Retro-Spectacle

So, I am actually quite glad I waited to post this one. My opinions have changed quite drastically since I wrote this on October 7, 2010. I have added more to the end with my thoughts now...

This past weekend we had our class’s community reading of the play we are studying, Charles Mee’s, A Perfect Wedding. This not only got the community involved and got word out about our play and connected us with possible interviewees, but also allowed to hear the words spoken by all different voices. Somehow by simply hearing the words, the play instantly gained a new life and purpose. I was so caught up in all that was happening within the play, even after having read it previously. The reading did however leave me wondering just how realistic some of the characters truly are.

I read for Ariel, a character who seems very much lost and confused about love. She did not seem extremely realistic to me, however. This disheartened me a bit. I am considering using this character for my character study, but at the same time, how am I to find such an absurd literary character in a realistic human form? And once I do find someone with some relevant quality related to this character, how do I incorporate this into the character without completely loosing the character? I can see how there are humanistic qualities to Ariel; lots of people in today’s society are extremely confused about love and what it means and how to express it. Yet at the same time, this character is based on Shakespearean characters, which were not the most realistic characters even then.

There were others that were a bit “out-there” as well, including the priest. There is the argument that no one lives in absolute reality and it is all different for every individual, but it is not quite theatrical realism to be having a mud fight on stage. It is not quite realism to have three entirely different couples as were originally planned couples at the beginning of the play getting married after a few hours, either.

I am very interested in doing a character study, but do not see, just yet anyway, how this is be possible if I choose a character who is not very realistic to begin with. Perhaps another play this would be very helpful, but this play in particular is going to be tough. Having characters not based on real people makes this hard to do as well.

---Now! I think it very foreseeing that I said I didn't see how this could be a character study, just yet. Mainly because I now don't see how it couldn't be. Perhaps Mee isn't going for realism, perhaps my initial thoughts were a bit confused. (Which is more likely than the former.) Now having conducted a couple interviews and having some very in-depth, and random, conversations about the play, love, personal issues and struggles, and just life that are so relevant to the play it is quite frightening. For example, my aunt has always been an open book about her life and I greatly appreciated it, but now every time she and I have a heart-to-heart I find myself trying to take mental note of everything she is saying and how she is saying it.

Also, I have a really weird obsession with watching people's hands and mouths when they talk. I have a person, who I won't name, whom I will find no reason to talk to sometimes just to watch the funny way her lips move when she talks. I find myself trying to mimic it for no apparent reason, and I think it is because I regard her as a very wise, very intuitive person and perhaps if I can speak as she does I will be regarded the same. There is another person who has very specific hand gestures that I often, unknowingly, incorporate into my gestures, as well.

These little nuances are what form a person, a personality, and a character. I feel like, finally, the light bulb clicked on, and DUH! I get it...