Week Four

[stagemanagers]

[Last week, Gershwin High School Academy University saw its very first intentional murder! What a milestone! And right after Spongebob's No Murder party, too - that doesn't seem like it bodes very well for anybody's future.

You all wake up this morning with yet another new memory returned to you. You'll also find that the school's external doors have now unlocked. Congratulations! You're free! Unfortunately, you also seem to be entirely in the middle of nowhere. So maybe it's more of a symbolic victory.

Still, you should look around and do some investigation! Maybe you'll find a fun surprise.]

Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday

(( Be sure to submit your memory regains and your AC for this week! Hester's office hours and the merch booth also remain available! ))

Comments

[comeandfindme]

It's what? [ This is a good distraction! ] Wow, morbid much! You're serious, you're not pulling my leg?

[tellthestory]

I'm totally serious! [He grins, delighted by the reaction!] All the I am going to the Lordyyyy stuff - who would write that in this day and age?

[Yes, he totally did sing that line of it.]

[comeandfindme]

And he- your guy, he just took that, and he put it in the show? No one complained, no one...objected?

[tellthestory]

Stephen Sondheim! He's famous, he wrote - he did the lyrics for West Side Story! You know that one, right? Or Into the Woods?

[honestly Sweeney Todd is probably his most well-known work but ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha]

Anyway...I don't know much about the specific criticisms. But I doubt many people really noticed.

[comeandfindme]

Oh! Oh, it's that guy? Yeah— yeah, I've seen both the movies for those.

[ Shhhhh let's not acknowledge Sweeney Todd out of respect for Benji. ]

I'd think...if people knew it was based on real stuff, they'd do the research after, right? Like...if they liked it?

[ Peregrine just does not understand not being 110% into her hobbies. ]

[tellthestory]

You think people liked it that much?

[The Balladeer seems mildly surprised at the notion, though he's quick to reassure:]

I'm not saying I think it was bad, just - I don't know. I know it was sort of controversial, and I think it isn't one of his better-known works...but I couldn't tell you how I know that, exactly. [He shrugs.] That's all theatre critics anyway. I don't have any idea how regular people felt about it.

[comeandfindme]

I don't know, I've never heard of it!

[ Hm. Maybe that should say something. ]

I guess it makes sense some people didn't like it... It's kinda a weird premise. Still... You don't know anything about how your...audience felt? Can't you like... Isn't that a part of it? The narrator thing?

[tellthestory]

In the moment, a bit. But I only got to see them a couple times. And one of those was Booth's racism song.

[No one feels the same way about Charlie's thing as they do about John's!]

[comeandfindme]

...Racism song...?

[ does she. does she want to know. ]

[tellthestory]

It's John Wilkes Booth. He can dress it up real pretty, but that's a good 99% of his motivation.

[what, he was just real into "state's rights"?]

[comeandfindme]

…Well. Yikes. Fuck that guy.

[tellthestory]

"Ooooh, I'm John Wilkes Booth and I'm still ranting about the South rising again in the twenty-first century."

[He says in a pitch-perfect Southern accent, and also somehow a mocking vampire voice.]

[comeandfindme]

Really yikes!

[tellthestory]

[The Balladeer laughs.]

I'm sorry. It's just nice to be with other people who hate that guy. The rest of them were big fans - first guy to bag a president, y'know, he was sort of their pioneer.

[comeandfindme]

How can you like a racist, isn't that, like, rule number one? Ugh. Uncle Donald would have words for them.

[tellthestory]

They're a pack of white people with guns. I mean, Giuseppe's Italian and Leon's Polish, from a time when that sort of mattered, but...

[He shrugs. It's not as though things like that tend to lead to solidarity amongst those groups, you dig? Also my Italian grandfather was over here being racist towards Polish people like literally two hours ago for some fucking reason, so.]

...I don't know. It's just all about the gun club with them.

[comeandfindme]

Well. You're not with them now. [ Examining her deerskin, seeing how the leather's starting to smoke. ] And, if I've got anything to say about it... You don't ever have to see those people again.

[tellthestory]

[The Balladeer smiles.]

I'd like that. Feels a little weird - the show might be broken without me - but I guess that's sort of their problem now?

[Geez, even just saying that makes him feel a little guilty. But...well, they wanted him gone, right? Now he's gone.]

[comeandfindme]

Exactly. If they didn't appreciate you...screw 'em.

[ It's a lot easier to dwell on the Balladeer's problems, rather than hers. ]

[tellthestory]

Mmmm.

[The audience might've appreciated him, he thinks...but they're not the people he has to spend all his time with. Anyway, they can follow if they like. The Balladeer leans forward, poking at the edge of his deer skin a little.]

So how do you know when it's done?

[comeandfindme]

Oh, it usually depends on the color. [ She points out the darker outside of the hide she's smoking. ] If you want a lighter one, you smoke it for less time...but darker tends to be better because it means it's more durable. I was working on that side for...um...I think about forty minutes? That's what I've found that tends to work well.

[tellthestory]

The lighter ones are pretty, though.

[But yeah, he gets it.]

[comeandfindme]

They're pretty but they gotta be waterproof, Bal!

[ ...She's almost something like...happy. Almost. ]

[tellthestory]

[The Balladeer laughs.]

Hey, don't blame me! I'm practically from a desert!

[How many stage plays involve rain?]

[comeandfindme]

Jeez... [ She keeps herself from smiling. She realizes that, now. If you let yourself feel happy, then—

She gives him a humorless little smirk. ]

It's okay, I'll get you used to the good ol' Midwest eventually.