’s a partridge wing saved for the fool will eat no supper that night. Music for the dance. We must follow the leaders 

Shannon Clair

In every good thing. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Nay. If they lead to any ill, I will leave them at the next turning. 

Erika Rolfsrud

So now we we’re jumping around, ladies and gentlemen. So now we, we find out things get ironed out. We find out that Dom Pedro wasn’t actually asking for Claudio’s hand and marriage or, or, or Claudio Hero’s hand in marriage. 

And everybody’s happy. And the engagement happens. And then I’m gonna let Kat I’m gonna let you do your job and I’ll stop talking and you can, 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Everybody’s happy. But Don John Sue and I’m setting us all the way up for four one. Is that right? 

Erika Rolfsrud

That’s correct. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Right. So, so hero and Claudio get engaged. 

Okay? The two things that are important that happened before four. One, again, people are getting sort of caught up in the spirit of romance. And there’s this engagement and isn’t this great? And I believe it’s Don Pedro who suggests that actually Benedict and Beatrice would make a really great couple. 

So the men and women collectively decide to kind of dupe each person to reveal their true feelings, right? They feel like every time they’re, they’re together, they just talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. This witty, witty exchange. This, I don’t wanna get married, but they’re always talking about or to the other person. So the guys go first and they hide. No, they see, they put themselves where Benedict will be and Benedict hides. And so they’re sure that they’re overheard and they say, is it, is it true that Beatrice so completely loves Benedict? And that’s kind of all he needs. He’s actually having a monologue before that scene musing about love and can, can it transform me? 

I’m not sure it can. But he is immediately transformed. He’s like, wow, I didn’t think I’d get married, but now I’m really into it. Right? So he decides he completely loves Beatrice and scammers away. And then the women do the same for Beatrice, right? And, and suggest that Benedict is in love with Beatrice and she has a similar moment of revelation. Like, wow, really he loves me. Okay, well love on. I will quiet it. Right? So they have now been sort of tricked into, into revealing their true feelings, I would say. So that’s all looking great. Comedy is going really well. What could possibly go wrong? But again, Don John, who doesn’t want anybody happy, decides that he can ruin this engagement between Claudio and Hero. 

And he has a couple lackeys who help him orchestrate this. But the idea is that he tells Claudio and Don Pedro, that hero is disloyal, that she’s cheating on Claudio and then his lackey and a woman of easy virtue who get together regularly, right? Play out a romantic scene. He audibly calls her hero. Apparently she looks like hero from the back. So it’s this visual trick, right? To make Claudio and Pedro feel certain that they’ve seen hero cheating on Claudio. And then this, what they decide to do is publicly shame hero. So they, everybody shows up for the wedding and instead of marrying her, they kind of set this scene so that Claudia will reveal that hero has been dis disloyal, right? 

And then publicly shames her as, as a loose woman. 

And the men sort of join on board, including hero’s father, which is upsetting. But Benedict doesn’t, interestingly kind of takes a step back. 

And then Beatrice is very upset. They come up with a plot to, to rectify the situation. I don’t know if we need to get into that, but should, should I mention that or is it now it’s getting long. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Just The, the fryer, his 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

role. Yeah. So the, the gist of it is the fri the, the friars are interesting in Shakespeare. They’re usually somewhere kind of in between earthly life and spiritual life. And they try to solve problems in communities. Not always well, but he comes up with this plan, which is that we’ll say hero is dead and then surely Claudia will feel bad. And then we’ll, you know, we’ll 

Erika Rolfsrud

she, She will have died of, of a mourning, upsetness of this accusation. I think it’s, 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Isn’t it? 

Erika Rolfsrud

Yeah, 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

like it, they somehow killed her and then they’ll somehow rectify her. I mean, basically it says, we’ll either clear her name, in which case she’ll be marriageable again or we won’t. And if we don’t, she can become a nun. Those are sort of the options. So we have this, you know, this kind of meta, you know, metaphorical death, right? She will die as the slander woman and somehow be reborn. And then the scene we’re about to see is Benedict stumbling upon Beatrice who is weeping after the public shaming. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Yeah, Everybody has left the church except for Beatrice and Benedict Kat let’s you and I jump off video for this one. It’s just the two of them ladies have that 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Lady Beatrice, have you wept all this while 

Shannon Clair

Yay. And I will weep a while longer. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

I will not desire that. 

Shannon Clair

You have no reason I do it freely. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Surely I do believe your fair cousin is wronged. 

Shannon Clair

Ah, how much might the man deserve of me that would right her? 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Is there any way to show, show such friendship A 

Shannon Clair

very even way, but no such friend. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

May a man do it. 

Shannon Clair

It is a man’s office but not yours. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

I do not love nothing in the world. So well as you Is not that strange, 

Shannon Clair

As strange as the thing I know, not it we’re as possible for me to say I loved nothing so well as you, but believe me, not. And yet I lie, not I confess nothing nor I deny nothing. 

I’m sorry for my cousin 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

By my sword, Beatrice. Thou love is me. Do 

Shannon Clair

not swear and eat it. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

I will swear by it that you love me and I will make him eat it. That says, I love you, not, 

Shannon Clair

Will you not eat your word 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

With no such sauce that can be devised to it. I protest. I love thee 

Shannon Clair

Then God forgive me. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

What offense? Sweeping Beatriz. 

Shannon Clair

You have stayed me in a happy hour. I was about to protest I loved you 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

And do it with all by heart. 

Shannon Clair

I love you with so much of my heart that none is left to protest. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Come bid me. Do anything for thee. 

Shannon Clair

Kill Claudio. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Not for the wide world. 

Shannon Clair

You kill me to deny it. Farewell 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Harry Sweet Beatrice. 

Shannon Clair

I am gone though I am here. There is no love in you. They, I pray you let me go, 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Beatrice, 

Shannon Clair

in faith, I will go. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

We’ll be friends first. 

Shannon Clair

You dare easier be friends with me than fight with mine. Enemy 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

is Claudio, thine enemy. 

Shannon Clair

Is he not approved in the height? A villain that has slandered, scorned, dishonored. My kin’s woman. 

Oh, that I were a man. What? Bear her in hand until they come to take hands. And then with public accusation uncovered, slander, a mitigated rank. Oh God, that I were a man. I would eat his heart in the marketplace. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Hear me sweet bitches 

Shannon Clair

Talk with a man out at a window. Sweet. 

She wronged. She’s slandered, she’s undone. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Beatrice 

Shannon Clair

princes and counties. Surely a princely testimony, a goodly count count a sweet G. Surely, oh, that I were a man for his sake, or that I had any friend would be a man for my sake. But manhood is melted into CURTs valor, into compliment. And men are only turned into tongue and trim ones too. He is now as valiant as Hercules. That only tells a lie and swears it. 

I cannot be a man with wishing, therefore, I will die. A woman with grieving 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Harry Good Beatrice by this hand, I love thee. 

Shannon Clair

Use it for my love some other way than swearing by it. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Thank you. In your soul that count, Claudio, that wronged hero. 

Shannon Clair

Yay. As sure as I have a thought or a soul 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Enough, I am engaged. I will challenge him. 

I will kiss your hand. And so I leave you by this hand. 

Claudio shall render me a dear account 

as you hear of me. So think of me go comfort your cousin. 

I must say she’s dead. And so for, well, 

Erika Rolfsrud

Ava, really, really nice work on both scenes. 

Fabulous. I can, I can totally see our progressing from the first week to now. Really nice work ladies. Just, 

wow. So for the audiences 

understanding at this point, I, I think we’d sort of be looking into the third, beginning of the third week of rehearsals. That’s sort of the idea. We’re at this point you’re making choices and you’re committing to the choices. 

You’re getting off book, you’re really owning the words. That’s where we are in the process of rehearsing. I would say we’re, we’re just starting that week, just so they know. Just keeping it in context of why we’re here. 

That was beautiful. Ladies, both of you. I paid, I’d pay good money to come see both of you. 

I don’t know who that was, but voices just come out of me. Trust my friend. Kailyn, would 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

there enjoy them? 

Erika Rolfsrud

Oh my God. She’d go, all right, who am I talking to now? 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Who’s she? 

Shannon Clair

Who knows Someone was born to perform. When you just live your life with a lot of, sometimes I have to remind myself if I have an audition for like an a normal person that they don’t like do voices all The time. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Yeah, yeah, yeah. One of these days when people say, because it for the audience is edification. That’s the word I was looking for before. It’s one of those things where when you meet somebody, especially if they’re a civilian and they, you 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

take 

Erika Rolfsrud

what you do, they go, oh, I knew it. I knew it. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Got it. 

Erika Rolfsrud

So one of these days in my more playful moods, I’m gonna say I’m a brain surgeon. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Okay. 

Shannon Clair

Ooh. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Best to see. What if they go, I knew it. They probably wondered like, oh, I’m gonna, I’m gonna leave. 

But anyway, I digress. So we have a bunch of time to play with. So y’all wanna play? 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Yeah, 

Shannon Clair

yeah. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Alrighty. How comfortable would you be reading wise if, well, first I’ll just give, give you adjustments and we’ll, we’ll redo both of those scenes. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Yeah, please. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Okay. So two, one lovely, lots of words. 

I, I would say I want you to play with Jules. Give yourself, give yourself another couple glasses of wine in. 

Just be in that rosy, happy drunk place. Well, there you 

Shannon Clair

go. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Be in that. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

It’s beat juice. It’s Beatrice Juice. 

Erika Rolfsrud

We 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

found that. That’s good 

Erika Rolfsrud

fruit. Well, it’s bee juice vegetable or is it one of those weird ones? That’s both. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

This Working Actor’s Journey podcast is brought to you by Press 

Erika Rolfsrud

Wish, really wish press. Anybody know Pressed Press. So yeah, I want you to, and let’s play with the rhythm a little bit. 

I, I think 

as we’re all in this joyous, fun place and Leonardo is playing along and he is feeding you some cues to go that kind of a thing. I think she starts to go overboard. 

The, the, the drunk, the wine is kicking into that brave, unedited place. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Okay. 

Erika Rolfsrud

And so there’s a little aggression to it. Yeah. And I want you to punch a little bit higher, just a little bit higher and bigger. Like I’m gonna jump right on there. And then you went, because really at one point, well at least feeding her. But it would be interesting ’cause at a certain point, I mean it sounds like Leonardo is, you know, like, well niece, I hope to find, see you one day fitted with a husband and that’s him. 

All right? And you’re on a roll, so you’re gonna take the room and I think you should, you should go. Because then Leonardo, his next line is to talking to hero. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Right? 

Erika Rolfsrud

He’s not, listen, he’s not gonna feed Beatrice anymore, but she’s still going. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Right? 

Erika Rolfsrud

He does the ultimate thing, which is she then speaks to hero to top his advice to really give it to him, you know what, I’m gonna take care of you and here’s what, so give it a little more edge towards the end. And I just get, it’s that happy drunk at the beginning, drunk happy, that happy place that we’ve had a good, a good, you know, dinner and maybe you had a little dessert wine and that hasn’t quite kicked in. That’s gonna kick in and start getting to that place a little bit of edge right? Before I think the, the speech of no but to the gate and there will I be, and then he’s, that’s when he’s going to be like, oh no, not him. Sorry. That’s when Antonio steps in and says, well niece, I hope you will be. 

And then Leonardo at the end of the next 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

line. Yeah, 

Erika Rolfsrud

Yeah. ’cause it’s at the end of Father as it please me. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Yeah. 

Erika Rolfsrud

And that’s where I think there’s a little 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Bite 

Erika Rolfsrud

It a little bit of bite. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Yeah. And it bear it’s bear her correct 

Erika Rolfsrud

Bear herd. Yeah. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Bear. It’s a bear 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

bear Ward. It’s it’s both Bear Bear Her and Bear Ward. You can say either one, whichever one you like. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Which one’s less of a mouthful? 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Baird. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Alright. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Baird And lead 

Erika Rolfsrud

Third one where you just don’t you it’s silent. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Yeah. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Whichever letter it is. It’s silent. Yeah. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Bds 

Erika Rolfsrud

So bubbly at the beginning and 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

drops down and 

Erika Rolfsrud

then it drops in a little bit more. Yeah. Not to, you know. 

Yeah, it, yeah. Okay. So let’s do it. And actually Shannon, just for this part of the scene, would you read the one line of hero? 

Shannon Clair

Sure. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Great. Right at the top. Okay. Is everybody ready? 

I want you to just go for it, Jules. Just dive into it. Maybe even find yourself going a little, little too fast or whatever. ’cause she, she’s just clicking. 

She’s like a hot comic on stage. 

So, all right, here we go. 

Was not Count John here at supper. I saw him not 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

how Heartly that gentleman looks. I never can see him, but I am heartburn an hour after. 

Shannon Clair

He is of a very melancholy Disposition. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

He were an excellent man that were made just in the midway between him and Benedict. The one is two like an image and says nothing. And the other two, like my lady’s eldest son, evermore ting 

Erika Rolfsrud

Then have Senor Benedict’s tongue in count John’s mouth and half count John’s melancholy in Senor Benedict’s face 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

With a good leg and a good foot uncle and money enough in his purse. Such a man would win any woman in the world if he could get her goodwill 

Erika Rolfsrud

By my truth niece that will never get the husband. If thou be so shrewd of thy tongue in faith, she’s too cursed. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Too cursed is more than cursed. I shall lessen God. Sending that way for it is said, God sends a cursed cow, short horns, but to a cow too cursed. He sends none. So 

Erika Rolfsrud

By being too cursed, God will send you no horns. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Just if he send me. No, just if he send me no husband for the which blessing I am at him upon my knees every morning. Lord ha ha. I could not endure a husband with a beard on his face. I’d rather lie in the woolen. 

Erika Rolfsrud

You may lie down a husband that had no Beard, 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

what will I do with him? Dress him in my apparel and make him my waiting. Gentle woman. Ha ha. No, he that had the beard is more than a youth. And he that had no beard is less than a man. And he that is more than a youth is not for me. And he that is less than a man. I am not for him. Therefore, I will even take six pence in earnest of a bd and lead his apes into hell. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Well then go you into hell. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

No. But to the gate. And there will the devil meet me like an old cuck with horns on his head and say, get you to heaven, Beatrice get you to heaven. There’s no place for you maids. So deliver I up my apes and away to St. Peter for the heavens. He show for the heavens. He shows me where the Bachelors sit and there live. We marry as the day is long. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Well, Niece, I trust you will be rude by ruled by your father. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Yes, faith. It is my cousin’s duty to make her curtsy. And say, father, I said, please you. But yet for all that cousin, let him be a handsome fellow or else make another curtsy and say, father, as it please me. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Well niece, I hope to see you one day fitted with a husband. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Not till God make men of some other metal than Earth. Would it not grieve a woman to be over mastered with a piece of valiant dust to make a count of her life to a claw of wayward moral. 

No uncle, all none Adam’s sons are my brethren. And truly I hold it a sin to make match in my kindred 

Erika Rolfsrud

Daughter. Remember what I told you? If the prince to solicit you in that kind, you know your answer. 

The 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

fault will be in the music cousin. If you be not wooed in good time. If the prince be too important, tell him there is measure and everything. And so dance out the answer for hear me. Hero, wooing, wedding, and repenting is as a scotch jig, a measure and a sink of paste. 

The first suit is hot and hasty like a scotch jig. And full as fantastical the wedding mannerly, modest as measure full of state and ancient tree. 

And then comes repentance. And with his bad legs falls into synco pace faster and faster until he sink into his grave. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Doesn’t you? Apprehend passing shrewdly. I 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

have a good eye uncle. I can see a church by daylight. 

Erika Rolfsrud

The revels are entering. Brother. Make good room. Nicely done. Really nicely. Done nicely. I’m gonna make you go back just towards the end. Yeah. 

’cause also what strikes me is Leonardo, when I’ve seen it done, I don’t know if this was the case for you, Shannon, but Leonardo is kind of addressing his daughter, making sure that it’s him and her. 

Beatrice isn’t part of this and Beatrice hears it. 

And when she hears, you know, you know, your answer just gets her. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Yes. It 

Erika Rolfsrud

just gets her just for the fun of it. And I, and elaborate on the dances, have a little fun with it. You know, like, I’m gonna grab ’em out of the, the air. Okay. So I’m gonna say, okay. All right. Wooing wedding and repenting. It’s a scotch jig and a measure on a sink of paste. And so, you know, like setting it up like a joke, you know, three dances walking into a bar, you know, have a little fun. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Okay? 

Erika Rolfsrud

And there’s a part of me that’s thinking that it would be fun. She ends up with a synco pace faster and faster. So she spins and actually ends up falling into a couch. And then, you know, getting up. I have a good eye uncle, you know, just a nice little beat before we, we get the revelers. But 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

that’s for 

Erika Rolfsrud

the future anyway, so let’s go. And I think the spice of it ends up being 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

God. I love that little part of the not till God make men of some other metal than Earth. Like that whole little, I had never taken that in before. That little speech there. Like that’s just 

Erika Rolfsrud

A 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

lot of 

Erika Rolfsrud

wayward moral. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Yeah, 

Erika Rolfsrud

yeah, yeah. Well miss I Trust You will be ruled by your father. Again, it’s Antonio Sweet Antonio, old Fashioned Antonio. And is like, you’ll be ruled by your father 

and just, you know, say it. I don’t think she’s drunk. Drunk. That’s me just sort of playing with it. And we’d play with measures and see what would happen. But I love how it informed the first two thirds of the scene. I loved it because you were moving Jules and you were starting to make different, like when you imitated hero and you did a voice for the, you know, the guy who sends, you know, get beat to heaven, be it, you know, that’s what she is. She’s a storyteller and she makes people laugh. Yeah. 

But sometimes she just goes too far. 

So let’s try, 

actually I wanna go back up to, so deliver I my apes and away to St. Peter for the heavens. And I really want you to, even if you take a beat just here ruled by your father and hope to see you fitted one day with a husband, you know, whatever. And then you know your answer, which is dad’s answer frankly. Because remember we think that it’s Don Pedro, it’s gonna be a proposal, right? 

So, okay, so let’s try that chunk one more, one more time. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Okay? 

Erika Rolfsrud

Yes. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Are we starting at Leonardo? You may light on a husband. 

Erika Rolfsrud

No, we wanna do the end of your speech, the end of the nova to the gate and pick it up with the final sentence. So deliver I up my apes. So wait to St. Peter. Okay. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Oh, I see, I see. Yeah, yeah, 

Erika Rolfsrud

Yeah. Okay. And just really let it get under your skin. Let Jules who may be feeling things about 2024 right now. 

Get a little in there. Have a little fun. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Okay. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Got it. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Okay. Yeah. Can you gimme well then get you to help go and help. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Okay, well then go you into hell 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

No, but to the gate and there will the devil meet me like an old cuckold with horns on his head and say, get you to heaven, Beatrice get you to heaven. Here’s no place for you, you maids. So deliver I up my apes and way to St. Peter for the heavens. So he shows me where the bachelor sit and there live. We Mary, as the day is long, 

Erika Rolfsrud

Well niece, I trust you will be ruled by your father. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Yes, faith. It is my cousin’s duty to make curtsy and say Father, as it please you. 

But yet for all that cousin, let him be a handsome fellow or else make another curtsy and say, father, as it please me. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Well niece, I hope to see you one day fitted with a husband, 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Not till God make men of some other metal than Earth not grieve. What’s that? 

Erika Rolfsrud

Be a little lighter with this One. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Okay. Yeah. 

Erika Rolfsrud

And go. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Well, not till God make men of some other metal than Earth. Wouldn’t I grieve a woman to be over mastered with a piece of valiant dust to make an account of her life to a claw of wayward moral. No uncle all, none Adam’s sons or my brethren. And I truly holded a sin to in my kindred 

Erika Rolfsrud

Daughter. Remember what I told you? If the prince to solicit you in that kind, you know your answer. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

The fault will be in the music cousin. If you be not wooed, the fault will be in the music cousin. If you be not wooed in good time, if the prince be too important, tell him there is measure in everything. And so dance out the answer for Hear me. Hero, wooing, wedding and repenting is as a scotch jig, a measure and a sink paste. The first suit is hot and hasty like a scotch jig. And full is fantastical The wedding mannerly modest and, and modest as a measure. I’m gonna start that again. The first suit is hot and hasty like a scotch jig. And full is fantastical. The wedding mannerly modest as a measure full of state and entry and then comes repentance. And with his bad leg falls into the synco paste faster and faster until he sink into his grave. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Cousin, you apprehend passing shrewdly. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

I have a good eye uncle. I can see a church in daylight. 

Erika Rolfsrud

The revelers aren’t bra. It’s a lot of fun. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

It’s A lot of fun. It’s fun to like fight. You’re right, those rhythms and it changes every time. And I think, again, going back to what we’ve talked about before, just like the play of it all and letting yourself get moved by the words and, and again, the sink pace Of the 

Erika Rolfsrud

teachers. Yeah. And, and it’s just, and the the the deeper stuff we were talking about during the process, what came with like, oh, you mentioned to me Jules in an email, which was really great, the idea of who was Beatrice before this play, before the first time with Benedict. 

Who, who was she and how did she change after that? And so who is she right before this play? 

And there would, there would be something really wonderful to mine in that, because I think the colors that we can bring to these speeches and such, the awareness, the idea of when she sort of loses control of her own mind and she just starts going and everything and then she’s like, no, no, no, no, I got this. Okay, I get it, I get it, I get it, I get it. And then something goes off and she’s like, you know what, you know, it’s just, she’s so fast. 

She’s just so fast in her thinking. And it must be exhausting on some level also to know that at this point, really the only guy is Benedict for her because she would need somebody that extraordinary anybody else she would be, she would be settling for. Yeah. Yeah. 

And playing around in the re the relationship between her uncles and herself because they have, God, I hate to say it this way, allowed her to become this person in the court and to sort of step beyond the morays and rules of what a woman possibly her age would serve as. She’s not wearing a wimple, you know, that kind of a thing. I see your nerdy mind racing over there. Kat, do you wanna add anything around? Any idea? 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

No. Well I was just, it just struck me, like listening to you. I, I I sort of love the idea and you know, get it, because I think you’re right. I know I, I know I don’t like that word aloud either, but like, there’s clearly some joy and some and clearly affection in this family. And then I feel like, you know, is it, is it that thing where she’s getting old enough right? That now she has to joke about being a spinster. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Yeah. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Right. Like the stuff that was funny, you know, five years ago, maybe now they’re a little worried about, but will she have a home and will she find love? And I, I wonder about that as a, as a contributing factor to what’s shifted possibly for her. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I mean it’s, you know, it’s that thing my whole life I was told she’s one day going to become a butterfly or saying, you know, well she’s kind of a, a worm in a, in a shell right now. It’s like what she’s gonna blossom. And that’s guys you’re, oh, this was my favorite. 

You are the kind of girl that boys are gonna wanna marry. 

Poor suckers. 

Yeah. So that never happened to either, 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

That’s not even mean. 

Erika Rolfsrud

I know, I know. It’s just like, oh, for fuck’s sake. So I wonder 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

If there’s like some guilt too that she has carried throughout her life of letting herself fall for Benedict after like having to kind of grow up with, with these men that she’s maybe had felt like she had, she’s had to keep a shield up for or protect herself against and, and kind of be this, be a different, different kind of woman coming up in order to have her own life and to have these freedoms and not fall into a, a, a position that she doesn’t wanna be in. Right. You 

Erika Rolfsrud

know, 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

she’s, yeah. And then to have to fall in love and, and you know, something maybe that she’s felt like is a weakness or a vulnerability rather, 

Erika Rolfsrud

You know, it’s that what do we, we get rid of the things that we think are, you know, the things that people don’t like about us and so, and we feel shame and embarrassment around and they may be very valid feelings. Yeah. But there’s nobody saying that’s actually valid. Yeah. 

There’s also the possibility you could really raise the stakes and decide that Beatrice and Benedict actually slept together. And so the stakes of having lost your virginity to someone that you thought was going to be your guy. 

Yeah. That’s a big deal. And she hasn’t told anybody that secret. Yeah. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

I think the stakes have to be that high for her. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Yeah. Yeah. 

And that’s what you develop. You become the funny person, you know, you grow up in an angry household, you become the clown because then the clown can help take the tension out of the room. 

It’s just those things that happen in life, that’s just who, how we are made up, you know? 

And it’s a blessing in its own strange way. 

All right. That 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Does something super in, sorry, that it occurs to me that does something super interesting to her res response. Again, upping the stakes for how angry she is ab about hero. And of course she would be in any circumstance, but if she actually slept with Benedict, right? And that’s kind of her secret. And then her cousin, who again follows all the rules and is comporting herself in the way that you’re supposed to comport yourself, doesn’t protect her from this public shaming. That’s so unfair. 

Erika Rolfsrud

I had never thought about that. That is brilliant. Yeah. Yeah. Ooh, you’re gonna have some fun. 

So with that, on that note, we’re gonna go to four one. 

All right. Strap in kids. Here we go. 

All right. Four, one. 

Okay. This is tricky because again, it’s one where we’re dealing with, it’s a long scene. It’s a very long scene. And there are a lot of long speeches in it. 

And so you have to, I think, find rhythms of fast, slow, fast, low, high, low kind of thing. So, 

I mean, if we go with this idea that they slept together 

and you’re, maybe you think you’re alone in the church, let’s play this idea. 

And suddenly you hear his voice and you turn and you see the very guy who set you on this path, that idea. 

So that’s the deep stakes. Here’s the tricky part. It’s a comedy. 

And we’ve had some really high drama leading up to this. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Mm. 

Erika Rolfsrud

And also that, ooh, that could explain why she’s silent for the most part. During the accusation. 

Yeah. Yeah. We’ve solved it anyway, so, 

Shannon Clair

oh, it all makes sense. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Oh my God. 

It’s, 

you have no reason to do it freely again, we’re talking about the formal, right? You as the formal. Correct. 

Shannon Clair

Yeah. So 

Erika Rolfsrud

she’s still formal with him, which could be part and parcel to what we’re playing with. 

Surely. I do believe your fair cousin is wronged. 

Yeah. May a man do it. It’s a man’s office, but not yours. 

And let’s take a moment there. 

And this is where I think we can give the audience a little bit of a break by giving them a little bit of a giggle. 

Sometimes. That’s what you need. Also, it helps serve up where we’re moving towards. Kill Claudia. 

It kind of builds up a surprise in a way 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

for those 

Erika Rolfsrud

who don’t know the play. And even the, it could work on the ones who do know it. So I would love, so take a beat. Keep it loaded. Don’t let the air out of it. Like, well, what do we do now? She’s not gonna tell, tell me, oh, for fuck’s sake, I love you. You know, just a kind of thing. And you’re recovering and let that hit you. Like, oh, oh, awkward, awkward. Two awkward people. Two people who never have been in this situation suddenly become like clumsy teenagers. Do you know what I mean? Let’s make it feel as awkward as possible. But you’re feeling it. You don’t get quiet. You just, I don’t, I don’t know what to say. 

I’m gonna say all these things to you and I, you know, be awkward in this section. 

And, and with Beatrice, strangest thing, I know, not it will possible fit. Really. Get, get Noded up in that. 

And Benedict finds his feet a little bit better, a little bit more directly. ’cause he started this. And it should be a, a challenge, a real challenge. I know you love me. You know, and then we go back to, we swear and eat. I would swear they love me with we, I eat your word with no sauce. That can be Devi. And let’s say that this whole eating of words is a Beatrice thing. You know what I mean? So we’re gonna do it. And he plays along with the eating it thing and helps serve up the jokes moving forward with, you know, with no sauce, sauce that can be devised to it, do you? And then he’s getting more confident and they’re getting happier. 

Be happier as this is going forward. 

You’ve saved me in a happy hour. I was about to protest. I love you. Gotta do it with all iHeart and just let it happen and be really happy and not happy, because now you got somebody, he’ll do the d This is the tricky thing about it. 

If you go, when he says, come put me, do anything for you, drop to kill Claudio. It’ll somehow suggest on some level that the whole time she’s been thinking about this and it, she might be luring him into this. And that’s not it at all. 

Try doing it like you’re excited about it. Oh, this is great. 

You gotta go sell the house. 

Like, like, let it be that. And so it’s even more of a smack in the face when he said, Uhuh, are you crazy? 

Now we’re back to something and feelings and hide out feeling things. 

And then I want, be careful, Jules. I know we’re, we’re still working out. But don’t overlap her. Let her 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

at 

Erika Rolfsrud

overlap you. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Right? So 

Erika Rolfsrud

wait for the end of her line before you speak and she’ll jump over on you. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Yeah. 

Erika Rolfsrud

But I think you know that. So, so, and I, I just find those dark jokes in there. 

You know, when you’re being, you know, you’re being darkly funny in an inappropriate moment and you just serve it. 

Find those moments too. And it’s not necessarily for his benefit. Maybe it’s for God’s benefit, whomever, you’re going to be, what do you call it? 

Aph to, I think that’s the word for it. When you talk to the gods, you know, gala past you fiery for the deeds. 

Yeah. So do that. Let’s go to the top. 

Okay? If you need a second. So let me see. I’m getting to the top of the scene. 

I’ve given you a lot. Breathe. Have fun. Play. Go for it 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Lady Beatrice, have you wept all this while, 

Shannon Clair

Yay. And I will weep a while longer. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

I will not desire that. 

Shannon Clair

You have no reason I do it freely. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Surely I do believe your fair cousin is wronged. 

Shannon Clair

Ah, how much might the man deserve of me that would right her? 

Is 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

there any way to show such friendship 

Shannon Clair

A very even way, but no such friend? 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

May a man do it. 

Shannon Clair

It is a man’s office, but not yours. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

I do love nothing in the world. So well as you Is not that strange, 

Shannon Clair

As strange as the thing I know, not it were, is possible for me to say I love nothing so well as you, but believe me, not. And yet I lie, not I confess nothing. Nor I deny nothing. I, I’m sorry for my cousin By 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

my sword, Beatrice. They’ll love it to me. 

Shannon Clair

Do not swear and eat it. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

I’ll swear by it that you love me and I will make him eat it. That says, I love not you. 

Shannon Clair

Will you not eat your word 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

With no sauce that can be devised to it. I protest. I love thee. 

Shannon Clair

Well then God forgives me. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

What a then sweet Beatrice, 

Shannon Clair

You have stayed me in a happy hour. I was about to protest. I loved you 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

And do it with all my heart. 

Shannon Clair

I love you with so much of my heart that none is left to protest. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Come bid me. Do anything for the 

Shannon Clair

Hell Claudio. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Not for the wide world. 

Shannon Clair

You kill me to deny it. Fairwell 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Terry. Sweet Beatrice. 

Shannon Clair

I am gone though I am here. There is no love in you. Nate, I pray you let me go, 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Beatrice. 

Shannon Clair

I in faith, I will go. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Well Be friends first. 

Shannon Clair

You dare easier be friends with me than fight with my enemy. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Is Claudio thine enemy. 

Shannon Clair

Is he not approved In the height of villain that have slandered, scorned, dishonored my king’s woman. Oh, that I were a man. What? Bear her in hand until they come to take hands. And then with public accusation uncovered slander, un mitigated ranker. Oh God, that I were a man. I would eat his heart in the marketplace. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Hear me Sweet bitch. 

Shannon Clair

Talk with a man out at a window, a proper saying 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

nay beat Beatrice 

Shannon Clair

wheat hero. She is wronged, she’s slandered, she is undone. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Beatrice 

Shannon Clair

princes and counties. Surely a princely testimony, a goodly count, count effect. A sweet galland, surely, oh, that I were a man for his sake. Or that I had any friend would be a man for my sake. But manhood is melted into curtze, valor, into compliment. And men are only turned into tongue and trim ones too. He is now as valiant as Hercules. That only tells a lie and swears it. I cannot be a man with wishing. Therefore, I will die. A woman with grieving 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Very good Beatrice by this hand. I love thee. 

Shannon Clair

Use it for my love some other way than swearing by it. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Thank you. In your soul, the count Claudio hath wronged hero. 

Shannon Clair

Yay. As sure as I have a thought or a soul 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Enough, I am engaged. I will challenge him. 

I will kiss your hand. And so I leave you by this hand. Claudio shall render me a dear account 

as you hear me. So think of me. 

Go comfort your cousin. I must say she is dead. And so farewell, 

Erika Rolfsrud

I loved it. Did you guys feel it? Was it, what did it feel like to play with those waves? 

Shannon Clair

Oh, it was, it was fun. I mean, there were definitely moments where I was like, where are we now? What are we doing now? Where I was a little like, but yeah. And then you’d get back on the ride and be like, This is fun. 

Erika Rolfsrud

You know, it’s somebody, Bob Kau, film director and or or teacher, great teacher, said in class one day, he said, people don’t transition in real life in terms of thinking. And every actor’s like, no, how am I gonna make this transition? He says, we don’t. 

We jump. 

Hmm. We have a million thoughts in a second. 

And this is one of those tricky scenes. 

And I, it just, you have to trust it. 

It’s like, it like looking at Juliet and Romeo and Juliet. She twists and turns and twists and turns and twists and turns. And the ones that do that, they’re either comic or they’re young or they’re crazy. 

You know what I mean? That it’s like, oh, oh, well, you know, I was just talking to him the other day and then he sent me a TikTok. Oh, there’s this one TikTok. But you have to see ’cause it’s funny. But he was talking to me the other, you know, it’s like, this is who we are as human beings. 

It was a great Benedict Jules. Really, really well done. And I liked your awkwardness a lot. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

In my notes. I put puppy dog after she reveals, I’m like, golden retriever puppy dog. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Exactly, exactly. If she ever sees this, she’ll kill me. But the first time I met my now nephew in-Law, he was, you know, awkwardly staying with me a few hours before my niece was to show up because she was flying in. And the moment she came in through the door, swear to God it was like a Labrador with his tail just wagging like, grace here, grace here. I just was like, this guy is smitten. Yeah. And I loved it. I was there for it. Just loved it. 

It’s, I So exciting. Okay, so I wanna go back a little bit and see if we can jump in. 

Try, I think I’m gonna start with the, 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Can I say something too? It’s really interesting ’cause I minimized my screen. So I ha put everybody at the top by my little green light. And so before I can’t see you, Shannon, before you, I, I say my first line and I can see Eric has still, but as soon, soon as you I say that, Erica goes away and it reveals you and I reveals your tears for the first time. So I can’t see anything until I see your tears. And it is like a little shock to me. So I just wanted to share that, that that was actually happening. And so I have been, and it’s just, it is jarring just to see that, that dropdown in you. So I just appreciate your work. 

Shannon Clair

It’s really surprised. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Yeah. Surprised 

Erika Rolfsrud

Erica get the fuck off the screen. 

Shannon Clair

Right. I guess it Would be fun to, to stage this in a way where like, Beatrice is facing away. Yeah. And you’re like, is she weeping? Have you been weeping? And then it’s like, oh yeah, you, you definitely have Okay. A mess. Yeah. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Yeah. And, and it could be, I, I even was playing in the, with my, I a whole lsy with handing her a tissue of some kind, you know? 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Yeah. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Look at a hanky. I don’t pulls off his glove maybe to, 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

he Keeps it in his hat. He has a hat on because they just 

Erika Rolfsrud

came from 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

a wedding. Yeah. 

Erika Rolfsrud

We could have fun. We, yeah. We get, have totally have fun. Or he picks up the end of her dress and hands it to her. I 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

dunno. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Or she does, she sees 

Shannon Clair

own dress. 

Erika Rolfsrud

She just over fuck and blows her nose on the hem of her skirt. Okay. 

Would it be possible, I’ll give you some notes in a second. Do you think to start it from, I do love nothing in the world, so well as you is not that strange 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

because 

Erika Rolfsrud

then we jump into the awkwardness, which is great. BBI love everything you do, but I put some more quotation marks a little bit around the first time you pick up eat. 

I will swear, Jules, I will swear by it that you love me and I will make him eat it. This is your thing. 

I’m gonna ring that eat bell. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Oh, I’m playing with you. Bat we’re playing, 

Erika Rolfsrud

Playing with your joke, your thing. And then that gives you a chance to bat it back. It’s like he’s being nice to the scared kitten. And here I know your toy and, and you know, in a fun kind of awkward, teenage way, I’ll due respect to teenagers, okay, then God forgive me. What offense you pay. You’ve saved me a happy hour was about to just, I loved you. 

And you know, she could still be caring with that humor. ’cause it takes her, it’s a little bit harder for her because he really hurt her. 

But she’s, this is happening, you know, you’ve saved me in a happy hour. I was about to pretend There is, there is humor in that. Yeah, I was gonna do that too. Yeah. 

It, it’s, it’s like, you know, I, yeah. I’m not gonna get into, anyway, I have so many voices and do it with all thy heart. I love you with so much of my heart that not has left me. That’s so fantastic. Take a beat to take that in before you say I’ll do it. 

Oh, and you, it was perfect Shannon, that it was to like, great. 

Kill him. 

You know? And I love Jules that you took it and you kind of went, ha ha ha. 

And you could even hold that a little bit more. Did you just say what I think you just said? 

Yeah. And I would, I would invite you, Shannon to not immediate, not immediately go to disappointment, but to go to a, a feeling like, now I’m back to this. 

Oh, what the fuck do I do? 

I’m back to where I was. 

You know, Terry’s, you know, I’m gone. I, this is, you know, in that, that crushing life moment that you hit, you know, there is the love in you. Nay, I pray you let me go and maybe trying to get around him or something. And you know, it’s Beatrice in faith, I will go, it’s a stab to get her to stop. 

Let’s be friends. 

What? You know, like, and I think you can just give it to, when you hear that this is, you wanna shift to what we just had this wonderful moment, and then all of a sudden you’re okay with us. Well, let’s just go back and let’s be friends. 

That’s so easy to you. We’re talking about feelings, we’re talking about emotions and everything like that. And you can just do it like that. But you won’t go kill him. You know, it’s Claudio thine enemy. 

Make your case. 

You’re not yet railing at the, at the heavens. 

You know, he, he did this shit. And I think the try with the, oh, I, were a man. Just let the o be anything. 

It’s a lack of knowing what to stay. And wouldn’t it be funny if I were a man? Give it, give it something here that’s different than the next time you say it and the next time you say it, you really fucking mean it. You know what I mean? I, I, these are the moments that it’s all coming out. And then, and then he did this and he did this and he did this. And again, the o’s could be a scream. That could be anything you want. I would eat his heart in the marketplace because that’s the launch into this. 

So I, I would ask you, Jules, even though I know you’re not working on Benedict as necessarily, what would he say to her if he could get her to shut up? 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Hmm. Just sit down. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Yeah. He doesn’t know what he’s gonna say. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Samir. Yeah. I just, I just want, I love you. Let’s just stop for a moment. Let’s just talk. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Yeah. Breathe. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Yeah. God forbid I tell her to breathe. But Just 

Erika Rolfsrud

don’t tell her to smile. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Don’t Please. Fine. It’s okay. And then I kind of go back to like that puppy image. Like, it, it, in those first few lines, it kind of feels like he, she smacked him on the nose and the puppy stung, stunned. And it’s kind of like, no, well, well not my friends first. It’s fine. Let’s just, let’s make doesn’t have to love’s, 

Erika Rolfsrud

I dunno what to do. I dunno what to do. Yeah, 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Yeah, 

Erika Rolfsrud

yeah, Yeah. And then into princes and counties and that last one. Oh, that I we’re a man for his sake. It’s almost like the cursing that we do in Shakespeare. You, you know, Richard Easton used to do that. He goes, may you never, he said, it’s the only time you should point on stage when you’re cursing someone. And he was like, yeah, that makes sense. 

Or, or 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

I, so when cursing point, 

Erika Rolfsrud

Point when cursing and he would do it with this, he would like, 

or that I had a friend who would be a man for my sake, really give it to him just, and then mock, throw a little mocking into the next thing about melted into curtsies and babababababa and maybe try, I’m throwing so much at you, he’s now as valiant as Hercules. But whatever that, that’s a like a realization. 

Oh my god. 

People are toasting them in bars right now. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Hmm. 

Erika Rolfsrud

And then because there is a switch, there’s gotta be a shift somewhere in there because she ends with, I will die a woman with grieving. And I think that’s when she’s the disappointment, the weight and everything can hit her. 

Shannon Clair

Yeah. 

Erika Rolfsrud

And it’s a last ditch effort with use it for my love. You know, and then there’s that ggl, there’s something in that, in that moment at the end of that speech that makes Benedict grow up 

and say, oh shit, I really love this woman. 

And, and, and what’s the same way it’s scary for her to say, I love you. It’s scary for him to do this. 

’cause he is not the hero on the battlefield. 

He’s the gesture. 

So that’s why he asks, are you sure? 

And you know, I, but I love you. 

So what Did 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

we say? What was the symbol for the hand by this hand again? Because IFI feel like we found that in this last one that was this last go around by this hand. I love the, and she says, hand by this hand, da da. 

Erika Rolfsrud

You mean in a previous thing or the way by this hand? I love the, 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

I think last week we were talking about just what, what hand meant? 

Did we, was that just me? Is 

Shannon Clair

It not his hand? It’s 

Erika Rolfsrud

his hand. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Yeah. By this hand. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Wait, I think we talked about like, like her you the possibility maybe we talked about this. Her grabbing it or just the idea of maybe for your own self, the swearing and that kind of thing. Yeah, 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

because he, 

Erika Rolfsrud

his hand again, but it’s her hand. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Mm. 

Erika Rolfsrud

So it’s by this hand and then he kisses her hand. So I don’t know. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Got it. Okay. 

Erika Rolfsrud

You know, maybe later. So let’s go back to the awkward Labrador. Teenagers, 

I do love nothing in the world so well as you, so this is really awkward and she’s crying and all this kind of stuff. So take your time and do your brilliance. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

I do love nothing in the world. So well as you is not that strange, 

Shannon Clair

As strange as the thing I know. Not it were as possible for me to say I love nothing so well as you, but believe me, not. And yet I lie, not I confess nothing nor I deny nothing. 

I am sorry for my cousin. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

I am my sword Beatrice. Thou love is me. 

Shannon Clair

Do not swear and eat it. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

I will Swear by it that you love me and I will make him eat it. That says, I love not you. 

Shannon Clair

Will you not eat your word 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Word with no sauce that can be devised to it. I protest. 

Erika Rolfsrud

I’m gonna stop you. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

I’m gonna 

Erika Rolfsrud

stop you. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Yep. 

Erika Rolfsrud

I want you to make sure you, you play up the eat. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Okay? Yes. The 

Erika Rolfsrud

quotes around eat. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Yes. 

Erika Rolfsrud

All right, let’s go back to same place. Okay. I won’t interrupt. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

I do love nothing in the world. So well as you is not that strange, 

Shannon Clair

As strange as the thing I know. Not it. Whereas possible for me to say I loved nothing so well as you, but believe me, not. And yet I lie, not I confess nothing nor I deny nothing. 

I’m sorry for my cousin 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

By my sword Beatrice. Thou love is me. 

Shannon Clair

Do not swear and eat it. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

I will swear by it that you love me and I will make him eat it. That says, I love not you. 

Shannon Clair

Will you not eat your word 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

With no sauce that can be devised to it. I protest. I love thee 

Shannon Clair

May then God forgive me. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

What a fed sweet Beatrice. 

Shannon Clair

You have stayed me in a happy hour. I was about To protest. I loved you 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

And do it with all thy heart. 

Shannon Clair

I love you with so much of my heart that none is left to protest. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Bid me, do anything for thee. 

Shannon Clair

Kill Claudio. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Huh? 

Not for the wide world. 

Shannon Clair

You kill me to deny it. 

Farewell. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Very sweet, Beatrice. 

Shannon Clair

I am gone though I am here. There is no love in you. Nate, I pray you let me go 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Beatrice. 

Shannon Clair

I in faith, I will go. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

We be friends first. 

Shannon Clair

You dare easier be friends with me than fight with mine. Enemy 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Is Claudio, thine enemy. 

Shannon Clair

Is he not approved In the height of villain that has slandered, scorned, dishonored. My kins woman that I were a man. What? Bear her in hand until they come to take hands. And then with public accusation, I uncovered slander, un mitigated ranker. Ah, oh God, that I were a man. I would eat his heart in the marketplace. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Hear me Beatrice, 

Shannon Clair

With a man out a window, a proper saying 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Nay. But Beatrice wheat 

Shannon Clair

Hero, she is wronged. She’s slandered, she’s undone. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Be it 

Shannon Clair

Crisis and counties. Surely a princely testimony, a goodly count, count compact, A sweet gallant, surely, ah, that I were a man for his sake, or that I had any friend would be a man for my sake. But manhood is melted into curtsies, valor, into compliment. And men are only turned into tongue and trim ones two. 

He is now as valiant as Hercules. That only tells a lie and swears it. 

I cannot be a man with wishing therefore, I will die. A woman with grieving 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Harry Good Beatrice by this hand, I love thee. 

Shannon Clair

Use it for my love some other way, then swearing by it. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Thank you. In your soul that count, Claudio hath wronged hero. 

Shannon Clair

Yay. As sure as I have a thought or a soul 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Enough, I am engaged. 

I will challenge him. 

I will kiss your hand. And so I leave you by this hand. Claudio shall render me a dear account 

as you hear of me. So think of me go comfort your cousin. I must say she’s dead. 

And so for Well, 

Erika Rolfsrud

Nice. My 

Shannon Clair

sun is going down and I’m losing the light in this room. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Change my 

Shannon Clair

blinds. 

Erika Rolfsrud

There we go. 

Shannon Clair

Ah, light together. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Nicely done ladies. New colors. Ooh, chat. 

So we could also keep playing, but I think at this point, Nathan, are there any questions? Are you out there? Oh, Nathan. Oh, I 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

got the time. Wow. That flew by. 

Nathan Agin

Yeah, no, it was, it was great. And you know, I was just, I was just wondering, I was curious to launch into the questions. Sure. 

How, you know, if we were say, say, just working on this, this last scene between Beatrice and Benedict. You know, there’d be lots of discussion of what’s going on and what’s come, you know, before and, and what might be happening here and motivations and all that. But I’m curious particularly for, for Shannon and Jules, you know, who can speak to this a little bit, what was it like having the experience of the earlier scenes and all the discussion of really kind of getting into the trenches of what’s going on in those earlier scenes? How did that help inform or give you ideas of what to do in this scene? I know, I know it’s a little, it’s a big question. 

IIII, 

Shannon Clair

I mean I I love that we have this long history that gets demonstrated in the earlier scenes of just how quick they are to throw barbs at each other. And so how challenging it is not to do that if that’s your mo with someone or has become your mo with someone. 

And I feel like it definitely informs, I mean the, the entire idea of their history informs this, will you not eat your word? ’cause that’s kind of what you did before. 

And then, and then the send up of, of men, because he is a man who uses his tongue, right? He’s like tripping along with all his little sayings and, and that’s, you know, that’s the, that’s the manhood that she is in addition to Claudio’s, obviously, because he’s got this valorous thing, but she’s, you know, she knows how to undercut Benedict, how well they know how to undercut each other, but not always to support each other. I guess they’re learning how to support each other. 

Nathan Agin

Absolutely. Yeah. No, that’s great, Jules. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

I love that. That’s it. That’s, it’s so true because the relationship has changed in this scene. Their dynamic has changed in this scene, the way they relate to each other, the language that they’re using with each other. But there’s, and there’s almost, there’s still that banter, that beautiful banter between them and that fire. But the fire has changed more into passion and love and care and compassion and be and caring for each other rather than putting up your dukes. And I think that’s such a, a lovely like way to put it because they, they are now using love language rather than, rather than fighting. 

And I think it’s interesting too, like just to, yeah, I dunno, I had something else, but that’s it. Yeah, I think the way that they relate to each other, and I think that’s what’s great in all of these, these plays, is to see those relationships change from the beginning to the end. And specifically with Beatrice and Benedict and how they actually start to grow stronger together and to use that history. And it’s alm Oh, that’s what I was gonna say. There’s almost this relief between them, right? There’s almost this kind of like, oh, now I can say I love you because I think that was the feeling that was, I didn’t, that I, this resistance that I’ve been feeling this entire time. 

Erika Rolfsrud

I think it’s very interesting. Also, it really struck me the last couple times how when she says, you know, but it turned c turned into courtesies and all this kind of stuff. And at the end of the scene, it’s exactly what he does. He’s, he’s into the courtesies and the manner and the formality of I have accepted this challenge. And so there’s sort of a, there’s nothing to be done about it. It just, it it’s there for its own sake. But yeah. Yeah. I have, I have something else to add, but it can be added later. I wanna hear if there’s any more questions. 

Nathan Agin

Well, well, I, I, I wanted to turn that one to, to you Erica. What was it like to direct, direct this role over the course of the play, having the experience of being able to work on all these different scenes and, and you’re not, you know, solely focused on one scene, did it, and, and having played the role, did it you, did anything surprise you about Beatrice or unlock anything by going back to some of the by go, by just investigating all these different scenes rather than just focusing on one? 

Erika Rolfsrud

I would, I, I’m really, I would be really keen to play it again. And there are those moments where you discover and you go, oh, oh, oh, why didn’t I do that before? You know, it’s, it’s like shit missed opportunity. But it’s, you know, I, the, the, the wide variety of who Beatrice is, is she could be played, I’m still convinced at any age really. 

And, and in each sort of like age level, it would bring a different information with it and it would be so much fun. 

Nathan Agin

I 

Erika Rolfsrud

mean, so I think now at that 56 years old, I would be a very different Beatrice. You know, 

Nathan Agin

I, I’m, I’m really sorry Erica, the audio cut out, but that’s okay. We’ll just, we’ll just move on. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Yeah, I think I hit 

Nathan Agin

the button, 

Erika Rolfsrud

you know, but yeah, it, it’s, she’s, she’s, she’s one I cherish in my heart. 

Nathan Agin

Yeah. Like 

Erika Rolfsrud

Lindsay. 

Nathan Agin

Well, and you know, to, to speak to that idea of, of why, why didn’t I think of that? I mean it’s, you know, if only you had four or five other people helping you on a roll on a production, then you might, you know, might feel like, okay, I got, I got like 95% of what I, what, what was there. But you know, we’re all lucky if we, you know, get to spend 25 minutes talking with the director about this, about a particular scene or passage. And maybe there’s a dramaturg who gets, you know, a few minutes here and there. So, so yeah, it’s, it’s, that’s 

Erika Rolfsrud

fine 

Nathan Agin

Too. Yeah. 

Erika Rolfsrud

It, it would be so great to have like two weeks to sit at a table right. And just bounce around a bunch of ideas and, and not feel obligated as well to what you brought into the audition room, 

Nathan Agin

Right. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Because it feels like when you go in and you, you know, you give this you performance to whatever degree in the audition room, and there’s just no time to have facility in a rehearsal room to, to have the facility of, of exploring different choices. 

Nathan Agin

Right. 

Erika Rolfsrud

You wouldn’t be obligated to what you first came in with. So, 

Nathan Agin

right. And, and yeah, I mean it’s really, yeah, and some companies do this, but it, it’s working via collaboration of what do you think, what, you know, what, what do we all think of is going on here? And, and that’s where, you know, you can get a lot of great ideas. You can try stuff out, see what works and what doesn’t or what flavors or colors you like. 

Kat, I would love to hear from the dramaturgical perspective, were there particular favorite moments you had, you know, investigating the role over the course of the play, or things that you really enjoyed researching that you maybe hadn’t found in, in prior experiences with the play? 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

I mean, that’s a great question. I mean, I think to me, it’s sort of a lot of what you’re saying is really what I love about drama churchy, which is I can, I can go in and I can feel like if it’s play, I know, well, if it’s a part I know, well, if it’s a, if it’s something I’ve watched actors work on before, I can feel pretty confident, right? Like, I know where we’re gonna go here, but luckily I’m not, I don’t, I try not to walk into a rehearsal hall without attitude. ’cause I feel like it’s always different and it always changes. And I think there really is something that, to that collaborative spirit, you know, I’ve had so many different experiences of working on the same play, you know, and of course certain things are the same all the time and are, I shouldn’t say the same. 

There’s something fundamental right about this attraction between Benedict and Beatrice. But what it looks like and how it plays out, it just, it’s, you know, there is many possibilities that there are actors. So I really love that. It just feels like something that’s, you know, alive rather than something that’s sort of stagnant, right? There’s not one way to do it. But again, there are those, those moments that organically kind of come together and depends on who’s on stage. But I also love the questions you’re asking about, like, wanting to come back and do the role again. I feel like so many my conversations with my actor friends who’ve played these really phenomenal parts, like they never ever feel like they’re done with the part, right? Like, you wanna do it 15 more times and there’s so much there, which is such a lovely thing. And I feel like is such, such a remarkable, remarkable quality about Shakespeare, right? There’s, there’s something in there that never changes that’s fundamental, but so many different shades you can play with really, 

Nathan Agin

I think. And, and yeah, absolutely. Yeah, go ahead 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Jules. I Was just gonna, sorry, I was gonna, I love that these, these roles because they are so iconic, right? And we, as, as actors, directors, as, as artists, as Dramaturgs, we look at them and they, we have this idea of what they should be, and then we start to, you know, mine the text and realize, you know, they are, they are humans that change over time just as we are. And I think that being able and having the privilege of playing a role at different points in your life, you know, things about yourself start to reveal themselves to you. And so as it is in the text, you start to see things in that different perspective. 

And as Erica likes to say, they lift out of the text and kind of start to find their way into your body, into your soul, into your mind in a different way and, and kind of morph. I just, I love that idea. So I think in, in that, I think it’s really important to trust yourself at whatever point you are in your life for these roles. And not to think that you have to fit the role, but let the role fit you. 

Nathan Agin

Absolutely. That’s a great point. And you know, I would offer Erica, when you were talking about, you know, wishing you, you figured out more, I mean, I would, I would guess that there were things that just at the time in your life that you were, when you played these roles, just you miss things. You, you know, things went over your head like you did, like, but with more life experience, something lands in a different way that you’re like, oh, of course now with this life experience that makes total sense. And as, you know, a 25-year-old or a 30 5-year-old, I just, I just would not have read it the same way. 

I would not have understood it. 

What do you, what do you think about that? 

Erika Rolfsrud

I I absolutely agree. I mean, it’s, it, it, because I think the interesting thing, the idea of an older Ben Beatrice Benedict is that they’re going to, they’re going to be more set in their ways. 

Nathan Agin

Sure. 

Erika Rolfsrud

A longer time being alone, a longer time becoming this person is harder than to break the shell. And where you could find those moments, you’d have to, I dunno, it was a little bit like, like when I got to work on Juliet, very different Juliet than what I would’ve done had I actually been right age-wise. 

Nathan Agin

Sure. 

Erika Rolfsrud

And it was a lot more fun to play 

Nathan Agin

actually. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Yeah. This age. ’cause there 

Nathan Agin

was a 

Erika Rolfsrud

put on, I, I found a lot more, which is sort of ironic since she’s a 14-year-old and I’m finding what I feel is more authentically her at years old. So, you know, again, that damn zoom. Oh no. Well, 

Nathan Agin

Yeah, and, and as an audience member, you know, I, I I remember your Juliet and, and it had a similar quality to, we had another actor, Jamie Newcombe, who played SIUs in his twenties. And then he came back and did it like, you know, I dunno, 30 or 40 years later. And even though Sylvia’s is meant to be this, you know, kind of dopey bid, it’s, and it, it is enormously hilarious and touching and moving when you see somebody much older in life, you know, you know, ’cause they, because they can connect with those emotions. They really know what’s going on. They can, they can allow themselves to be that vulnerable. 

So whether it’s Juliet or Sylvia’s for another part, you, you’re allowed, you have that capacity to, to, to go into those moments, to, to kind of be big as as you need to. 

Yeah. No, it’s, it, it is, it is really exciting to see actors take on parts that they quote unquote might not be right for age-wise. Because I think they, they do bring something that you just can’t, I mean, it’s why, it’s why Ian Macallan was playing Hamlet. You know, it’s just like there’s, you know, whether or not you think the production works as a whole, it’s just like he’s going to have a different life experience than somebody who’s 22. I was just, and this is, I I was thinking about this earlier. 

You know, it, it, it goes along with what you’re saying, that if people get married right outta high school, then they haven’t had a lot of time to be set in their ways. 

There’s going to be probably, or or there’s gonna be a lot more years where they have to figure things out as they’re figuring out themselves. It’s just gonna be a different challenge than if they’re, you know, 40 when they get married or if they have a kid, you know, you, you think about young parents and it’s like, well they, they hadn’t had a life, you know, to really, you know, that that evaporates when they have a child. But when, if they’re, you know, 35 or 40, they’ve been on their own, they’ve been doing their own thing. And now there’s this whole new dynamic. So, so yeah, I mean it’s, it’s that will they, won’t they dynamic that’s very exciting to see. 

And, and as Kat mentioned, like it’s ubiquitous, you know, we see it in movies and literature and, and TV and everything of, of these two characters that at first, oh, well, you know, they’re not gonna, they’re not gonna work. But that’s, that’s what we, we wanna see. There’s something, I don’t know, I don’t know if it’s a primal or something. We just, we just gravitate towards those stories. We wanna see people come together. I guess. 

I, I was curious, now that you guys have done all this work, and Erica you mentioned earlier the kind of literary version or bookish version of Beatrice in your head from, from anyone here, where would you wanna see Beatrice go? Are there other ideas that any of you have had of like, I’d really love to see this kind of a Beatrice and it doesn’t have to be, you know, a, a, a specific role in a specific time or place. So if you have that, that’s fine, but just the, the kinds of qualities or, or characteristics from doing all this work that you’re like, you know, I, I don’t know if I’ve really seen this part of her brought out and I’d like to see this more, or I’d like to investigate this further. 

Any, anything come to mind from, from anyone? 

Shannon Clair

Well, I guess to me the, the idea of her being the fool in Leonardo’s house, I would love to see what someone does with that. You know, I don’t need the whole like, fool’s outfit with the 

Nathan Agin

Sure. But 

Shannon Clair

like, what, what elements of that could, could she choose to draw on and might be peppered in, in some way where it, her, her moments are clearly also like, this is the entertainment. This is where, this is the entertainment that we get in our house out here. 

You know, because there’s just so much that we forget about the fact that like, these people needed to entertain themselves. They didn’t have anything that they could sit there. So she is probably a huge source of that. 

And maybe, you know, there’s this whole thing and it becomes much more a thing in like Austin, right? Jane Austen of like the woman who you, you better play an instrument or sing or something. ’cause when you’re at the country house, what are you going to be doing? Oh, you’re gonna play music for people or somehow be entertaining. Like women should entertain. And Beatrice is doing it in a strange fashion. She’s not the, oh, I know how to sing a song, but like, maybe this is, she’s like, well, you know, this is my special talent. So what it, how maybe to fold that into like the dynamic and how certain moments are treated on stage 

Nathan Agin

would be Interesting. Yeah, absolutely. And I think, you know, you could certainly read that there’s definitely a performative side of Beat Beatrice that she’s, I mean, and depending on the production, they could decide like that David te a production where it was kind of more of an intimate opening scene. But you, you know, you could argue that she’s doing this for others. You know, like, you know, this Ted Ted with Benedict or, and other sections, so. Right. Yeah. Well I think it’d be fun to kind of investigate, well, like the fool who’s, you know, doing it to entertain and, and kind of having a show of a one person show how does be, you know, how, what elements does Beatrice take of that. 

Yeah. The, that’s great. Any, any other thoughts of where you’d go with Beatrice, where you’d wanna see? 

Erika Rolfsrud

Well, I will credit some was when I did Helena in Midsummer the second time. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

The 

Erika Rolfsrud

Demetrius that we had was just a wonderful choice. ’cause everybody usually makes him the dude, you know, the athlete, the whatever. And he made him a nerd at the beginning. And he is like, you know, sweet Hermia, why won’t you, you know, and it was hilarious. And then when the fairies went to put the bug juice in his eyes, they did a whole lot on the fuck getting the glasses off 

Nathan Agin

and looking 

Erika Rolfsrud

at each other and things like that. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

And 

Erika Rolfsrud

they put it on and then they put it back on his face. And he did a Clark Kent kind of thing when he wakes up. And it worked beautifully. And nobody went the way. So the idea of like, her being a nerd, 

Nathan Agin

she could also be 

Erika Rolfsrud

a Clark Kent kind of thing where she’s got the glasses and she’s this kind of a thing. And you know, ha ha ha. And then when she finds out he loves her, just finding moments of like, I don’t know how to be a girl. You know, you know, because in that sort of experimentation, then she discovers in this emotional sort of scene with Benedict, maybe she, she comes to a place where she’s really finds her true self. 

Shannon Clair

I just thought of a terrible idea. She checks her glasses in that scene where she’s comes in before the wedding and they all think she’s crying. She’s just, she can’t see anything anymore. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

That’s 

Erika Rolfsrud

so good. Yeah. Or she’s, 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

she’s, She’s tired. It says she can’t see. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Yeah. And she’s, you know, and he scares her, you know, have you wet all, you know, well she, she stuffed the glasses somewhere. Oh God. You know, it’s, it’s pretty much any, you could do anything 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

or even Like trying to put on heels, like she’s never wore heels before. Worn heels before and legs and, and the whole thing with wobbling and heels and like, 

Erika Rolfsrud

Lena, what’s her face that was so painful at that award ceremony, which is like, oh no, Lena, Lena Luma. Oh, who created girls? I can’t even think of her last name. 

Nathan Agin

Oh, Lena Dunham. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Yeah. Yeah. Oh girl. I would’ve been like, you’re in a gown, wear tennis shoes. No 

Shannon Clair

one’s gonna see me. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

And maybe in, in the church she has a broken heel or something like that that’s like on the floor or something next, next to her and just, she’s fe some with her heels. 

Nathan Agin

I love it. This is great. This is great. I, I hope, I hope producers and theaters are, are listening out there, you know, we got your next production. But yeah, there is that, that trope. A and and I, I kind of thought of the movie, it’s a Wonderful Life where George goes back and finds Mary and she’s very bookish and very, you know, very tight. And, and, and so there was that kind of trope of like, this woman that you, you know, this librarian bookish kind of woman that is really in touch with her feelings and, and, and, and over the course of the place, she just realizes, wait a second, there’s a, there’s a whole life going on in me that I hadn’t really been in touch with until, you know, I have this opportunity to, you know, bring it out and, you know, discover that this person loves me and what does that reveal in me? 

It would be interesting because I think it, it’s not a, not a trap, but I think it’s very in the play that Beatrice has a lot of emotion from the get go. Like, she’s very, not just demonstrative, but you know, I think she, she’s very in touch. She can be very in touch with herself of, of what she’s feeling. She may, she may not think she has feelings for Benedict, but I think she’s very strong in her feelings. So it’d be interesting to see that kind of journey of someone that is, you know, maybe has more, more of a tighter hold on their emotions. Yeah, 

Erika Rolfsrud

You’re breaking up. 

Nathan Agin

So, you know, you 

Shannon Clair

losing, 

Nathan Agin

oh, oh, was I breaking up? 

Erika Rolfsrud

Froze for a second? Yeah, 

Nathan Agin

I froze for a second. So I dunno where I froze in there. But it would be interesting to see, I think that journey of somebody going from not being as in touch with their emotions to, you know, that unraveling over the course of the play. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Yeah. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Well then she was walking the fine line and letting those like defense mechanisms kind of like her life a little bit more in the beginning and then being hit and finding out maybe that Benedict does love her. And, and I think too, you know, the relationship with Hero, she’s, she’s impacted by that too. I think that allowing v heroes vulnerability and heroes, just unbridled passion and this ability to love so easily hit her. I think that allowing that relationship too to kind of start to break down her defenses, because I think, you know, that it’s, it’s such an important relationship and maybe goes missed more often than not. 

And I, if you have a good hero, I think that that’s, that’s everything. You know, it just, 

Erika Rolfsrud

It’s very hard for the heroes because they, 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

yeah, 

Erika Rolfsrud

they don’t, they aren’t given a lot of language, right Shannon? They’re just not. And it, it’s, it’s, it’s like, I, I always thought of Beatrice and I would imagine it would really play even bigger as she gets older. The actress is older, that she has an opportunity in hero to drive home these things that maybe hero doesn’t naturally feel or think, thank you for upstaging 

Nathan Agin

me. 

Erika Rolfsrud

That’s Oliver. But yeah, you know, it’s, it’s, oh God, I just love this role. I just wanted to say before, before we, we end, I don’t even know if it’s in print still, but there is a book called Glamorous Voices and it was published in 1988. And it is a conversation with five Royal Shakespearean actresses who we all pretty much know now. Fiona Shaw, Harriet Walter, Juliet Stevenson, Paula Dianna Sonti, and Sinead Cusack. 

And they, they take a period of 10 years of the roles that they played at the RSC and they discuss them. And one of the things that was brought to the fore, because people couldn’t, I think you can’t help but the whole dynamic of men and rules and what aren’t fair and that what isn’t fair, the audience is going to come in naturally with the context that they know. 

And pal and d Sode played a very famous Kate to Jonathan Price’s Petruchio. And at the end of the 10 year period, Fiona Shaw, which I got to see Fiona Shaw and Brian Cox played it, and they had a very different take on it. 

And they talk about how you, you bring into the room, you can’t help but bring into the room the dynamic of what’s happening in the rehearsal hall as well. 

The time period that you’re actually living in, in the day. And they talked about how with like Kate, you know, there’s only like two other women in the play, the widow and Bianca, and they don’t like her, the room, it’s mostly men in the room. Stage management at that time was primarily male. And, and Pamela Dito said he went to the opening night of the Brian Cox, Fiona Shaw. And she said the moment she opened her mouth, I almost burst into tears. ’cause I could just hear that stress come in. So it would be very interesting also, like from a directing point of view to really consider that whether you could actually do something, but it could come into play in a really awesome way. 

Because then you also get, at the end of the play, the moment he kisses her, she doesn’t say another word, which is interesting. It’s a little bit like a playing Kate. You can’t do that speech with your tongue in cheek. 

The whole thing about I I put hold out my hand for my husband’s foot. 

Nathan Agin

Yeah, yeah, yeah, 

Erika Rolfsrud

Yeah. But I will say that production, it worked one of time for me to tell you about it. I’ll email you, sorry, audience, 

Shannon Clair

but 

Erika Rolfsrud

find, find that book because it’s, 

Nathan Agin

it’s great 

Erika Rolfsrud

talk about Shakespearean women and things like that. And if you can’t let me know and don’t tell anybody, but maybe I’ll copy it for you. 

Nathan Agin

That’s, that’s great. Thank you for the book recommendation. I’ll, I’ll be sure to include that in the notes. And, and it looks like Kat found it, so we can put that link in there for people. 

A as we’re, you know, getting close to wrapping up, any, any final thoughts people wanna share about Beatrice? Discoveries, surprises, challenges, anything else? 

Erika Rolfsrud

I love her. That’s it. This 

Shannon Clair

was a joy. This was a, I like this. Base it around one character. So let’s do Kate next. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Yes. 

Erika Rolfsrud

She’s tough. That’s a tough one. Yes, 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

I’m in 

Erika Rolfsrud

Beatrice as the childless cat lady. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Art two. Yes, 

Erika Rolfsrud

yes. It’s 20, 24. Ladies and gentlemen, 

Nathan Agin

You know, this is what they say is, you know, for the, the smart savvy actor, you, you, you figure out roles that you know are right for you. So, you know, you just, you, you create your own content. So there you go, Beatrice, as the childless cat lady that you can, she, she could have her own web series. There we go, Erica. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Oh, 

Nathan Agin

you don’t even have to leave your apartment. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Oh, that’s brilliant. 

Nathan Agin

Maybe she married Benedict. Maybe they didn’t, maybe they didn’t. I maybe they’re separated, divorced, maybe they have a couple, 

Shannon Clair

maybe Benedict 

Nathan Agin

Is 

Shannon Clair

always a cat. 

Nathan Agin

Maybe he was always a cat. You know, there’s many, many opportunities. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

He lives In 

Nathan Agin

the 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

pool 

Erika Rolfsrud

house 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

behind the house. 

Erika Rolfsrud

There you go. He claimed to be a dog guy said he had allergies to cats, 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

but no, 

Nathan Agin

he Actually, yeah, he moved. Yeah, he moved in and then in the first week he was like, wait, you don’t, you don’t like cats? Okay, this isn’t gonna work. This 

Erika Rolfsrud

Isn’t gonna work. 

Juls Hoover (she/her)

Bye. 

Nathan Agin

Well, I, I do wanna say thank you all so much for, for your work over this past month and to Anu, I, I wish you could have been here tonight, you know, for those watching, check out the early weeks, you see all the work that led up to this week and you know, there’s no way I, we, we can recap nearly eight hours of discussions. It, it was just fantastic. But this is just a great, great group and I’m, I’m, I’m so thrilled that all of you enjoyed working on Beatrice. For those watching, subscribe, tell your friends, hit that like button, check us out on Patreon if you wanna support this and see, you know, what else we can, we can do. And I’m, I’m always open to feedback if you think there’s play or scene or a role or something else we can do with this that would aid you, whether you’re an actor, a a theater lover, educator, you know, we want this to be as useful to as many people as possible. 

And, and I think just if you, even in general, like going to theater, I, I think these sessions are so wonderful. ’cause I think it just gives you such a deeper appreciation for the play that you hopefully will see in deeper understanding. So, and, and as Kat mentioned, you know, this, this is a play that is done all the time. I mean, I’m sure you know, and every year there’s at least probably 10 to 20 productions happening anywhere. So there’s probably one near you, if not this summer, another time of year. So, but that is it. Thank you all again so much for, for being part of it. We will kind of close out the public portion here and we’ll, we’ll see you another time in the rehearsal room. 

So thanks again, everybody 

Erika Rolfsrud

Grateful to you, Nathan. Thank you. 

Shannon Clair

Thank 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

you 

Erika Rolfsrud

ladies. Rah.