Week 1 – Acting the Role: BEATRICE (Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing”) – The Rehearsal Room

Nathan Agin

Hi everybody, welcome back to the rehearsal room. My name is Nathan Agin. I excited for you to join us for the next four sessions as we embark diving into the role of Beatrice from Shakespeare’s. Much to do about nothing. We have a wonderful team here that you’ll be able to watch and listen to over the next four sessions as we explore different parts of the play, looking at, you know, what makes this character tick and her full arc in, in the play. And so I’m really excited once again to just be an observer and, and, and to learn myself. And I, I will say just a few things quickly. 

If you aren’t already subscribed on YouTube, hit that subscribe button so you can find out when the next rehearsal session is coming out. If you enjoyed the video, be sure to also click, like share it on social media, let people know that we’re doing this. And you can even support the project via Patreon. I will quickly mention a few of the people helping us keep the administrative lights on. We have Joan, Michelle, Christian, Jim Magdalene, evar, Claudia Cliff, and Jeff. Thank you very much for your support. 

And yes, that’s, that’s what we got going on. So I will kind of step back into the dark recesses of the theater, the last row here and give it over to the group. We’ll start with kind of a quick, you know, a brief, brief ish introduction by everybody. 

And then you, Erica, I’ll let you kind of take it and lead it from there. So that’s it for me. I hope you guys have a great session. 

Juls Hoover

Thanks, Nathan. Nathan. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Oh, that’s better. Hello everybody. 

Shannon Lee Clair

Hello. 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

Hi. 

Juls Hoover

I Just 

Erika Rolfsrud

so excited. So why don’t we go around and do introductions? Anybody wanna go first? 

Okay, 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

I’m gonna, I’ll, 

Erika Rolfsrud

okay, 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

I’ll go first. I’ll, I’ll go first. Sure. Hi everybody. So nice to join you for the first time. My name is Annu and yeah, what else should I say? I mean, I’m in San Diego. I am an actor, writer, filmmaker. I just finished completing my second short film. We’re in post-production right now. If you want to support my crowdfunding campaign, I will happily send you a link. 

But yeah, happy to be here. And as I mentioned in the email in the beginning, Beatrice is one of the roles I’ve always loved to play. I’ve done much a do twice, but I played Margaret the first time and hero the second time. So Beatrice is the third kinds of charm. 

Yes. 

Erika Rolfsrud

So Absolute putting it out there. Everybody should play it 

Juls Hoover

certain. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Lay all the gal Shannon. 

Shannon Lee Clair

Hi, I’m Shannon and I have the good fortune to play Beatrice last summer at the New Cannon Theater Company in Monterey, California. So that was kind of a extra special treat because then I also got to be in Monterey for like a month and a half, which was really delightful. 

Erika Rolfsrud

That 

Shannon Lee Clair

makes sense. And, and it was a total surprise. I didn’t know anyone there and they were casting and I was like, I’ll send a video. Why not? 

Juls Hoover

No. 

Shannon Lee Clair

So it was, it was, I was, I was really delighted and it was a great time. They said it in the forties. So, which I think it’s been a popular trend lately with this, with the sense of like, guys coming back from World War II and here in LA I’m a member of the N Ts Theater company and I just did a Winter’s Tale there. So that was, I, I de aged, I played Perha, I lost some years off of Guess My Life. 

Erika Rolfsrud

You go, 

Shannon Lee Clair

got younger. So yeah, very good. And I live in la 

Erika Rolfsrud

Alright, rep repping California. Here we go. Jules. Yeah, 

Juls Hoover

on the California board. I’m also in Los Angeles. 

I, my name is Jules and I do a little bit of everything. And this is my third session with working podcast and second with Erica second directing. And then third, third, third. 

Erika Rolfsrud

’cause ’cause we played Romeo and Juliet. 

Juls Hoover

Ly and Juliet. Yeah. So that was a lot of fun. That was a lot of fun. And I love this idea that we get to dive into the text and really start to pick it apart and do the things that we want to do before an audition or we kind of want to do in a production, but sometimes don’t have the time and we can really find the, you know, the gems and all the, the goodness in there. So I’m really excited to just play and, and have fun. Yeah. Excellent. 

Erika Rolfsrud

All right. Hi Kat. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Hi. It’s nice to meet you all. My name’s Cathleen. You’re welcome to call me Cat. And I’m a teacher in a dramaturg. I’ve worked with Shakespeare, Santa Cruz, primarily with Cal Shakes, California Shakespeare Theater, and the Marin Shakespeare Company. And normally I’m in the Bay Area, but today I’m in Ashland, Oregon. 

Juls Hoover

Hi Ashland. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Are you at the festival? 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

I am, yeah. We’ve been here for about a week and a half. It’s sort of our home away from home. I have friends and family members and in the company and in the area. So heading back to the Bay Area tomorrow. But we came here just in time for the heat wave, which, you know, that’s okay. But yeah, I love, I love Beatrice. I’m not an actor. I have immense, immense respect for actors. And if the, if I could, if I had to play any role in Shakespeare, it would definitely be Beatrice. I love Beatrice. She’s, 

Erika Rolfsrud

She is unlike any other, 

Juls Hoover

yeah, 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

She really is. Yeah. But it’s not my job to figure out who she is. It’s, you know, your job and I’m just here to support. But I really, really love talking about her and the play and Shakespeare and 

Erika Rolfsrud

Yeah. And I loved your subsequent emails to me. I’m sorry I didn’t get back to you, but it was like, and another thing and another thing, 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

it’s sort Of, it’s a little bit of the dramaturgy thing, right? Like where it’s like, oh, and there’s this, and then I see this and I don’t, you know, I don’t necessarily need to share all of it, but I have some observations around, you know, the language and use of language and I, you know, I will say like, I think, you know, I think about my role, I will say this, an actor friend of mine who I will not name once thought perhaps he should take up smoking so he could run away from the dramaturg. ’cause every time there was a break, ’cause they were always coming at him with too much stuff. And that’s really much, very much how I do not wanna be as a dramaturg, you know, I really, I really love supporting actors in, in a variety of ways and having conversations about all kinds of things, whatever kind of feeds your own interpretation. 

So just so you know, I’m, I will not dominate the conversation. 

Like I, my job is not about like this is the right meaning or the right op, you know, I just, I think there are lots of opportunities and I think you fe you know, I, it’s not my job again to build this character, but I like to think about where, are there places that might be interesting or helpful to you? 

Erika Rolfsrud

The way the language helps that Yeah, it, 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

yeah, right. 

Erika Rolfsrud

That’s where I really, it, it’s a shame to me that oftentimes that when, when theater companies do Shakespeare now where they end up cutting budget is time and, and you just don’t get the, the, the time to really get into the skin of these characters and understand what they’re saying. I mean, it’s just, 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Yeah, 

Erika Rolfsrud

It’s easy and it’s not, You know, Shakespeare 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

is easy 

Erika Rolfsrud

and it’s not. And and it’s like I say to friends who are like, I don’t know if I’ll understand it or if I come. I said, come, you’ll understand it. You’ll certainly get the gist of the story and every time you go to Shakespeare you’ll understand it and appreciate it just a little bit more and just a little bit further and just a little bit better. And it’s, and you don’t have to work at it, you don’t trust me as an audience member. Anyway. 

Hi everybody, I’m Erica. 

I am originally from Seattle, so I’m a west coast girl. 

I, San Diego is where I got my grad degree at the University of San Diego. You do. And the old Globe. 

I I used to say, well, I still say Shakespeare sort of got me, turned me into a reader when I did a semester abroad during undergrad. I found first time in my life I was staying up till two 30 in the morning with a book open on my lap. 

And just, that never really happened before because I, I found I probably would’ve been diagnosed with a DD or something like that. It was hard to focus, but I was so getting so enmeshed in the language that it just, I wanted more and more and more and more. 

I kind of raised myself on Shakespeare in that after I left Whitman College in Walla Walla, this is not gonna be a really long resume, Erica stop. 

I just did Shakespeare festivals all over the Pacific, Northwest and Utah. Just kept doing it. And then went to back to grad school after four years and got classical training at the Old Globe. 

I played Beatrice twice. In fact, the first thing I did in New York was an off-Broadway, probably more of an off, off-Broadway production of Much Ado. And I played Beatrice and we did it in this old church and it was fabulous. 

And then I did it at the Cleveland Playhouse, but technically was with the Great Shake, great Lakes Theater company was their first year in Cleveland or the, the artistic director was a new one. And he had come from Idaho Shakes, which I had done years before. 

And it was so fun to get back into her skin. How much more, just even six years older, just to be able to do that again. 

I, I feel, I think the most kinship with Beatrice. I, I kind of joke about how like earlier it was Helena in in 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Midsummer 

Erika Rolfsrud

and I got a little bit older. Now it’s Beatrice. And Beatrice I think can be played at virtually any age. Hear me out. So when we were, when I was first at the Old Globe, Jack O’Brien cast, Kathy McGrath and Richard Easton as Beatrice and Benedict, and they were both of an age, what do we say, early sixties maybe. 

And remember this delightful spontaneous moment when we were blocking the play and hero and, and Claudio pulled out the, the notes to give to each other, like, to prove that no, you guys like each other here. He wrote this. 

And just by happenstance they both had their reading glasses and put them 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

on 

Erika Rolfsrud

and it, we kept it because it was just so perfect, the idea of these two confirmed Bachelor and Bachelorette. And finally at this point in their age, they fall in love. 

So it’s so wonderful. It it was really, really a wonderful production. 

Okay, that being said, where do we start so much about Do, about Nothing. I think today what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna, we’re gonna look at her whole trajectory. We’ll look at all the scenes so that we can touch base. ’cause there’s information that I think needs to be mined from this little scene here and a little scene there. Like, I really wish we could do the, the chunk where the Prince proposes. 

Juls Hoover

Oh yeah, 

Shannon Lee Clair

I love that, 

Erika Rolfsrud

love that moment. And just those flashes for Beatrice where the, the, the humor slips and you, you’re kind of heartbroken about it. But that being said, I think what we should do is, we should start, if you don’t mind, Kat, I loved what you wrote to me about the differences between verses and prose and how we can incorporate that in our minds as actors when we approach the text. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Sure. I’m happy to do that. So you pro I’m sure you all know a little something about pros and first, so one of the things I think is interesting about Shakespeare, and I’ll kind of cut to the chase a little bit because I think again, you’ve had experience with Shakespeare, you know, sort of the broad strokes are that, you know, generally people of a certain class speak verse people of a lower class tend to speak prose. I feel like that’s the one that my students kind of latch onto the most. But actually Shakespeare is incredibly flexible and his use of language, and it varies quite a bit, right? 

So versus the, you know, I abu pentameter, it generally flows in that way. It’s generally not very rhymey depending on what play you’re in. But I think it’s also really important, what I emailed to Erica was I feel like every, every play sort of speaks its own language in terms of verse and prose. And there are other kind of assumptions we make about verse and pros that don’t always hold water with a given play. So one thing that I’m sure you’ve also heard is that verse is assumed to be more genuine. It’s assumed to be more honest because it’s closer to a heartbeat. And you know, sort of my favorite example of this is in 12th night when Viola and and Olivia are talking with each other and initially Viola has a little script and she’s just reading from the script. 

She’s studied it, she’s taken great pace to study it. And Olivia’s being very flip, right? She’s just kind of putting her off and they’re speaking prose and then there’s a moment when it feels genuine and they shift and diverse. What’s interesting to me about much of you about nothing is that much of you about nothing is heavy on prose. It’s a very prose you play. It’s also an interesting prose. And that’s not to suggest that the language is not genuine. Let me say that for a start to you. So it’s a prose that’s got a lot of structure to it. It actually comes out of traditions of rhetoric and wits. And we hear that a lot with Beatrice. What’s really fascinating to me is that Beatrice is the only female character who consistently sort of plays with language in this tradition. It’s got a fancy name like euphemism, but which is based on sort of again, structure, poetic structures, rhetorical structures. 

But if you could think about kind of the, to me, sort of the fundamental way that wit works often in Shakespeare is it’s this kind of back and forth, right? So you get something and then you put a different spin on the word and you bounce it right back. And again, Beatrice is the only female character who consistently speaks in that way. I also think she and Benedict, as we know, have a, have a very specific mode of speaking together. And they definitely, like, they lean heavy, heavy on prose. And there are a couple of these little glimmers when she speaks verse, she speaks verse after the gulling scene. 

And she actually sort of creates almost a whole sonnet, which is interesting. And then there’s a little bit of verse between them in the last act, again, not to sort of aim that, you know, put the cup before the horse, but then they quickly revert to pro. So again, I think listening for like what the one thing I think is really helpful with Shakespeare character is like think about how do they normally speak? What is the mode that they kind of lean on? And then what happens if it shifts, right? And there’s a lot of, just generally in this play, there’s a, there are several modes of language. And the interesting thing about verse in this play is that it’s often used for formal moments or conventional moments. 

So if you think about Claudio, not when he is talking to Benedict, Benedict leaves, when he is talking to Don Pedro, he starts, starts speaking in verse around hero wanting to court her. He courts her in verse, he also shames her in verse. So I think it’s, it’s just interesting to think about like how does verse feel in this play as opposed to prose. And I think again, the idea that Beatrice definitely has sort of a default mode and a default mode with Benedict. And then to see how that progresses. Sorry, that was a little bit longer than I meant. 

Erika Rolfsrud

This is fascinating and it’s great. And it’s so funny. It makes me think of like when you said it’s more genuine and I, it, to me, and I think it’s a trick of the eye for me when I see verse on page, I think more formality, right? And especially if there is a, a, a selection of pros and verse within the play itself, like an elevation to it. But I love the idea that it’s more genuine because of the heartbeat, kind of that kind of idea. Because it is, and I mentioned this to Kat that moment after the ging scene, she speaks two and a half stanzas of a sonnet and it’s, it’s, well, well, we’ll we’ll get to the going scene, but it’s, it’s a hard one to play because the first one, the men’s going scene is set up to be, you can do slapstick, you can do all that kind of stuff. 

Theatre comes into the scene and you don’t see her at all because she’s listening. She doesn’t get sides, she doesn’t get that kind of a thing. And then they walk off and there she is alone and she speaks two and a half stanzas of a sonnet and it’s beautiful. But it follows a setup that people go, oh, it’s her turn for the calling. I can’t wait. 

It’s not the same scene. 

It, it’d be an interesting thing to direct on stage and to see what to do with it. I think be cheating to invert it, but it might be worth inverting anyway. 

So I am primarily by the way, an actor or actress, whichever you prefer. And directing is, this is my new burgeoning sort of thing and I’m, I’m having a good time, but I, my thought process is jump into the deep end, you know, there are no mistakes. 

One more metaphor, Jackson Pollock acting. You just throw it against the wall and see what sticks and looks good, you know? But keep throwing the paint till we find it. 

Okay, let’s, hmm, let’s go to our scripts, shall we? 

And let’s talk through the play. I was trying to think if there’s any other, Hmm. Oh, maybe. Okay. One other thing. It’s very interesting. When I, 

when I studied in London, Jane Laer was one of my 

Juls Hoover

teachers. Oh, she, yeah, 

Erika Rolfsrud

yeah. Amazing actress. She won the tony for PO way back in the eighties I think it was amazing actress. 

And she talked about, she used dancing in Cleopatra as an example. But she said the thing about Shakespeare in characters is you don’t wanna get too lost in, in a background or creating a a, some backstory for them. Because everything that you need to know to play the part is in the text you don’t, like she said, if you’ve ever actually seen an image of Cleopatra where there was like one coin that they found great profile, probably not pretty from what our standards would be. However, everybody sees her as beautiful. 

That’s what you need to know. You don’t need to know if she was realistically a dog. I don’t know. 

And also I have a potty mouth. So yeah. But I will say this, the first time I did much ado, luckily I got to play opposite a friend, which was very helpful. 

We rever well mention this and I think it’s the first scene or no, she says it to the, the prince when she says, you know, he lent at me a while and there’s a reference to a history between the two of them. 

And my friend David and I decided to sit down and, and come up with the history it was and and who broke whose heart. 

And when you do that with this play, I played it with an idiot the second time and not the kind of person to sit down and do backstory kind of thing. 

It was so, it was so lovely to have that history. And when I look into his eyes the first time I see him, when he comes back from war to have that heart break kind of thing, we decided that he hurt me. 

So it, it really added a depth to it because I’m also a believer that comedy comes out of a groundedness and comedy also can come out of pain and darkness. 

I’m not a surface comedy, although I can do that too when the occasion arises. So with that in mind, let’s look at the play. I’m gonna look at it this way because it’s easier than for this old Luddite to just track through. So first scene, there’s been a war they won and they’re waiting for the troops. You know, we get that from the messenger who comes in, right? 

And up stands it comes Beatrice and she launches in and it, I don’t know if you guys have read this yet out loud for yourselves or anything like that. 

Shannon, you wanna, do you wanna read this little first scenes? Yeah. From, I pray you is senior and I believe it’s Mon Mount onto is essentially 

Shannon Lee Clair

mount on. Okay. 

Erika Rolfsrud

As in like I’m mounting onto you. That was one of the pronunciations we came up with. I, it just seemed to fit with her. If you have a different one after playing her two, I’ll, 

Shannon Lee Clair

no, that one works 

Erika Rolfsrud

and let’s to help her out. Let’s have Jules, you wanna read Leonardo? 

Juls Hoover

Yes. 

Erika Rolfsrud

And it’s Anu or Anu? 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

Anu. So I have it in my zoom name here. You can refer to that as many times as you need anew on the first syllable. Okay, 

Erika Rolfsrud

so Anu, do 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

you wanna 

Erika Rolfsrud

read Messenger? 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

Yes. 

Erika Rolfsrud

And then I, I’ll go ahead and read Hero. I think she’s got one little line. So, so let’s, let’s, let’s hear out loud. 

Shannon Lee Clair

Great. 

Juls Hoover

Do You wanna start at the top? 

Erika Rolfsrud

Let’s start it from, I pray you is senior 

Shannon Lee Clair

Tonto. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Yeah 

Shannon Lee Clair

I pray you Is senior Tonto returned from the wars or no I 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

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

Juls Hoover

What is he that you that you ask for Niece? 

Erika Rolfsrud

My cousin means Senior Benedict of Padua. 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

Oh he is returned and as pleasant as ever he was, He 

Shannon Lee Clair

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

Faith niece, you tax senior Benedict too much. But he’ll be meat with you. I doubt it not 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

He has done good service lady in these war. 

Shannon Lee Clair

He you had musty vittle and he had hope to eat it. He is a very valiant trencherman. He has an excellent stomach 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

And a good soldier too lady And 

Shannon Lee Clair

a good soldier to a lady. But what is he? To a lord? 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

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

Shannon Lee Clair

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

Juls Hoover

Must not sir a mistake. My niece there is a kind of Mary war betw senior Benedict and her they never meet but there’s a skirmish of wit between them. 

Shannon Lee Clair

Oh last he gets nothing by it. In our last conflict, four or 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 has every month a new sworn brother. 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

It’s possible, 

Shannon Lee Clair

Very easily possible he wears his faith but is the fashion of his hat. It ever changes with the next block. 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

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

Shannon Lee Clair

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

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

most in the company of the right noble Claudio. 

Shannon Lee Clair

Oh Lord. He will hang upon him like a disease. He is sooner caught than 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 air. He be cured. 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

I will hold friends with you lady 

Shannon Lee Clair

Do good friend. 

Juls Hoover

You will never run Mad Niece. 

Shannon Lee Clair

No, not till a hot January. 

Erika Rolfsrud

So in comes Don Pedro and we’ll go. We’ll after we sort of get through the play, we’ll go back and we’ll talk about our impressions of the scenes. 

I think the not till a hot January is sort of changing It, 

Shannon Lee Clair

right? 

Erika Rolfsrud

Quite The funny hoo ha ha that I think Shakespeare 

Shannon Lee Clair

now Everyone’s like, oh climate change. 

Erika Rolfsrud

So in comes the guys and the retinue and it’s just amazing and big entrance. And 

Shannon, just for consistency in terms of the fact that we’re going to do this as one scene. Keep 

Shannon Lee Clair

going. Keep 

Erika Rolfsrud

reading. Yeah. Beatrice and Jules do. Pedro has a first line and then a new Benedict. 

’cause we also have to know what he says. 

I will say this. One of the best entrances. Oh no, that’s for the Gulling scene. I’ll get to it now. You’re anticipating it. 

Let’s do it from you have it full Benedict. We may guess by this John Pedro. 

Juls Hoover

Good senior Leonardo, are you come to meet? Do we have trouble? 

Erika Rolfsrud

No, No, no. 

Juls Hoover

A few lines 

Erika Rolfsrud

down. A few lines down. The Don pager line just above Benedict’s. If senior Leonardo be her father. Sorry. 

Juls Hoover

Why? Why am I not seeing it? I’m like totally passing it. It’s 

Erika Rolfsrud

Like five lines down from that. 

Shannon Lee Clair

It starts. You have it full benedict. 

Juls Hoover

Okay, got It, 

Erika Rolfsrud

got it. Okay. Yes it did. 

Juls Hoover

You have it full Benedict. We may guess by this what you are being a man. Truly the lady fathers herself be happy lady for you are like an honorable father. 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

If senior Leonardo be her father, she would not have his head on her shoulders for all messina’s like him. As she’s, 

Shannon Lee Clair

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

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

What my dear lady disdain. Are you yet living? 

Shannon Lee Clair

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

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

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

Shannon Lee Clair

A dear happiness to women. They would also have been troubled with a pernicious suitor. I thank God and my cold blood, I am of your humor for that. I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man. Swear he loves me. 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

God, keep your leadership still in that mind. So some gentlemen or others shall escape. A predestinate scratched face 

Shannon Lee Clair

Scratching could not make it worse. And where such a face as yours were, 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

Well you are a rare para teacher. 

Shannon Lee Clair

A bird of my tongue is better than a beast of yours. 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

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

Shannon Lee Clair

You always end with a jades trick. I know you of old. 

Erika Rolfsrud

So boom, first time we see them together, maybe it’s the first time they’ve seen each other since the heartbreak. It certainly loads the moment even more. You know, you have those moments where you’re like, oh no, it’s gonna be a reunion and he’s gonna be there or she they’re gonna 

Shannon Lee Clair

be 

Erika Rolfsrud

there. Yeah. And oh, oh boy. Yeah. So we have all the welcoming and then Claudio and Benedict chitchat and we’ve sort of established the relationship also with the scene of Claudio and Benedict. And then Don Pedro comes back. 

Shannon Lee Clair

We Do establish that he does find Beatrice more beautiful than her cousin hero in that Scene. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Absolutely. 

Shannon Lee Clair

Absolutely. 

Erika Rolfsrud

I think it it’s gotta be hard for him. It’s gonna be very hard for him. 

Yeah. 

Yeah. ’cause that only raises the stakes for him if he still, especially if they’ve aged a little bit and you have those regrets. Mm. 

What was I thinking? 

I was only 18. I was, or whatever it is. You know, she was great. Why did I break up with her? You know, it becomes in with that and the nerves and all this kind of stuff. And and they really are at the net. 

They, no one can match them. They, they just can’t. 

So 

Juls Hoover

It is like the whole world disappears and it becomes just about them. And this whole relationship comes relationship comes screaming back. Yeah. 

And I really like if, if this was on its feet to have that moment before they get into it of taking each other in. 

I think 

Erika Rolfsrud

Because it is that it, I mean, they come in, it’s actually a pretty quick entrance of all the guys. And and to me, that first scene that, that she has, when she says that I pray, we senior mount, I, I think she’s just revving up. She’s 

Shannon Lee Clair

just, 

Erika Rolfsrud

you know, that’s what she’s doing with her. She’s chomping at the bit, you know, and when she gets her second, it, if we were on our feet, I’d have the retinue moving away, not realizing they were leaving Benedict behind and him dropping the line and having that moment when you tell a joke and nobody’s there, you know, and that’s, that’s just a steak dinner for her. I mean, it’s just 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

like that. 

Erika Rolfsrud

And then it kind of, you know, ’cause it seems to me, and please correct me if I’m wrong, Kat looking at it now, he’s sort of trying to end the conversation with the last word in the last like three lines. Like Yeah, 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

You always end with a Jade’s trick. I mean, it’s, she’s quicker than he is. I think she’s quicker. I mean, you know, she starts, he’s the first thing out of her mouth. Like she’s very focused on him. Right. The, even her opening lines there, you know, they’re all about him. The poor messenger is like the straight man, right. He is trying to like, defend him and she keeps putting kind of a witty spin on it. And then they finally get this banter. And I, I just, I always feel like he does that little cut and run because he knows he can’t, he, he’s not as good of a continuer as she is. 

He, he, he might drop the ball. So, and, and apparently that’s what he always does also. And 

Erika Rolfsrud

She could 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

keep Moving also. Yeah. I thought it was interesting, like the Jade’s trick is interesting is it’s, you know, a horse that would buck off its rider or bolt. 

I think it was also possibly slang for prostitute rarely applied to a man. 

A was rarely applied. That word is rarely applied to a man. Which I think is interesting. ’cause I think there’s some interesting things going on with gendered language in this play too. 

Erika Rolfsrud

I do too. I actually almost went down a rabbit hole about almost, I did the search and then I was like, don’t read it. 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

The 

Erika Rolfsrud

idea of how the character of Beatrice would’ve been received 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

in the 

Shannon Lee Clair

time 

Erika Rolfsrud

and through the time in the patriarchal, you know, context and that kind of a thing. She’s also a single woman. She’s clearly older than the than hero. 

So in the context of the time, she would’ve been judged as like old maid 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Almost. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Yeah. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

She says it right. She feels like she’s, she’s bordering on Spinsterhood, which was a difficult position to be in as a Woman. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Very difficult because also she didn’t have a household, it was her uncle. She was, 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

she 

Erika Rolfsrud

didn’t have parents parentage to, you know, take care of her. 

All of that piled onto this woman who at, at this point, Leonardo’s household. They all, we know Beatrice, you know, they get it. 

But to a stranger, I must be, I, I don’t know. I mean, she’s perfectly intelligent, capable of behaving herself. 

That could be one of the reasons, and we’ll get to this when we get to the wedding. I think one of the hardest things, and I don’t know if you found this, Shannon was keeping my mouth shut during that wedding scene. 

Shannon Lee Clair

Oh, it’s so hard. 

Erika Rolfsrud

It is so hard 

Shannon Lee Clair

to keep your mouth 

Erika Rolfsrud

shut. You’re 

Shannon Lee Clair

like, of all People who don’t speak in this scene, aside from a couple lines, it’s kind of shocking. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Yeah. That she doesn’t just stand up and smack Claudia across the face. I mean it’s just, especially since she’s sort of been building up that way, you know, and you can come up 

Shannon Lee Clair

with 

Erika Rolfsrud

ideas and reasons. Yeah. Excuse it 

Shannon Lee Clair

as well. I mean there is that, there’s a helpful idea of she has been heroes. She is been, you know, chamber mate, whatever she refers to it as up until last night. And so one of the places I was like, she could be, not that she would believe any of this of hero, but trying to untangle like where could they have gotten this? What could have gone wrong? 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

What 

Shannon Lee Clair

do I know something, can I bring something to the four that would, that would rectify this where you’re like racking your brains to be like, there’s gotta be something. This is, they’ve got it so wrong. That was all like, you know, but yeah, you have to come up with sort of these, it’s 

Erika Rolfsrud

Hard because even that comes in late. 

Shannon Lee Clair

Yeah. You 

Erika Rolfsrud

know, when she has the line about, you know, I’ve been her constant companion and Benedict said, were you were with her last night. And she goes, no, it was the one night that I wasn’t with them or her. That don’t happen until Claudio and Don Pedro and everybody’s gone. 

Shannon Lee Clair

Yeah. But that’s part of why I wonder if she can recognize that herself earlier of like, wait, shoot, I actually don’t, I don’t have legit evidence because I wasn’t there. 

What could be? Do you know what I mean? 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Yeah. He 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

also 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

thinks, like to me, I mean I know this is a slightly intellectual idea, but I think it’s helpful is that, you know, we’re very much in this like male dominated official space, right? That the men dominate that scene, with the exception of Benedict. Right. Who’s the only one who doesn’t side with them. And I think the idea that she couldn’t even get a foothold in there. And that’s not to say, you know, Shakespeare definitely includes women in official spaces who, who are, you know, challenged the patriarchy and they tend to be like completely equipped with strength and, and they have this incredible assertiveness and Beatrice Doesn in her way. 

But again, I think there’s something about the way that space works. Yeah. I also think it’s, it’s sometimes I always put a little bit of a grain of salt on like, how would contemporary audiences sort of respond to them because, and Shakespeare does this, does this in other places too, right? Like Beatrice is, you know, she’s not Kate and Shrew. Like she’s not violent. Like she’s not unruly in that way. And if you think about hero and, but she’s also unconventional, right? And she’s, and she challenges some things in a way that I find really interesting and is, well, we’ll, you know, we’ll talk about what that feels like to you all. 

But I also think, you know, it’s, it’s telling to me that the woman who is looking like she’s doing everything you’re supposed to do, right? She’s quiet and she’s deferring to her father and she barely speaks when she’s in the presence of other men, it doesn’t protect her, right? She ends up being the target of this abusive male status, which I think Shakespeare has all over his place, right? When men are just like off the chain, they think they know what they’re doing and they end up doing real damage, actually. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Especially when dad just goes nuts on. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

I mean, it could, it 

Erika Rolfsrud

could even go to violence where it’s like, duh, Leonardo, chill the hell out. You understand why he is dad, but he is believing it. Hook, hook, line and sinker too. 

All right, so let’s move through. 

Juls Hoover

Can We, can the fathered yourself, can we get a little more specific and define that? 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Yeah. Or do you wanna come move forward and come back to it? 

Erika Rolfsrud

I think Move forward and come back to it just 

Juls Hoover

real quick 

Erika Rolfsrud

and then we’ll come back and we’ll get deeper. Okay. 

Juls Hoover

And 

Erika Rolfsrud

we’ll crack open that onion layer and start growing. ’cause I will say I, what I love about her is like, she, she’s like a little fly 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

her 

Erika Rolfsrud

thoughts. She’s 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

so quick, She’s so quick. 

Erika Rolfsrud

I’ll go there and then I think about this and then well what about this? But then okay over there and, and you’re like, what? 

She’s, I love her so much. Anyway, 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

so 

Erika Rolfsrud

we get to meet everybody. We find out that Don Pedro and Benedict and Claudio are all pals. And I Don John doesn’t come in our evil Don John, the brother of Don Pedro 

is, isn’t he brought up? Isn’t there a quick mention of him? 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

There’s A quick, I think Leonardo meets him briefly and he says something like, hi, hi. You’re, he calls him a prince and you’ve been re something or you’ve been reconciled. Basically I’m acknowledging you because you’re reconciled with your brother An 

Erika Rolfsrud

expositional sort of, this is who 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

this guy is. Yeah. 

Erika Rolfsrud

And so then we get to miss hero Benedict leaves, and then it, we jump a verse with Claudio on Don Pedro where he discusses proposing to hero that she’s hot. 

And then we’re skipping through, skipping through it. And I can’t remember what Leonardo and an Antonio say here, but 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

I’ll say like, there, there’s this, this theme of like, the men are muddled all the way through, right, right from the beginning. They get everything wrong. And I think that Leonardo Antonio, well I, I overheard some, somebody in my household overheard that Don Pedro is gonna woo here. You know, it’s, 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

yeah. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

That’s About that 

Erika Rolfsrud

The 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Prince is 

Erika Rolfsrud

gonna do it. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Yeah. 

Erika Rolfsrud

We get masks on, 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Right? 

Erika Rolfsrud

The Best 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

to muddle of more. But again, I think that that male muddled this maybe in, in contrast to Beatrice is like, I call it like I see it sort of, right? 

Erika Rolfsrud

It’s, 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

she’s almost 

Erika Rolfsrud

a little bit, I call it Cassandra at the burning of Troy. Smoke, smoke, anybody. 

Yeah. I, so then we’ve got Don, John and Conrad and you know, Don John is the bad guy and they’re going to mess around with this ’cause they hear the rumors already about, you know, reform. So he is gonna mess around with it. So then we go and we, I’m doing a very quick thing, audience here. So, and then we get to scene two of our little Beatrice fist, a feast and it’s the mask, the dance, lots of fun. I suppose I could do some research on like masks and things like that. But Uhuh, 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

if 

Erika Rolfsrud

I was talking to designers and about to do a production, I probably would. But, so they’ve had supper and now we’re gonna head into the party, right? So let me see, do we just need, we need Leonardo, and then there’s just two lines with Antonio and Hero. So Annu, do you wanna do Beatrice? 

Sure. 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

And 

Erika Rolfsrud

Shannon, Leonardo? Sure. And then Jules, will you cover Antonio and Hero? Just like two or three little lines. Okay. All right. So let’s go ahead and read this top of two. One was not count. John here at supper 

Shannon Lee Clair

Was not Count John here at supper. 

Juls Hoover

I saw him not 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

How tartly that gentleman looks. I never can see him, but I’m heartburn. An hour after 

Juls Hoover

He has have a fair, very melancholy disposition. 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

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, Then 

Shannon Lee Clair

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

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

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 

Shannon Lee Clair

By my troth niece. Thou will never get the a husband if that’d be so shrewd of thy tongue 

Juls Hoover

In faith. She’s too cursed. 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

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

Shannon Lee Clair

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

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

Just if you send me no husband for the which 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. Ugh. I had rather lie in the woolen. 

Shannon Lee Clair

You may light on a husband that has no beard. 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

What should I do with him? Dress him in my apparel and make him my waiting. Gentle woman. He that had 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 a man than a man. I am not for him. Therefore, I will even take six pants and earnest of the bear herd and lead his apes into hell. 

Shannon Lee Clair

Well then go you into hell. 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

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 maid. So deliver I up my apes and away to St. Peter for the heavens. He shows me where the Bachelors sit and there live. We as Mary as the day is long. 

Juls Hoover

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

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

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

Shannon Lee Clair

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

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

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 an account 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, a match in my kindred 

Shannon Lee Clair

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

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

Default 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 a scotch jig, a measure, and a syncopate. 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 ancient treat. And then comes repentance. And with his bad legs falls into the synco faster and faster until he sink into his grave. 

Shannon Lee Clair

Husband, you apprehend passing shrewdly. 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

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

Shannon Lee Clair

The revels are entering, brother make good room. 

Erika Rolfsrud

And then they come all masked up. And then we have our little, little, you know, ttts and everything. I think before we get away from it. The, the great, I love the dynamic of of this scene because while they do dance in and out of, of like talking to hero, like if he proposes you do this, that they enjoy her. 

I, I I, I think they like serving her up. Like some 

Shannon Lee Clair

of the 

Erika Rolfsrud

questions Leonardo asks, he, he’s very quick and he goes, okay, well what about this? 

Shannon Lee Clair

And 

Erika Rolfsrud

you take it in data. Data, you know, and everybody loves it and they love her for it. Sometimes she goes too far, which we discover. But I think they enjoy it. 

I think like, I think that’s also Beatrice is also functioning, is trying to keep her cousin’s nerves down 

Juls Hoover

by making 

Erika Rolfsrud

her giggle. You know, I, one of my best friends when she got married, they were stressed out that day and I was her maid of honor and I got in her face, I said, who is it? Brady Bride Who 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

is Pretty bride 

Erika Rolfsrud

and I risk getting slugged, but everybody she broke and everybody kind of giggled and it just, you know, I think Beatrice knows she can do that. And I think, I think Hero is very dear to her and she’s protective. Okay, so we have, first we have Hero and Don Pedro, and then we have Margaret and Alazar at least ways. In my script it’s Alazar, but it’s actually, don’t they usually use Conrad? 

Shannon Lee Clair

I don’t know. Or Barchi. I think, 

Erika Rolfsrud

well Barchi that’s, yeah. And then Ursula and Antonio and then Beatrice and Benedict. Now the fun thing about this scene, and we’ll play with 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

this when 

Erika Rolfsrud

we go back to play, does she know it’s him or does she not? 

And it’s very different scenes. Mm. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

With 

Erika Rolfsrud

that consideration. ’cause she knows where the barbs are hitting, if she knows it’s him, and if not, she’s, you know, she doesn’t care who she’s dancing with and he’s getting that like, you know, Hey, I hear he is a nice guy. You know, that’s a fun thing to play with as actors. So let’s, same assignments Beatrice and Benedict. Let’s take it from, will you not tell me who told you? So 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

Should I make a decision now 

Shannon Lee Clair

then? Oh yeah, You were playing both Beatrice and 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

Ben. Oh no, actually I meant about like, I meant about whether she knows or not. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Do 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

you want us to 

Erika Rolfsrud

make 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

that decision? Or I can just play both? 

Erika Rolfsrud

Well, 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

well, 

Erika Rolfsrud

and it Gives me something. I think that’s what I ended up doing in the second production was in the beginning. I’m like, wait a minute, who did hang on? And then one of his answers makes me go, oh, 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

Okay. Oh, 

Erika Rolfsrud

And then the, the cat comes out, goes after the string, you know? 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

Okay. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Also another way to play it. So give it a shot. 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

Why not? Okay, 

Will you not tell me who told you? So 

Erika Rolfsrud

Who played Benedict? No, he, Benedict wasn’t in the last one. So Jules, do you wanna play Reid Benedict, please? 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

No. 

Juls Hoover

Will you not 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

tell me who told you? 

Erika Rolfsrud

Yeah, 

Juls Hoover

No, you shall pardon me? 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

Nor will you not tell me who you are 

Juls Hoover

Not now 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

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 

Juls Hoover

What’s he, 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

I’m sure you know him well enough. 

Juls Hoover

Not I, believe me. 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

Did he ever make you laugh? 

Juls Hoover

I pray you. What is he? 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

Why? He is the prince’s jester. A very dull fool. Only his gift is in devising impossible Slanders. None. But libertines delight in him. And the commendation is not in his wit, but in his villainy where 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 aborted me 

Juls Hoover

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

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

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

Juls Hoover

In every good thing. 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

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

Erika Rolfsrud

Great. And then we move back into the storyline of, you know, hero and the, the confusion about who’s getting what. And it’s cio, who’s the one who puts the bug in Claudio’s ear about, about her. 

Oh yeah, 

Shannon Lee Clair

John, 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

it’s Don. Don, yeah, yeah, yeah. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Don John. Thus I answer in the name of Benedict Claudio. He’s such a sucker. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

He’s such a young guy. Did I not remember? 

Erika Rolfsrud

Sorry. Never gets him. Good luck. Hero. 

So then you have Claudio and Benedict and the, you know, Claudio’s in a mood now. And so now we get Claudio exits, see Exit and pet Don Pedro comes in. And because the bug that he drops is that Don Pedro is going to propose to hero. 

And Claudio hears this and says, hang on, my friend is gonna betray me for the girl that I’m really hot for and tells Benedict. And so Benedict lets it out at Don Pedro and they figure out that something’s going on. And then I just, well love it when Don Pedro said, the lady Beatrice had a quarrel with you. The gentleman that danced with her told her she is as she is much wronged by you. 

Oh, she misused me past the endurance of a block. And you just go, she, she has gotten the needle in his side so beautifully. I love it. And so at the end of that railing, look, here she comes. So, 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

you 

Erika Rolfsrud

know, in comes Beatrice with Claudio and Benedict says, send me away. Send me on the hardest, you know, furthest thing. And ’cause he is upset. 

And Benedict’s line, oh, oh God, none but desire your good company. Oh God, sir, here’s a dish I love nut I can’t endure my lady tongue. 

And I, I I I, I think at this point that Benedict genuinely was hurt. 

He’s ego bruised. That’s not being funny. He just, I’m outta here. 

And you know, and Don Pedro says, come lady, come. You have lost the heart of senior Benedict and here’s where she, oh, we learned some things of indeed my Lord. He lent it me a while and I gave him use for it, a double heart for his single one Mary once before he wanted of me with false stice. Therefore, your Grace May well say, I have lost it. 

So it’s, you know, I think there is a moment there where the, the fun and games went a little too hard. Maybe it’s, you know, crumbled. 

How do you, when she’s vulnerable and she says these things, how does she treat it? 

Do you know what I mean? Like, it’s, it’s, well, yeah. 

Is it simply the words and she lets you know, is there an underneath part where she’s 

Yeah, good. 

It’s, you know, it’s a great thing to play with. And so to now, you know, she makes another gist of it. You have put him down lady. You have put him down. So I would not, he should do me, my Lord, lest I should prove the mother of fools. 

Anyway, I have brought Claudio, we’re moving on. 

Neither sad nor sick. Cat sadden her sin and then we iron it out. 

I love this moment when she’s like, speak count is your cue. 

Love it. 

And so 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

again, She’s never wrong, which I love, right? She’s like, he’s not, he’s jealous. He looks jealous. You know, like she completely nails it again. Like I think she just, she sees everything that’s going around her. And Benedict, I also love that Benedict is always talking about her, right? He has like two seconds where he is like, oh, that sucks that Dom Pedro’s still hero, but be Beatriz was so mean to me. You know, she’s like right back. 

Erika Rolfsrud

It kind of makes me think of that line in, oh my God, Le liaison Don, when he says she’s praying to forget him, a wonderfully fruitless exercise that she keeps 

Juls Hoover

thinking about saying, please 

Erika Rolfsrud

God, let me forget Claudio. Let me forget Claudio. Okay, so then everybody’s jovial, wedding, wedding, wedding stuff. 

And Don Pedro is sort of in the spirit and he is, you know, lady Beatrice, I will get you one. And she’s going on with the joke and he says, will you have me lady? 

And know my Lord? Unless I might have another for working days. Your grace is too costly to wear every day. 

But I bese your grace. Pardon me? I was born to speak all earth and no matter, and again, it’s one of those things that like she go too far because it, to me, it read as an actress, it’s a, it, it’s an opportunity. And I’ll let you guys think about this too, for your own choices. 

It’s that feeling that you have when you’re like, she’s coming in with Claudio feeling pretty good that we’re gonna fix this. 

And, and then she sees Benedict and he’s not happy and leaves with an insult to her. 

Okay? 

Hmm. Alright. And mentions about her history churning some other things up. Let’s move on Claudio, it’s gonna be a wedding. Yay, yay, yay. And they get playful again. And sometimes, you know, when you get, try to get playful again and something else is going on, you maybe go too far. 

You’re not paying attention to your audience. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

And so 

Erika Rolfsrud

the the wonderfulness of of her answer of no, and then unless I might have another for working days, your grace is too costly to where every day either that comes out with her being completely clueless as to what she just did, not realizing that he actually was gonna, he was feeling this out as a proposal or, well, oh, go ahead Jewel. 

Juls Hoover

I was gonna say, I, I wonder, I mean that seems to be her, her go-to mechanism, right? It is that humor and the I’m okay, I’m gonna make sure everybody else is okay. And that’s what she goes to. And sometimes you’re not reading the room, right? If you are in this mode and you’re constantly in this mode and you can actually miss the nuance of how people are feeling, and especially if she has been hurt so badly by Benedict, she’s put up a kind of wall maybe to maybe that ha is not gonna happen again. And so she doesn’t see the advances of the prince. 

Erika Rolfsrud

That’s Right. It that’s where us as actors, actresses, we have to figure out the why of loss of nuance. 

Shannon Lee Clair

Yeah. Well, and and also I love that the end of this scene, she, the way her final sort of putting together of the, of the know my Lord, my mother cried, but then there was a star dance. It’s not her usual, it doesn’t all fit together. It’s like a no no, no. My mom was crying. 

Oh, but also there was a happy and then I was bored and then she’s out. She’s like, cousins God give you joy. I need to exit this space now. And there is too much going on, you know? Yeah, 

Erika Rolfsrud

Yeah. Because, and, and Don Pedro, this moment is also that thing of my old teacher, Richard Easton used to say, the hardest thing to do is to play a royal ’cause. The only people who can create that status is everybody else on that stage. 

Not you. You can act as regal as you want, but if people don’t respect you the way you’re supposed to you don’t have that, you know, energy. And this moment is also, I think that thing of must be what it’s like to like what were, what if you were pals with Prince Harry or Prince William when they were in there, you know, or you had a casual, wonderful moment. It, it’s a little like Meghan Markle situation. She was trying to just be herself and she stepped on things she wasn’t supposed to do. Like when she hugged Kate, yeah, I’m too into this stuff. She hugged Kate when they first met, 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

and Kate 

Erika Rolfsrud

was actually quite offended by that. But she’s a hugger, you know, and it, it, it’s that jarring thing of like, what did I just do? What did I just do? I don’t know what the rules are or I do know the rules and I, oh, I pushed it. 

I, I love that, that idea and, and that Don Pedro is a gracious person of status too. 

Juls Hoover

There’s moments, and my nerdiness love the West Wing, and I feel like that happens very often with Martin Jean’s character, Jed Bartlett, when he, he kind of holds a very relaxed sometimes environment around him. And then it’s amazing when somebody crosses a line and it gets too casual and it’s like, oh, I forgot you were the president of the United States. Yep, 

Erika Rolfsrud

yep. I was, I 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

was me In the scene. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Yeah. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

One thing that I think is interesting in this scene, because I’m, it has me scratching my head, he’s, he’s, he’s way too high status for her, right? Like, if we get really nerdy on rank, like he is the most high status person in the play, so he’s not appropriate. And I mean, like, he wouldn’t fit, right? And, and I think it’s interesting because I don’t feel like, does she step over the line? I feel like he possibly steps over the line. Like when Izzy flirting with her lady, Beatrice, I will get you one. And then she does this little flirtation back. I’d rather have one of your father’s getting As if like, there’s no possible way he’s gonna take this seriously. 

But, you know, I think that’s where there’s a little maybe a misreading as you guys are saying or Right. But I also, I’m curious about the possibility that she also gets out of it actually quite deftly. 

Erika Rolfsrud

She does. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

You’re too costly, right? So I think it’s a funny, because I also feel like, is it part of her, just to ponder right? That he’s actually also getting sort of caught up in this, right? So it’s sort of her as she does right. Her back and forth, 

Erika Rolfsrud

Because this is when they, they set up the, the gling 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Right 

Erika Rolfsrud

after She leaves. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

I know, but I love it. But, but I also, I love that about her again, like her, where, where is that line? Or, she’s often so astute about that, but yeah, who’s, it feels like it’s a very mutual kind of overstepping in this moment to me. Or potentially 

Erika Rolfsrud

it’s, 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

so I’m curious, like, as you Beatrice, what are you getting from Don Pedro that kind of pulls you into this a little bit? 

Juls Hoover

And I’d love to see that moment after of Beatrice of like, 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Right. Moms off the 

Erika Rolfsrud

stage going 

Juls Hoover

Weird vibe, 

Erika Rolfsrud

You know, 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

picking 

Erika Rolfsrud

up a bottle of vodka as she goes off the party. Yeah. I mean, it really would be a fun dynamic to play. Because also, let’s face it, Claudio takes one look at hero and now they’re, they’re betrothed it, they didn’t know each other very well. He just looked, saw, said, and boom, we’re gonna have a wedding. 

So it, it could, it could be possible. Everybody’s in wedding. We, we will work on that. I love this ladies. I’m having a great time. 

Okay, so now we’re gonna talk about the, so we have the two of them, Hercules laborers, we’re gonna bring them together here. Then, then we have more scheming between Don, John and CIO. Now they’ve got it. ’cause they didn’t, they didn’t succeed in their plan and now they gotta come up with another one. 

So now they know a wedding’s coming along and is it, yeah, Barchi, he is in the favor of Margaret, one of the chamber maids or, or it’s got a little bit more status than Chaid, but, 

and they’re going to basically mess up the wedding as a sense of revenge. I mean, unless there’s more than what we, you know, that if we want, we don’t have to get as in depth that basically the bad guy’s gonna go after the wedding. 

So then we have the Gulling scene and Benedict comes out and enter boy and he says, sends the boy off to get his book. And then we hear him and his monologue and then incoming. 

Shannon Lee Clair

That’s always a weird moment to me. Which 

Erika Rolfsrud

one? 

Shannon Lee Clair

What’s this Sending someone off to get your book seat? But I know this is not about Beatrice, so I’m 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

like, 

Shannon Lee Clair

why do we have this in place? 

Erika Rolfsrud

No, I know I, yeah, the boy senior in my chamber. Maybe it’s, and I, this could be a modern take on it, but the idea of saying, will you go get my book is, is an indicator for us that now they’re chilling out or he doesn’t need company or whatever. Or it’s just the excuse to get the man out in the garden. 

Not that he needed that. And oftentimes I have a feeling with budgets, they don’t cast a boy for those two lines. So 

Shannon Lee Clair

yeah. 

Erika Rolfsrud

So I just, I do love this scene. It’s absolutely hilarious. The going scene and his monologues. If you got a good Benedict, boom. 

Hilarious. 

This is where I’ll say the anticipation thing. So I saw this production at the RSC, it was an okay production, but this entrance, they were all people in the audience were looking ’cause they could not stop giggling. So when they came back from war, they were in these British Bermuda shorts in their uniform in the high socks. He comes out for this and he is in sandals in a higher short. And he is got a tan line between the 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

top of his Chin And the, 

Erika Rolfsrud

the bottom of his, of his quadricep. It was the funniest site gag that I have been dying to use at some point. And I just could not stop it because it was essentially, it reminded me of seeing all those guys, you know, those dads on the beach and they’re wearing the dark socks, the black dress socks with sandals, you know, it’s little kind of thing too. But yeah, I could not stop gawing. And yeah. So then we go back into, we’re heading into verse as we start going Benedict and Benedict. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Well Actually do are 

Erika Rolfsrud

Or is it 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

It’s still pros. It’s 

Shannon Lee Clair

No, it’s still, 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Yeah. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Don Prader on Claudio. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Yeah. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Interesting. I have it, I guess in mine. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Oh, let’s see what, okay, well, yeah, mine has it. Yeah, the Gulling scene is all, 

it’s all pros. 

Erika Rolfsrud

That is fascinating because it gets 

Shannon Lee Clair

Switches diverse with Hero and Margaret. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Yes. Yeah. 

Shannon Lee Clair

Benedict Gulling. Yeah. This is 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Belling Scene, which is longer is pros. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Interesting because on in here in the new Cambridge, they have the Don Pedro Claudio Exchange, and it’s in in verse. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

So this is, and I think this is also where be, you know, again, because this play, it’s verse unusual and it is really rhythmical. I mean, even just hearing you all read, like you can actually, I mean, if you’re a nerd like me, right? You can actually hear how I ambi. Actually most of it is like, it has a lot of structure to it. 

Shannon Lee Clair

Oh, no, I see. In this, there’s a section, it’s small 

Erika Rolfsrud

Section. Yeah. 

Shannon Lee Clair

It’s so when they first enter with Bazar and they’re like, can, should we hear this music? 

Erika Rolfsrud

Yes. 

Shannon Lee Clair

And then, and Then, but then after the song, they’re all in prose. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Yes. They go back to pro. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Yeah. Yeah. That very top, like that little bit of the top 

Erika Rolfsrud

little 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

teen Bit 

Erika Rolfsrud

at the top. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Yeah. Before the song. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Right. And as you were saying, 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

It doesn’t even consistently go through the song. And Benedict is still in in prose. 

Erika Rolfsrud

And still in prose. Yes. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Yeah. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Which is a fun thing. Would be a fun thing to address and play with as well. I mean, and what you could say that the verse is also like, this is the setup. We’re going to present this 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

sort 

Erika Rolfsrud

of formal idea. So he really doesn’t think that we know he’s just sitting under that bush. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Yeah. 

Erika Rolfsrud

And so then we go into the gulling where they say things about Beatrice loving him, and it’s heartbreaking for the woman and everything. And Benedict’s like, what, which of course cracks open his heart and 

I just love it after they’ve left. This can be no trick, huge laugh. Yeah. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Always. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Every performance. It’s, I just love this. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

It also sets up the idea, and we know this when we see Benedict and Beatrice all the way that there, they’re always, they’re always like halfway there with each other. Yeah. You 

Erika Rolfsrud

just 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

need a little 

Erika Rolfsrud

push. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

He’s already talking about her before the going. Right. Could, can I fall in love? Will I be changed? He was already thinking about it. Yeah. Cal volume in 12th nine. Right. He’s already obsessing about Olivia before he even gets the letter. And I do, part of me wonders that this language thing in the pros and the verse is also a, again, about the way that you kind of find the language that works for you, or you line up your words with your honesty in some way. But that’s, 

Shannon Lee Clair

well, And I do feel like disregarding a little bit the don’t come up with your backstory because there’s this implied backstory between the two of them that is just sort of spicy and interesting enough to wanna know more, but vague enough that you’re like, what is it it, because there’s that mention at the very top of these two, people can never see each other without fighting. Right. When Leonardo’s talking to the messenger, like they’re gonna, they’re, they’re in a wit a match of wits whenever they run into each other. And there’s the version where they’ve, they’ve been in this match of wits because very early on they broke each other’s hearts. And it’s been like that since. 

Or that this match of wits has created chemistry over time. And more recently they, it transitioned into something else that went awry. And now they’re back to this match of wits with even more intensity than before. 

Erika Rolfsrud

We all know these people, right. Where, you know, it finally gets to the point where it’s like, would you two just get a room? You know, where there, there’s a tick, tick, tick, tick. But the thing that re keeps them from crossing that line is that you don’t wanna get hurt. 

If I know that they like me, okay, I can do it, but I don’t know that they actually do like me because our form of communication is giving each other shit. 

So it’s, it, it’s so wonderful. 

Juls Hoover

And I, there’s a part of it too. I wonder if they want, they, they wanna keep it up because they don’t wanna lose each other. And I wonder if they do stop it or say that I’m done with this, they will lose that, that other person that matches them, that reflects them back to themselves. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Right. 

Juls Hoover

And so it, it feels like, well, if I, if I mess up, if I lose this or if I, if I mess this up anyway, I won’t have that anymore. And then what am I, 

Erika Rolfsrud

Yeah. 

Juls Hoover

Or then where 

Erika Rolfsrud

That thing too, that risk, if you say, do you love me? And they say, no, you can’t really go back to the 

Juls Hoover

Right, 

Erika Rolfsrud

Youre, you really can’t. It just, it’s, it’s done. It, it extinguishes. Yeah. And it’s a risk that neither is willing to take because perhaps with the backstory that you might come up with your fellow actor, one hurt the other and knows they did, 

but you don’t really know what that means now. And there’s no denying this chemistry. They’re just two oddballs. They’re just, and 

Juls Hoover

Shanna what you said over time, that makes me feel a lot better about that chemistry that has been built. ’cause there’s history with that, you know, concept. 

And it, it’s not just a hero and Claudio thing of love at first sight. It’s a, there’s history there. There’s like a, a friendship, a matching of wits over time. Again, a reflection of yourself. And so that makes losing each other even that much more risky. Yeah, it’s beautiful. Yeah. 

Erika Rolfsrud

It’s real. It, yeah. So good. Anyway, so the boys just can’t help themselves. They send her in and she’s against my will. I am sent to bid, you come to 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

dinner 

Erika Rolfsrud

and, you know, and so she’s, she’s gotta go do that. And he’s takes every word that she says to be, 

Juls Hoover

I 

Erika Rolfsrud

love you too. And it’s like, and then we go right to the gling scene with the women and we’re in verse, Beatrice sneaks in at the top and doesn’t say a peep the whole thing. There are no asides, there are no, you know, whatever. 

So then we’ve got Ursula and hero exiting, and we are left with Beatrice on stage speaking two and a half stances. 

And to your point, Kat, about like verse being more genuine, the idea of a heartbeat 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

makes 

Erika Rolfsrud

even more sense. The idea that this is such a genuine naked moment of, oh God, he loves me back. You know, there’s no humor in it. I get teary eyed at the idea of it. It’s just, it’s just gorgeous. And to your other point, Kat, the idea that maybe she speaks the sauna and then as she gets to the halfway point at the end, she thinks to go write it down because maybe that’s what she ends up writing to him. Because Kat said, we don’t know what they’ve written in those notes at the end, we don’t actually know what those notes say. We never hear it, it’s never read aloud, you know, but it’s a profession of love to each other. 

It, it, at least we confirms it. Whatever’s in those notes confirms that they both like each other. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

And I love it that this, like, there is no audience here again, in a play where verse is kind of suspect sometimes, right? It’s again, it’s sort of conventional or it’s part of a trick or it’s, or it’s just formal. It feels formal in this play that this feels different and there’s no audience here. And again, there’s no audience for those sonnets except for the other eventually, you know? But I love it that it’s sort of their hidden private language about it. 

Erika Rolfsrud

And I’m, I’m also thinking it, it, it, it could also serve as that’s the difference between the two of them. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Yeah. 

Erika Rolfsrud

He was voted class clown and she was summa loud. The their, their smartness comes from two different sources. But the badinage is, you know, it’s the yin and yang. 

Your perfect match isn’t just like you, it’s the perfect opposite. 

So it would be fun to sort of play with that idea as well. 

You know, that just sort of hit me. I was like, ooh. Because people always play it like they’re the same, but wouldn’t it be interesting if they were different? 

And that could also play into the why it hasn’t happened yet. 

’cause maybe when he broke her heart when they were young, he was too concerned about, what do people think if I date the geek? 

I don’t know. There’s, there’s something cracking open there that could be a lot of fun. Well, 

Juls Hoover

and isn’t her humor when she makes the, when she has her time moments for jokes, it’s heightened, it’s very heightened language compared to his 

Erika Rolfsrud

Very smart Yeah. 

Juls Hoover

The 

Erika Rolfsrud

rhetoric that just, everything is so, and his bouncing bing, bing, bing, bing, bing brain is very different. If you, if you look at the way he talks and look at the way she talks when they’re, you know, being funny with other people. 

There’s aimi sim a similarity, but there’s also a different sort of approach. Am I wrong? I don’t know. I’m, I’m spitballing at this moment. What do you think? Ka 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

I don’t know. I don’t actually see them as being that different. I feel like they, they definitely speak a kind of language together. And again, she’s, she’s more Of a 

Erika Rolfsrud

nuance, but Yeah. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Yeah, 

Erika Rolfsrud

yeah. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

I 

Erika Rolfsrud

haven’t looked at it. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

It Looks like she has a, she has a this. Oh man, I just feel like I really love Benedict. I’m just gonna say that. But I do feel like she’s just got a, a broader emotional range in her wit. Yeah. She Right. We see her using it with other people. Like he doesn’t, he’s not witty with anybody but, but Beatrice, I think he’s sort of grumbly and rude wi he’s talking about here with Claudio again. He, he doesn’t, he gets offended by her when not knowing that it’s Beatrice or when he thinks she doesn’t know it’s him. Like he’s, but he’s always a little bit on the defensive and a little bit more grumpy. Although I think like literally the same language, like they’re very much handing the same kind of tropes back and forth. 

Which again, is that sort of fundamental, fundamental notion of 

Shannon Lee Clair

what, But I think it is, it’s actually a lot. It’s, it’s very interesting because I think of what the two scenes where they’re just, they’re discovered after they’re in love, right? Where they come upon Benedict and he’s clean shaven and he’s wearing perfume. And then in, in her scene she’s covering and saying, oh, I have, I have a cold. I I’m not feeling well in ways that you would seem to be cover covering like you’ve been crying or something where and, and going into it, she has this reputation from everyone is being so merry. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Right. 

Shannon Lee Clair

And he does not, so it’s like they’ve inverted ways. Yeah. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

That’s interesting. Yeah. That’s great ways 

Shannon Lee Clair

that when they’ve fallen in love, she’s tapped into this like serious sort of reckoning with the past or who this man is or what being in love with him means. And it’s bringing in an element of like, I’m a little unsettled and I have a lot of emotions going on. I dunno how to deal with them and I’m just gonna tell people I’m not feeling well. Whereas he’s, 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

he’s Not witty in that scene. Margaret is. And she Right. 

Shannon Lee Clair

Exactly. She doesn’t even really have 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

very 

Shannon Lee Clair

good comebacks for That’s 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

great. That’s a great Yeah. That shit. 

Shannon Lee Clair

And he 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

is, 

Shannon Lee Clair

is kind of like becoming a little more stylish. He says he has a toothache, so he is covering with like, there’s something else going on. But I feel like they’re like, you’re dressing up, you’re wearing perfume in ways that are very, very different from what she’s 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

That’s great. That’s great. 

Shannon Lee Clair

Yeah. And 

Erika Rolfsrud

they’re not, because they’ve never felt this before. I mean, let’s face it, Don Pedro could have been a good match in that he’s very intelligent and he’s lovely, but she’d have to settle for him because he is not funny. 

He is got a sense of humor and that he can appreciate her, but she’d have to sacrifice the bad enough. 

You know what I mean? That, that it’s just that extra, they’re very different people from everybody else except each other. 

And they were lucky enough to find each other and get a second chance. 

Yes. 

So, oh, do you know, I actually found, oh, and I know we’ll get to it, but that, that scene in the bedroom and she’s stepped, I found that to be probably the hardest thing 

Shannon Lee Clair

to do. Yeah. I have, 

Erika Rolfsrud

I never 

Shannon Lee Clair

Mean the, the pre wetting where she’s with the 

Erika Rolfsrud

prew Wetting, which she’s got the cold, just doesn’t wanna do what the cold and trying to play around with it. ’cause I don’t know, I’m not sure how successful it was both times we did it. 

Shannon Lee Clair

I think it’s hard. I think I also struggled with it and, and one of the things I was like, I was like, what if this is where she’s been working on writing something to Benedict to try to figure out like what, what now what do we do? Okay, how do I come now that I know this, can I approach it? And so like she’s lost in all these thoughts and she can’t even like, okay, yeah, no, I hear the things because you’re like, yeah, what is this? Is this woman crying? Has she been crying? Is she upset on some level of like, I want this so badly and I’ve wanted this for so long, but it rewrites my entire image of how my life is gonna be because I have been de dedicated to this idea of I’m not getting married, I don’t care. This is great for so Long. 

It’s terrify 

Erika Rolfsrud

trying to be vulnerable when you’ve shut that door. Yeah. And you know, it could also be her own retreat, like the cat and Pappy Pugh. Like, oh, okay, 

Juls Hoover

maybe 

Erika Rolfsrud

know. And she’s wrestling with this at night and that’s why she was up all night. And, and I do think it’s ’cause she was crying because by the wedding she’s not carrying tissues. Do you know what she’s, she knows he’s going to be there. She, she doesn’t have a box of Sudafed or Halls, you know. So I think she’s, you can’t look at me like this. I can’t I anybody got hemorrhoid cream. 

So yeah. So well basically we, we’ve sort of touched on this for our audience that we, we get the, so it’s Claudio and John, Pedro and Benedict, and they give him, you know, grief because he sort of like decided to up his game just a little bit. 

Then we’ve got the bad guys coming in and this is when they convinced him that or that yeah. That, that hero’s gonna has been screwing around. And if, if you wanna know it, come tonight and look in her window. 

And this is where Margaret and CIO are gonna be in the shadows of that window when that’s why they think that he thinks that in comes dog Berry and Burges such if you get the right pe it’s so funny. 

And and ts member Dagan Matthews at this old Globe one he played dog Barry and Jonathan McMurtry played Burgess who did this amazing makeup, made him look so ancient. 

You didn’t No. How old he was, but they didn’t, apparently it’s an old radio bit where Burgess would done z zoe 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

and Walk. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Barry would come in and finish his sentence form, finish his sentence form, 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

finish his sentence 

Erika Rolfsrud

form, and then they go and the two of they got a exit applause every freaking performance. They were amazing together. But anyway, so they’re the watch for the evening and we need them because they end up, you know, helping iron it all out. 

What comrades go, please stir comrade. I say, so it’s Bario. ’cause he’s, please forgive me for not like having clearly I’m way cliff noting this. So anyway, it’s more shenanigans to set up the circumstance of, of how they’re going to destroy hero basically in the church, in front of the town, all that kind of stuff. Because they’ve convinced Claudio the idiot that, that she’s screwing around on. 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

I didn’t even realize there was a character called Sea Cole. 

Erika Rolfsrud

I know I, again, I think this is, 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

this is one 

Erika Rolfsrud

they, they give it to Conrad Or 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

Yeah, I’ve never had a sequel. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Oh, poor sequel, 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

Sequel’s forgotten. Poor sequel. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Poor 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

sequel. 

Erika Rolfsrud

And then we have the weepy weepy teen and Margaret joust with her and you know, Beatrice just doesn’t game after staying up all night crying 

Leonardo talking to Dog Barry. And of course it’s also that confusing language of the fact that dog Berry and Burges are just talk in circles and not great communicators. And so you gotta throw that into the mix, you know, to add to it. It’s a little bit like the mask ball put a mask on and mistake who you’re talking to. 

So 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

He keeps 

Erika Rolfsrud

trying to 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

elevate his language, but just misfires. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Yeah. All the time. Yeah. And it’s, it’s very funny. But it’s important for the story as well. 

So now we have the wedding. 

Yeah. 

And Claudia goes to town and accuses her and Don Pedro backs him up and Don John seemingly is like, I’m with these guys, you know, we saw it, we knew and, and it just gets worse and worse and worse. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

The other person who barely talks here is Benedict. He has one line. Right. This looks not like a nept. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Yeah. 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

And 

Erika Rolfsrud

that’s him probably trying to break the tension with a lame 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

coat, You 

Erika Rolfsrud

know, 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

he is the haha he he as well with the beginning, which is pretty funny. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Yeah. 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

And yeah, he doesn’t 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

talk 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

at all after that. 

Erika Rolfsrud

And also interesting that he’s not included in the gulf that or in this particular scheme because I mean, you could describe it to Don John knowing that Benedict’s smarter, less gullible, who knows his aim is to go after his brother Don Pedro. 

So Fatio shame her and says that’s it. But boom, I locked the gates of love and I have no man’s dagger hero point for me. That’s dad. What the hell? And then hero faints, she also doesn’t speak, speak for herself. I mean she has like one line maybe 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

perfect 

Erika Rolfsrud

hero. Yeah. And seemed I ever otherwise to you, you know, she’s, and she’s got a co Oh God defend me. How am I beset? What kind of catechizing call you this? I love that sound. What kind of catechizing? 

Shannon Lee Clair

I also love that somehow they’re like, ah, evidence is what man were you with? And she says, I don’t know. And they’re like, therefore you’re guilty. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

I know, I know. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Ladies, gentlemen, slut shaming in Elizabeth times. 

Shannon Lee Clair

You know, the one thing I do appreciate about this play is that now maybe this is just, ’cause it’s a comedy, Margaret is is not really reprimanded in any 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Yeah. She’s suit. Yeah. Even though she’s sexually available, shall we say. Yeah. Right. Like Bracho even says she’s always been just and virtuous or something. I love it when he defends her. 

Shannon Lee Clair

Yeah. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Yeah. It’s 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

a great, yeah. And, 

Erika Rolfsrud

and I think also the level of forgiveness in terms of, she was possibly fooled too. 

God knows how they got her 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

involved. 

Erika Rolfsrud

So hero fates, ow cousin, where for sink you down. 

Come let’s go. These things come thus to light. Smother her spirits up, they exit. 

How death lady Benedict. 

And it is that thing too of, of he stays, does he stay because he knows she loves him and vice versa. And he knows now he loves Beatrice too. He’s not going off with his buddies. He’s not, he know he’s sticking around with hero’s family and Beatrice, he’s worried about Beatrice. 

So dad, I think help uncle Hero. Why hero Senior Benedict Friar. 

Oh, fate take not thy heavy hand. Death is a hell no. Cousin Hero have comfort lady. And then dad dust thou look up 

and Leonardo unleashes on her and Benedict 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

with No evidence, No evidence, No 

Erika Rolfsrud

evidence whatsoever. None. And Benedict speaks up inverse or in prose to the verse. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

He is in verse. Yeah. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Is he 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

in Leonardo? Let the friar advise you it’s verse 

Erika Rolfsrud

here on bit. Okay. I I, yeah. I was looking at one, oh, 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

sorry, 

Erika Rolfsrud

numbers up. I was looking at sir se be patient for my part. I am so tired and wonder I 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Oh yeah, yeah. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Which is sort of, but then he then he steps 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

into 

Erika Rolfsrud

line with 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

the line. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Yeah. And so eventually the friar, you know, is the good defense lawyer and says, I was watching her, watching her reaction. To me that was the genuine stuff. She had no idea this was going on. I believe her and Leonardo sort of gets convinced, certainly enough to set up this next ruse, which is we’re gonna figure out what happened. We’re gonna hide her away and we’re gonna tell the guys and she died. 

’cause the last time they saw her, she had fainted to the floor and they didn’t know if she’d died. They left her unconscious on the floor. Nice. 

And, and then the friar, you know, he comes up with this plan. I, I mean, I love it. He just comes in, boom. Monologue, monologue, monologue. And then he gets to go off and ride his crossword again until curtain call. 

Or maybe he’s see Cole, 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

Hey. Yeah. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Give him a few more lines. And now we come to the wonderful this scene. Okay. Jules, you haven’t read Beatrice, correct? 

You’re mute. 

Juls Hoover

Yep. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Yep. So it’s your turn for Beatrice. Yep. And who would like to do Benedict? 

Anybody? Anybody. 

Shannon Lee Clair

I Benedict 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

Go for it. ’cause I read it last time. 

Erika Rolfsrud

There you go. Okay, 

let’s take it from Lady Beatrice. Have you wept all this while 

Shannon Lee Clair

Lady Beatrice, have you wept all this while 

Juls Hoover

Yay. And I will weep a while longer. 

Shannon Lee Clair

I will not desire that. 

Juls Hoover

You have no reason I do it freely. 

Shannon Lee Clair

Surely I do believe your fair cousin is wronged. 

Juls Hoover

Oh, How much might the man deserve of me that would right her? 

Shannon Lee Clair

Is there any way to show such friendship 

Juls Hoover

A very even way, but no such 

Shannon Lee Clair

friend, Man, man, do it. 

Juls Hoover

It is a man’s office but not yours. 

Shannon Lee Clair

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

Juls Hoover

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

I am sorry for my cousin 

Shannon Lee Clair

By my sword beat that loves me 

Juls Hoover

Not swear and eat it. 

Shannon Lee Clair

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

Juls Hoover

You not eat your word 

Shannon Lee Clair

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

Juls Hoover

Then God forgive me. 

Shannon Lee Clair

What offense? Sweet. Beatrice. 

Juls Hoover

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

Shannon Lee Clair

I do it with all thy heart. 

Juls Hoover

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

Shannon Lee Clair

Come bid me. Do anything for thee. 

Juls Hoover

Kill Claudio. 

Shannon Lee Clair

Not for the wide world. 

Juls Hoover

You kill me to deny it. Farewell Terry. 

Shannon Lee Clair

Sweet Beatrice. I am 

Juls Hoover

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

Shannon Lee Clair

Beatrice 

Juls Hoover

in faith, I will go. 

Shannon Lee Clair

We’ll be friends first. 

Juls Hoover

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

Shannon Lee Clair

Is Claudio thine enemy. 

Juls Hoover

Is it not approved in the height of villain that had slandered, scorned and dis dishonored my kins 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, unmitigated ranker. Oh God, that I were a man. I would eat his heart in the marketplace. 

Shannon Lee Clair

Hear me. Beatrice. 

Juls Hoover

Fuck With a man out at a window. A proper saying 

Shannon Lee Clair

Nate, but Beatrice 

Juls Hoover

Sweet hero, she is wrong. She is slandered, she is undone. 

Shannon Lee Clair

Beatrice 

Juls Hoover

Princes and counties. Surely a princely testimony, a goodly count, count confect a sweet gallon. 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 CURT’s valor, into compliment. And men are only turned into tongue and trim ones too. 

He’s now has 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 

Shannon Lee Clair

Very good Beatrice by this hand. I love thee. 

Juls Hoover

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

Shannon Lee Clair

Thank you. And your soul that count Claudio hath wronged hero. 

Juls Hoover

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

Shannon Lee Clair

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 is dead. 

And so farewell 

Erika Rolfsrud

Those, those words. Wow. Could women be railing with those speeches in the context of now? I mean, it’s just amazing to me. 

Fabulous. And how quick it is too. 

And when Kill Claudio comes out that it’s gotta come bum bum bum, bubu, bum kill Claudio. It’s, it can’t be a beat of like, oh, this is great. 

Oh, kill Claudio. 

I think it’s, I think it’s like her brain in that it’s quick, it’s smart. 

This is her only recompense really to the revenge that she would love to have for what he’s done to her, her sweet hero. 

The question is, and we’ll get to play with this, does it come out of her mouth before she really thinks 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

about it? Hmm. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Or or is it after? You know, he said with word offensive to you have stayed me in a happy hour about to put it and you do it with all my heart. I love you so much more. There’s none left. So come me do anything for the year. 

And as it, after it’s come out, it’s a, this is a good idea. 

You wanna love me, you gotta do this, this is it. You said, do anything, this is it. 

And she’s mad as hell Beatrice for president. 

I just, I I just love it. And I love that Shakespeare wrote this. 

Juls Hoover

I love the, the, the alliteration that just starts to happen. The, like, it just shows how emotional and, and I mean just letting the language start to inform that everything that has been rumbling underneath of that for a long time probably. And it’s now this, this 

Erika Rolfsrud

moment And that absolute feeling of being completely can’t, I can’t think of the word, unable to do anything. Yes. Oh, that I were a man. 

It’s almost got those colors too of like, you have no idea what you get. And I don’t, I gotta live in this shit, in this pain. I gotta stand there. Mute. 

W well this happens. 

And she’s unleashing on him too. 

She loves him and he said no first. 

Oh, it’s a scene. It is a scene. And so we pick it back up then with Burgess and Dog Berry. 

And this is in, they’ve, they’ve arrested Conrad 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

The right person for the wrong reason. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Yeah. Right person for the wrong reason. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Yeah. 

Erika Rolfsrud

And Sea Cole comes back in, he’s got a second scene 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

Close back. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

You dunno His name because no one says it right. Isn’t that it? Like no one actually says his name or does someone say it at some point? Which is 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

why 

Erika Rolfsrud

Yeah, 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

there was a scene I think Dog Bury ever says Francis Sequel in their last scene together. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

That’s right. Yeah. 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

But that’s the only time I’ve ever seen 

Erika Rolfsrud

That’s, yeah. Well, and it’s pretty easy substitution because if you’re writing in prose, you don’t have to like, make sure the name sort of helps with the ion, you know? So if you need to have a smaller cast, you gotta give it to, you know, let’s make this, you know, CIO instead or or whatever you don’t have to and fit it in. 

So we have more of the, we’re discovering of the crime. 

And 

then we have this actually delightful, I think delightful is the wrong word, but I, I love the two brothers together, these two older men, you know, especially since Don Pedro and Claudia walk into it. And the two of them are just these old guys who are these older men who are just like, oh dear you, you know, it, it’s, it’s so, why can’t I think of this word not neutered? It’s, it’s like they have a gun without ammo. 

But I just love that, you know, Don Pedro and Claudio, I think this is the first thing that kind of rattles them in terms of the, 

Juls Hoover

Okay, why did Impotent come to my head? 

Erika Rolfsrud

’cause 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Beardless, because Lac beard, they definitely use, like, that comes up. 

Yeah. Yeah. So It occurs to me for, if I may Yeah, 

Erika Rolfsrud

please. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Like the other thing that I find really interesting, again, that Benedict and Beatrice, again, they’re finding a new language with each other when they’re declaring love and there’s this, this is gonna, you know, sound dramaturgical, whatever, but they’re quibbling on nothing. And knowing right. Is the thing. I know. Not, and then the title much to do about nothing, which is also much to do about noting and what you’re seeing. But I feel like she pushes it with the kill Claudia line. I, I don’t know. She sort of pushes the whole play into actions, not words. Right. When she’s railing against, like, you just have to swear that this is what you saw and then you’re like, Hercules. And I feel like that impulse continues, right? It continues into this, this next scene. 

And when and when they’re not taking Benedict, they can’t quite read Benedict Right. When he is trying to challenge Claudio. Right. That she wants something more than just, you know, swearing. Right. That you have to show your commitment. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Yeah. You love me 

Juls Hoover

Than nothing. 

Erika Rolfsrud

This 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Yeah. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Yeah. It’s like 

Juls Hoover

in a way 

Erika Rolfsrud

it’s sort of like, you love me then now you’re family. What you gonna do? 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Yeah. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Basically. And, 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

And I think that’s why I eat his heart and eat. I would eat his heart in the Barlow. I mean, it’s such a great line. I dunno, like any woman on the planet that probably doesn’t relate to that moment of if I were a man. But the idea of, I would, I would do this thing. I would eat his heart. I, it’s just so visceral in the most public place in town. That’s what I would do. You shamed her at church. I’m gonna do this in the marketplace is Amazing. And 

Erika Rolfsrud

she’s just rolling. He can’t get a word in edgewise. He tries three times to break in. Boom. She just, yeah. There’s no stopping her. And I think you’re right, this is the est of the do 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

Energy 

Erika Rolfsrud

That we’ve created and we are going into it. And that scene has to be the engine for the finish of the play to get through to the end of the play, to give credence. Also, the audience isn’t gonna laugh at Benedict because they know he’s gonna do it. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Yeah. 

Erika Rolfsrud

And it is that thing where like, you know, when you’ve got that friend and you’re like, come on, are you, are you joking? 

I, it it’s, it’s a jarring moment. 

Shannon Lee Clair

Well, and I, I especially love it. I think because, because it actually comes to nothing as a plot point. Yeah. We don’t have a jewel between these two people. 

He threatens Claudio and then it all is resolved anyways. I mean, Shakespeare could have totally written a, a scene that was just like, he’s comforting Beatrice and they declare their love for each other. But 

Erika Rolfsrud

she did that 

Shannon Lee Clair

the, the very fabric of the scene is built around like, she is already wishing that she had a man to ask to do this thing. Like, she’s already like, how do I get back at Claudio? I’m not a man. I can’t challenge him and I have no one to do that in there is. So it’s not just like, oh, Benedict is convenient, but Benedict is also convenient as like, you have shown up at the right time. I also love you, but like now I have a task and this is how you’re gonna prove it. Because I’m sitting here mulling this thing and I need this to happen. 

And so just to have that energy where she, to love her is immediately a challenge for him. Like a huge challenge. Even, even after this, this realization that there isn’t a a, a total release of this. There’s this underlying tension of now what it means to love a woman who has these kinds of, of needs right off the bat. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Stepping up. Yeah. Stepping up. And it to me, like this speech is also at the core of who Beatrice is, especially if she’s a little bit older. I so just relate to this woman and a lot of covering with the humor, a lot of covering with the humor, but the, the, the impotence again of not being able to do something more with her life on her own. 

If I’m not gonna find this mate, this partner, I just wanna live my life the way I can and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I’m, I’m applying a lot of modern sort of ideas to it. But I’m stuck because I’m a woman. 

I don’t have the freedom that the men have. 

And it’s, it’s not fair. And it isn’t until this point that it really, I think just comes into this place of like saying it out loud. This is not something she could say to out loud, I think to her uncle. I don’t think hero would get it. I don’t think there’s a woman at the same intelligence level that she can talk to. 

I think it’s why she does cross boundaries and talks to the guys right. At their level. 

She can’t, there’s nobody she got nobody to play with except 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

me. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

She, 

Erika Rolfsrud

yeah. Seriously. Okay, so we got nine minutes left. So let’s just finish off this play. 

So basically ladies and gentlemen of the audience let you do about nothing. Everything gets resolved. However, what the would like to talk is through, so Benedict does in fact challenge Claudio and of course Claudio and Don Pedro are like, what is going on? And then we’ve got Dog Barry and with Don Pedro and Claudio and we have the arrested party and they find out that they’ve been, you know, fooled again and done a bad thing. And then the new ruse of if you really loved her, prove it and marry your twin. Isn’t that what it is? Basically 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Almost her. Yeah. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Almost twin. And then here’s the point for me that Claudio never has a moment to go hang on my hero. 

The, the, the dumb dumb thinks he’s married in almost twin. You know, I, I don’t know. I just, yeah. It, it’s fun for me. Anyway. 

Okay, so tomorrow I expect you’re coming tonight. Take my leave. 

Oh, the naughty man shall face to face be brought to Margaret, who I believe was packed in all this wrong, hired to it by your brother. So there’s, Leonardo was already framing Margaret’s guilt in, You know what, I think you guys did this to Margaret, 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

But I love that. I love that he Yeah, she, but have when Right. She knew not what she did when she spoke to me, but always have been just and virtuous, which he’s telling a woman again who’s sexually available 

Erika Rolfsrud

Yeah. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Back in the day, you know, might raise an eyebrow, but that she’s virtuous and she’s just I love that. I do too. There’s so much ado about Right. Heroes being a virgin and here it’s, no, she’s just, and virtuous. She didn’t know what she was. This is 

Erika Rolfsrud

all part of me. It’s like much a do about nothing. Part two, the Bario and Margaret, 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

The Baro 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Margaret 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

story as somebody who played Margaret. Yes. I would’ve liked that because that was my, like my first role was 

Erika Rolfsrud

Margaret 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

I think ever. Oh no. My second role ever was Margaret. I was like, Hey, I want a special 

Erika Rolfsrud

Oh, I love that. Yeah. 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

She 

Erika Rolfsrud

never gets Her her moment, the period at the end of her story, 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

She never does. But going back a bit to what we were just talking about with the copy of the child that’s dead. 

I just find it so ridiculous that like all of a sudden they’re like, yeah, yeah. By the way, we’ve had this person around. She has never shown up ever before, but she’s my brother’s daughter. 

Yeah, 

Erika Rolfsrud

yeah. 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

Also just my 

Shannon Lee Clair

family is always confusing. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Yeah. In 

Shannon Lee Clair

general 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

In this play, there are references to I think three relatives that never show up. There are these like random references and I don’t know if that’s Shakespeare’s trying to kind of normalize it, you know, I always, I always feel like it’s about, you know, okay Claudio, you made a choice. 

You chose hero and then you failed. Yeah. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Right. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

So now you don’t get a choice, so we’re just gonna marry you off to a random woman. She looks pretty good. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Well, and it, and it is also the, 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

this 

Erika Rolfsrud

is how you prove your, you make amends for what you did. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Make amends In front 

Erika Rolfsrud

of the town, in front of everybody like that. And out comes hero, it tells you how, how little time they spent together. Maybe he does think it’s another woman because he doesn’t know hero’s face that well yet. 

He saw her from a distance and thought, Hey, that’s hot. And then has Don Pedro woo her 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Never a good idea. It’s just never, don’t ever send anybody else to do your, 

Erika Rolfsrud

I mean, 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

be your own wingman. Be your own wingman 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

is 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

the 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

message 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

of this play. 

Erika Rolfsrud

I want That T-shirt, 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

that T-shirt. 

Juls Hoover

Put That a post-it. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Okay. So then we get Margaret and Benedict briefly and he says, will you go get Beatrice? And I just love how it becomes, it becomes gentler. It’s a very, it’s a different tone between the two of them, between Benedict and Beatrice. And 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

I 

Erika Rolfsrud

mean, especially if we think this is the first time they’ve seen each other after the church and 

you know, it’s just, it’s just beautiful. They’re finding their footsteps in a new path while still being themselves. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Yeah. 

Erika Rolfsrud

They were, while still maintaining a a a back and forth. And it’s lovely. 

And then, then we hear it is proved, my lady hero hath been falsely accused the Prince and Claudia mightily abused, and Don John is the author of it all, who is fled 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

and 

Erika Rolfsrud

gone, will you come presently? Sure. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Yay. 

Erika Rolfsrud

So they go, and then Claudio has to publicly, you know, say, I’m sorry, I’ll marry her a stranger. 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

I 

Erika Rolfsrud

think very highly of Claudio’s intelligence and critical thinking skills. 

So we have big happiness and everything. And then everybody, you know, Benedict says you, he is gonna step forward and he is gonna do this publicly. And you know, soft and fair for our witch is Beatrice, I answer to your name. What is your will? Do you not love me? Why? No, no more than reason I, all these two. And they’re inverse. They continue the verse for until 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Okay. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Very briefly until the letters come out. 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

Yeah. 

Erika Rolfsrud

And then they fall back into it. And the thing that has always sort of grabbed me too by the knickers is the moment that this happens and there’s confirmation and proof, peace, I will stop thy mouth. We never hear Beatrice again. 

The moment, you know, she has this speech in the church, this wonderful anthem aria about, you know, oh man. And you know, and then sure enough we get to the end and they now they know they love each other. It’s been publicly acknowledged. It’s great. I’ll give you a kiss, not a word. 

And you know, it’s not much longer into the play, but it, you know, I don’t know. 

And then of course we end up with the news that Don John has been taken in flight and then let’s not think about him. Let’s have a dance. 

And the dude they boogie. 

So maybe she sings karaoke in the, you know, 

Shannon Lee Clair

six act. That’s how she gets her final act In 

Erika Rolfsrud

That’s right. That’s 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

how she gets it in. 

Erika Rolfsrud

So, and look 

Juls Hoover

at that. Well, Lanis Morissette or something. 

Erika Rolfsrud

Exactly. Or Joan Jett, I hate myself for loving you, 

Juls Hoover

you know, 

Erika Rolfsrud

lots of fun. Or maybe a Bonnie. Right. Or let’s give them something to talk about. 

This is great. This is perfect and nailed the time management 

Cathleen Sheehan (she)

nailed. 

Erika Rolfsrud

I’m doing it. 

Nathan Agin

Well, well done. No, it was, it was all great. We had a good 

Erika Rolfsrud

time. 

Nathan Agin

I mean, you get through the whole play. I mean, we, we don’t even need to come back. You guys just covered the entire play. So it was great. Wonderful. And it was all illuminating. So no, this was, this was a great recession. I, I really, I, I just learned so much. I actually, I, I saw the play not too long ago and, and thought it was a great production, but still, there’s still so much to, to learn and, and understand and unpack. So this was a lot of fun. So thank you guys. 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

Oh good. You, this is Great. 

Erika Rolfsrud

I’m very excited. So next week, we’ll, we will unpack and just go over meaning like, just pick it apart and, you know, we’ll keep switching off the scenes between the three of you. And then by the end we’ll see who wants to do what on the fourth week I’m open. 

So I still haven’t decided though about Benedict, but he’s gonna read it. I may have to talk to Nathan. 

Nathan Agin

We 

Erika Rolfsrud

can still do it the way we’ve done it, but 

Nathan Agin

Yeah. 

Erika Rolfsrud

But yeah, so anyway, Bravo. 

Nathan Agin

Yeah. Good work. 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

Do we just bring, like do we have to prepare anything? Do we just keep our scripts handy? I mean, we’re not memorizing at all. We’re just 

Erika Rolfsrud

thinking 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

through the course of 

Erika Rolfsrud

The next No deep familiarization. And that’ll really come, I think when we learn really what she’s saying, really following her train of thought. 

And we understand the scenes better. 

You know, just a familiarity enough that when we do do it in the fourth week, your eyes can come up a little bit more. 

Nathan Agin

Yeah, yeah. 

Erika Rolfsrud

So that, yeah. So that the scenes aren’t down like this. 

Nathan Agin

Right. But yeah, there’s, there’s no pressure to be memorized and, and for anyone observing, it’s, it’s just, they’re kind of a fly on the wall observing the text work that you guys are doing. This is just the next step in the process. It, it’s not meant to be finished or final, it’s just where you are in the work that you guys have been doing. Yeah. 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

Awesome. 

Nathan Agin

Really 

Erika Rolfsrud

work today. I loved everybody’s enthusiasm and excitement and humor and fun. Let’s keep it fun. 

All right, y’all 

Nathan Agin

great work. 

Juls Hoover

Thanks. 

Nathan Agin

We’ll see guys next week. Bye. 

Anu “UN-u” Bhatt

Bye.