At One Time, I Used to Be a Snoo Salesman

Avid Fan:Snoo? What's snoo?

Metro: Not much, what's snoo with you?

I got a dozen of 'em. Eleven, now.

As Avid Fans know, I'm involved in three plays at once right now. I'd like to mention here that I finally think the first one, coming into production next week, is going to be great.

The cast features two very pretty and talented ladies, whom I shall call Morta and Pru for now, and an older gentleman I shall ever think of as Victor. But the star of the show is Horatio Kos.

I was a little worried. Rehearsals up until now had felt lackluster, and I couldn't tap into the red-hot supply of grudge my character has to lug around onstage. The character is a man who, in the words of Terry Pratchett, "lived his life on the line people cross just before they haul off and hit somebody."

I acted, as some Fans may know, with Horatio and his sister, Mandela. Divine miss M. is gone lo these many moons to acting school--(akin to the lily going to gilding school, IMHO). Metro only hopes she can earn enough money through acting to purchase the enormous mantel she will need to display her future Oscar collection.

Personally, I sometimes felt that Horatio should have been the star of our last show. He was more age-appropriate. He's also funnier, I think. But since this would have involved him having to smooch his sister--the leading lady could have been no-one else--I got lucky. Besides, the teacher is the Straight Man for that show, so I worked out pretty well.

Horatio was given an important but small role as the background-of-main-character-filling-in-guy. He played the local shepherd in a very funny performance. But it didn't occupy him sufficiently. Backstage he tended to be bored and to clown around, rather.

He next appeared in a hospital drama with a bout with life-threatening illness, running concurrently with a play authored by Mandy. Since the play was a transcendent farce, he devoted all his comic energies to making the role funny and convincing beyond sense.

But I always wanted to see him take on a serious role. And finally I have the chance, and he's every bit as accomplished and talented as I might have expected. I wasn't sure whether he could do serious--oh me of little faith. But I really felt he'd be great if someone would just take a chance and cast him for drama.

And he's very professional. The clowning seems to be nearly gone, though it'd be a sad day if it disappeared altogether. Finally I feel truly confident that this will be a good show.

I'm extroverted. I get my energy through interaction with people outside myself. Audiences, other actors, juries, parole boards ... So as Horatio becomes more comfortable in his character, I begin to find mine.

Yesterday I really began to believe in his character, which in turn fed mine, and I broke through into my necessary rage--that volcanic anger I usually reserve for people doing forty on a road designed for sixty.

My lines, which had refused to stick in my Very Little Brain (crowded out by a wealth of song lyrics and useless trivia, doubtless) suddenly rose spontaneously from whatever dusty protein data bank they had been encoded on. I began to develop a more solid narrative of the character.

So I am gaining confidence, and I think and hope that Horatio is gaining something as well. I also believe that he'll get more respect from now on. He's sure earned it.

More as I feel the urge.