Cul de Sac by Richard Thompson for July 27, 2011

She’s gone Beat!

Kind of a beatnik crossed with Bride of Frankenstein look…

Holy Toledo, Batman! Miss Bliss is the Woman in Black! (Has Mona Montrois from nearby C’est la Vie been giving fashion tips to Miss Bliss?)

GAH! Is right!

Alice, I don’t think you want to stick around.

Miss Bliss really lets it go!

Timmy Fretwork will be the theater tech, no doubt. Can’t wait!

Alice as Ophelia… Miss Bliss as Gertrude?

I’m thinking bongos and flutes accompany the “actors as they emote”. Really grooooovy!

So is Miss Bliss going to turn out to be a frustrated theater major?

She looks like a black and white peacock.

Almost as bad as a clown.

Wait – So according to the sign, the play’s “The Thing”? I think that Alice and the other li’l actors would really enjoy that.

Miss Bliss has gone all artsy fartsy on us.

Wat the? did she got another weird boy frnd?

Maybe Miss Bliss works stage crew…they always wear black in the theatre.

I think the GAH is more for the hair. The bun has been released. Was anyone injured should be the first question.

It’s summer — let your hair out, er, down!

What happened to Miss Bliss’s hair?

You and me both, Carl Levin.

x_Tech, despite the source of the line on the sign, I can’t think they’ll be doing Hamlet. There are only two female roles in that play, and I really can’t see Alice being happy as Ophelia. On the other hand, RT’s wife works at the Folger Shakespeare Library in DC, so something else by Will wouldn’t be out of the question. Alice would be a natural as Kate in Taming of the Shrew, at least through the first four acts. Re-write Act V so Kate turns the tables on Petrucchio (Dill) and ends up stomping on his hand, and it could work. Soapie as Bianca, Marcus and Beni as Vincentio and Lucentio, Kevin Buckethead as Baptista, Nara as…well, the widow is the only female left, and that’s not much of a part. OK, rewrite Baptista as Kate’s mother (Julie Taymore did it for Helen Mirren in her Tempest), and give Kevin Tranio.

Hamlet would be a natural for Petey. “Hamlet! It’s a beautiful day, so why don’t you go outside and kill your uncle? You can’t just sit in your room reading comic books for all five acts.”

My first thought for Petey’s Hamlet was to have Mr. Otterloop play the ghost, since he IS Petey’s father and (like the Hamlets) they share the same name. But Ernesto would be a better choice. Petey’s already unsure whether Ernesto is real, and he does try to goad Petey into questionable actions. So let’s make Peter Sr. play Claudius. Madeline is a perfect Gertrude, under any circumstances.

And, instead of staging the play-within-a-play The Mousetrap, Petey makes a shoebox diorama depicting something like the murder of his real father (not that Ernesto is Petey’s father, he’s just the messenger).

And I am in love with Fritzoid.

“Look with what courteous action it wave you to a more removed ground. But do not go with it! I’m sick of seeing you talking to yourself.”“No, by no means. He’s probably just going to invite me to some weird event. And I’m almost sure he’s imaginary.”

“How fares our cousin Hamlet?”

“Excellent, i’faith, of the chameleon’s dish. I eat the air, promise-crammed. It’s doing wonders for my Global Picky Eater ranking.”

That’s also my reaction whenever I run into theater types, Alice.

That’s hot.

Remember, the kids end up in their timeout corner whenever that woman tries to cram culture down their throats..

I’m still freakin’ out from the drama faces on the sign! GAH!

“There is no restraint on girls playing boy roles you know.”

True, nor is there restraint on boys playing girls’ roles. The former was commonly done within many of Shakespeare’s plays (Rosalind, Portia, Viola, to name only three), and the later was necessary in the staging of them (no women allowed on the Elizabethan stage). But given that our performers here are pre-schoolers, it’d probably be highly confusing for them.

(However, should Richard decide that he IS going to have Alice assay the role of, say, Macbeth (with Sofa as Lady M, perhaps.), it’d no doubt be a hoot.)