Act II

     One of the things Miss Caffarelli thought would be fun the year I was in 10^th grade English was to film a reading of Act III from The Merchant of Venice! There aren't that many speaking parts in Act III, and I think there were only 1 or 2 parts for females. I doubt that any of us wanted to volunteer for any of these roles, but it would have looked like bad attitude if we did not offer to participate, so almost all of us submitted our names for consideration of the roles.

      At the beginning of the film for Act III, someone was going to narrate a summary of Act I followed by a second individual narrating a summary of Act II. Upon completion of the reading for Act III, there would be a summary of Act IV and then a wrap up with Act V. Needless to say, extra females in the class got assigned the summaries. I was Act II.

       We went to the audio-visual room to practice and film. There was a small stage with a microphone on a stand. The cameras were in the back, and adults who were employed by the school were actually in charge of the AV department, and they had a few students who learned the craft and helped out – how these students managed to be lucky enough to get excused from classes for part of the day to go to AV and acquire this expertise was something I wondered about - I felt like I had missed or been purposely excluded from such an opportunity myself!

       Anyway, I kept getting yelled at for having such a mousy voice. “Speak up!” was barked at me from the back of the room constantly. And then, when the final filming was about to take place – the rest of the class got a lecture from the AV crew about extraneous noises – do not be making noises, not even a cough or a sneeze, while the cameras were running because, “the mike picks up every little sound!” then the guy and I made eye contact and he quickly followed up with “except for pipsqueak voices!” If laser looks could kill.....

       So the girl doing the Act I summation started talking. Cameras were rolling and the mike was picking up everything. My mouth went dry! I desperately wanted to clear my throat. But the mike would hear it and that would make Act I less than perfect. There weren't going to be any cuts or retakes – this was the one and only real take. So I did not clear my throat and the situation became serious.

       The Act II summary began – I started to read. I spoke up as best I could. And then I had to do it – in the middle of the summary, I stopped and cleared my throat, and then finished my reading.

     The film was shown to parents at Open House. Ew.

242 20150830 Act II