Misfit Theater Company 2

4. Jealousy (Part 2)

At Patti's house after school her parents have put out a whole spread of snacks for us. All vegetarian now that they know me better, which I appreciate, and no one else ever seems to be upset about. Once the four of us make our own plates of snacks, we go up to Patti's room to read through our new script.

We sit on the floor in a circle, and Patti instructs us to all take out our scripts Mrs. Permala passed out at the end of class. "Are we all familiar with the storyline?"

"Yep," Thatcher responds nonchalantly. I wouldn't be surprised if he was at least a little familiar with all of Shakespeare's plays. He's so smart.

"I know there are fairies involved," Moth says, eyes squinted in thought.

"I don't know the storyline at all," I admit.

"OK, let's review," Patti says, pushing her hair from her shoulders and settling in. "So the whole story is framed by this one couple's wedding, Theseus and Hippolyta. Within that frame, we see two worlds: one in Athens with four young lovers--"

"--lovers, wow," Moth says. "That's some strong terminology."

"Strong words for strong feelings, that's what Shakespeare's all about. Anyway, so a separate troop of actors hoping to perform at the wedding. The other world is in the woods, and that's more of the magical world, with a fairy queen and king. We start with three of the lovers arguing about marriages. Hermia's dad wants her to marry Demetrius, but she's in love with Lysander. Both of the boys love her, but she only wants Lysander. This is a problem, because Hermia's dad has promised her to Demetrius and Theseus reminds Hermia that if she doesn't listen to her dad, she could be killed. The fourth lover is another girl in Athens who loves Demetrius and wants to get his attention, and her name is Helena. That's the part I'm hoping to get. Hermia and Lysander decide to run away into the forest to escape her death for not choosing Demetrius, and Demetrius follows them, followed closely by Helena."

As Patti explains the plot, I imagine it in my mind with all of us as the leads. I'm Hermia; Thatcher is Lysander; Moth is Demetrius, despite the fact he isn't chasing after me; and Patti gets the part she wanted as Helena. I imagine some weird combination of my mom and Mr. Gorsky as Hermia's dad, forcing us apart. Thatchsander and I run off to his shed, where Mothetrius is waiting at the door, listening, waiting to make funny puns, and Pattelena is holding onto his legs, trying to hold him back. She's not that girl anymore, hoping to catch Moth's attention, but it works for my imaginary scene.

"Meanwhile, there's a troop of actors who are putting together a play for Theseus and Hippolyta, which is actually somewhat like Romeo and Juliet but it's called Pyramus and Thisbe. The best part from that group is Nick Bottom, he's full of himself, so he's pretty funny. These guys decide that they are going to go to the forest to practice that night. That's how all of the non-magic world characters get into the magic forest.

"The fairy king basically wants to prank his wife, Titania, in order to shame her into giving up this little boy the king wants to make his knight. It's very strange and complicated, but the point is, the king enlists this other fairy Puck to make a love potion. That night, the four lovers all fall asleep in the woods, so Puck puts the love potion on their eyes. This means that when they wake up, they will fall in love with the first person they see. Puck also finds Nick Bottom, and because his name is Bottom, Puck turns his head into a donkey's head, because... you know, the other word for a donkey...."

"Yep, we get it," Thatcher says.

"Great. So when they wake up, everything gets mixed up with their love lives, and also the queen fairy falls in love with Bottom as a donkey. Comedy ensues, because everything is mixed up. The boys fight, the girls fight, they all argue."

I imagine the fairies who mess everything up as Paige, Layla, Gina, Greg, and Taylor. And then also Emma and Sean, just because Patti says it's all supposed to be funny.

"Eventually, Puck realizes he messed up, so he uses the potion to make Demetrius love Helena back and then makes Bottom look like a human again. They all wake up, thinking they've just experienced a weird dream, and for some reason go back to Athens."

"I think it's because Demetrius doesn't want to marry Hermia anymore, so they think they can plead their case," Thatcher adds.

"Right, yes," Patti starts again. "So then they convince Hermia's dad to give up the death threats, and Theseus proposes they have a large group wedding. At the wedding, the actors perform their scene, which is hysterical."

"It's the best," Thatcher adds.

"And that's pretty much the play," Patti finishes.

"Happily ever after," I say.

There's a knock at the door, and we all turn our heads to see who is at the door. I feel my cheeks redden with anger as soon as I see that it's Paige Brewster.

"Paigey," Moth starts, but stops himself. "Brew...ster, hey. What's up, dude?"

"I'm here to practice with you four. Sorry I'm late, there was a field hockey meeting after school. What have I missed?" she asks, dropping her bag, like, pretty much on top of mine, and then joining us on the floor.

"We just went over the plot for Midsummer," Patti says, "but you already know it."

"Of course, I love this one. I'm so excited. When we read it through, can I read for Hermia? I love her spunk."

"Sure," Patti says, "as long as I can read for--"

"Helena," they both say in unison, and then Paige laughs.

"Of course," she says. "Do I know you, or do I know you?"

"You know me," Patti says, chuckling. "Janie, do you want to read the other girl parts?"

I take a deep breath in, but I can't breathe out any honesty right now. It's not a good time for me to say what I want to say, like, "Paige, you're really overstepping your boundaries and I don't like you, and I want to read for Hermia, not you." I don't want to ruin this practice for Patti or Thatcher or Moth, who is looking at me like a bug just flew on my face and he's waiting to see if I'll notice.

"I can read the other parts, yeah," I say on the exhale.

Thatcher must be able to sense my weirdness, because he moves his hand over mine. "Moth," he starts, "why don't you read for Lysander, and I'll be Demetrius."

"You got it, anything for you, buddy," he says, then shoots me a quick wink, like he has my back with this. I smile, as much as I am able to in this mood.

"Shall we get started with our read-through?" Patti suggests.

"I'm ready," Paige offers with a shrug. She's oblivious to all the "comedy" she's stirred up inside me.

Here we go, I think, let's get to the end of this happily ever after before I start to cry.

To be continued in the next part...

On a separate note, the video I've included for this section of the chapter (since a lot of it was just Patti going over the plot of MND) is from the movie "Get Over It" which is HILARIOUS. It's a favorite of mine, and culminates in a musical version of the play, which as you can tell, is hilariously terrible. I highly recommend watching it if you are into theater and all the drama that surrounds it like I am.