Beam-Me-to-DC
June 14, 2004
By Gianna
Even though the van was scheduled to leave at 7:30, I awoke at 5 AM
- an hour earlier than on a workday! My mind was screaming, I don't
want to do this. It is too early. The sun isn't even up yet, so why
am I? Fortunately I did not listen to myself.
Our van enroute to DC had three fans in the back seat; Max, Dean,
and Aron in the middle seat; and me in the seat next to the driver.
The back-seaters talked among themselves and the actors among themselves.
The driver gave me quarters to hand him for the two tollbooths and
a downtown-DC map to tell him when to turn left or right. I think
we were all pretty tired and incapable of doing much else. Other fans
drove into town themselves.
Are you who you seem to be?
The director of the spy museum was unable to meet and greet us. Each
of us toured the museum at his/her own pace. Not being interested
in spies, I regret to say I found the museum boring. In fairness,
however, a friend who had seen the museum loved it. If you're interested
in spies and if you like interactive exhibits, you'll enjoy the museum.
One of the first things you can do is choose your spy identity. You
must choose and memorize a fake name, age, occupation, etc., for you
will be quizzed on this later. It was Monday, I had been up since
5 AM, and my brain was nowhere near in full gear. Perforce, I remained
my own non-spy self.
The group were to meet at the museum's Spy Café to pick up
pre-packaged lunches, head for the courtyard of the Navy Memorial
3 blocks away, and after lunch go on foot to the Folger a mile away.
Yeah, right! Yours truly has a bum knee, and I was not about to walk
a mile anywhere. I met another fan, Helene, also with a bum knee.
Moreover, the humidity was becoming uncomfortable. We opted to eat
lunch at the café - a large cookie, soft drink, and a huge
turkey/ham club on wonderfully fresh and delicious pumpernickel. I
consumed the soft drink and half the sandwich.
In the Spy Café, booths line the windows, tables are in the
center, and in between is an L-shaped walkway. Helene had come down
from Queens because she is a Dwight Schultz fan. So who should come
looking for his lunch but Dwight Schultz! Helene's back was to him,
but I saw him walk to the far exit, turn round, and come towards our
table enroute to the other exit. I know what it's like to talk with
your favorite actors, so I waved to Dwight, pointed to Helene, and
said She's one of your biggest fans. Dwight stopped and exchanged
a few words with her, and she was thrilled.
All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players.
They have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his time
plays many parts. -As You Like It, Act II, Scene 7 - and oh,
I liked this afternoon!
Workshop at the Folger Library - organized, taught, and acted
by Casey.
Helene and I took a taxi to the Folger Library, which is near the
Library of Congress. The exterior looks like one of those huge government
buildings, but this is a private organization.
Our group first saw the Great Hall. It seems to run most of the length
of the block-long building and is maybe three stories high. The hall
is in the fashion of a Tudor-era castle's Great Hall where banquets
might be held or where children might play indoors on a cold winter's
day. Walnut-colored coffered-wood panelling lines the walls. The ceiling
is white plaster, carved with designs - and yes, the docent explained
the designs, but I was so enamored of the hall's architecture that
I didn't think to take notes or to even listen closely. I love classic
architecture!
Back to the lobby, which is paved with grey flagstones, then to the
Elizabethan theatre, outside of which is a statue of Puck. There are
orchestra-style seating and a two-tiered gallery - rather like the
inn courtyards in which Shakespeare's company often presented his
plays. I took a seat in the second row, unaware that I was about to
experience one of the most memorable afternoons of my life.
One of the docents told us that in Shakespeare's Blackfriars' Theatre
in London, the columns onstage would not have been woodstained but
painted in bright colors. Also, this theatre has a balcony (á
la Romeo & Juliet), but there was none in the original Blackfriars.
Casey said he might be doing some directing at The Folger. Obviously,
that means it's only in the talking stages and, if it should come
to fruition, I surmise it would at the earliest be the 2005-2006 season.
Casey explained that iambic pentameter is ten syllables and is the
natural rhythm of human speech. He asked a man from the audience to
read a piece of Shakespeare to illustrate.
Sometimes Shakespeare wrote a line of nine syllables, sometimes eleven,
and sometimes a line of iambic pentameter is spoken by one person,
then finished by another. These are all clues as to how the actor
should speak the lines. This disheartened me, because it means Will
wrote with mathematical precision and I rather dislike anything (even
a mathematics textbook) being written with mathematical precision.
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