If it weren't so tragic...it would be hilarious

Hello all!

I'm going to deviate somewhat from the format other people have been taking and just sort of focus on one thing that stuck in my mind from todays class. Obviously I loved meeting all of you lovley, beautiful people and the warm ups and other excersizes we did were awesome(I especially loved the power game) But the thing I went away thinking about at the end of the day was how funny Richard III actually is

Bear with me. For I'm sure it's at this moment that you're asking, "But, Katharine, all sorts of horrible things happen in this play; there's fratracide and infantacide and all sorts of other -cides left and right. You cruel sadistic cad, how could you find anything comic in that!?!" Now, certainly I know that this play invovles horrible acts of ambition and cruelty that, should they ever actually be perpatrated in my own life, I'm sure I would be horrified by. But in the context of make believe, think about it: some of it's pretty funny. Ian made me realize this when, after observing me chuckling during Clarence's death scene, he came up to Me and George during the five minute break and said, "I think you're having a little too much fun with all of the evil things that Richard is doing" And I had to explain that the reason I had been laughing was because in that scene Clarence's reason for why Richard wouldn't want him dead is basically, "Oh no, not Richard. He gave me a hug.". A life lesson perhaps? "Don't trust people who hug"? Who knows, but admittedly, funny. Or take for instance the scene we stopped on at the end of the day, when Buckingham and the Lord Mayor are trying to "convince" Richard to be king. Not only does he stroll out with his two priest buddies flanking him(where did they come from btw?) saying, "Oh no! Looks like you've caught me just coming from prayer! How embarassing.", he then proceeds to refuse the kingship like a person on a diet refuses desert: "Oh, no I couldn't...no I couldn't possibly......WELL all right, jsut a bite, if you insist." *nomnomnom*. And there's no cake left for you. It reminds me slightly of the exagerated, ridiculous violence in Titus Andronicus. For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of reading Titus(and I do legitimatley love the play), Titus is the play in which Shakespeare has the main character kill two young men(admittedly they are rapists, but thats another story), bake them into a pie and serve them to their mother. Yes that's right. He bakes them into a PIE. Now obviously it's horrible that Titus cold-bloodedly murders them, but...a PIE! It's really not that sinister. Try something else. Even a souffle would be better. I'm not saying Richards as bad as that, although I'm sure he comes in at a close second, all I'm saying is that some of it's so ridiculous that I have to enjoy it.

I suppose what I'm trying to say is that hopefully this expirience will be fraught with laughs aside from being a really rich three weeks in which I can grow as an actor and revel in the joys of Shakespeare while still having a giggle now and again.

So remember, if you see me tommorow chuckling quietly to myself, I'm not mad, I just have a little bit of a morbid sense of humor. Because if it wasn't so funny...it would be horrible

Ta-ta!
Kat