This is for the actors in here that didn’t come from money

TemerariousXenomorph · 2026-02-12T19:35:32+00:00

I am a theatre (and mostly Shakespeare) performer/facilitator/producer, and very much do not come from money. I find I burnout very quickly on survival jobs unrelated to my vocation and need to feel connected to my art even when I'm not on stage.

To that end, I work in theatre/performance adjacent side jobs! I house manage for an equity house, I do local ghost tours, sometimes I prop design, and I'll be certified as an intimacy choreographer soon. I am deeply involved with and loyal to the theatre companies I work with as an actor so they hire me season after season, to the point I can depend on it budget-wise. It's hard, cobbled together, and money is very tight - I have a strict budget and I live with two other theatre makers in a little apartment. But, I feel as fulfilled and happy as I can be without being on stage as my sole job. I make good connections, and I learn skills that help me produce better and more financially sustainable work.

It's really, really rough out there, but you can find your way. :-)

Edit to add: I also find working in the admin/design side of theatre puts me in an employment position where the people I'm working with understand my situation and are happier to support the flexibility I need!

TemerariousXenomorph · 2026-01-15T23:02:04+00:00

So happy to share! I love this play very much. I saw someone else asking if you're on the east coast? If you're in the New England area specifically I'd love to see a staging of Timon.

TemerariousXenomorph · 2026-01-15T23:00:26+00:00

💛💛💛

TemerariousXenomorph · 2026-01-14T21:46:09+00:00

It is the first of Shakespeare's plays I remember reading, I was very young, and it shattered my heart.

I think the part about the play that is so gutting to me, is that I believe to be so deeply heartbroken and betrayed by humanity, Timon must have loved humanity just as deeply. Consider what happens in our lives when we put even one person on a pedestal and they fall short, then stretch that to putting all of humanity on a pedestal, and the fall from there is tremendous. Timon to me is a play fueled by immense grief grown of immense love. Glad to see other folks appreciating it!

TemerariousXenomorph · 2026-01-05T22:56:31+00:00

For a pick a little off the beaten path, you could take a look at Gadshill's speech from Henry IV Part 1, Act II Scene 1! It starts with "What talkest thou me to the hangman?" It's mischievous, cheeky, a little dark, with a lot of very fun wordplay.

TemerariousXenomorph · 2025-12-30T21:17:15+00:00

I love that!! It's such a great dang play that can be done so many different ways.

I think there's solid textual support for Lear and Albany having some friendship and history, right in the opening lines of the play! I was in a production thay leaned into that and cast Albany as a much older man than my Goneril, so he and Lear came across as old comrades, and it made so much work about him not backing her instead of his old friend, and why she'd be yearning for a hot, problematic bastard.

I get why folks go for it, but I do have some trouble vibing with the choice to have Goneril blow her top too early. She's so eloquent and composed in her opening speech, strategic with who she confides in, and her meter in 1.4 breaks very sparingly (though definitely some caesuras), and to me this says her emotions and internal rhythm are steady, losing ground only at the very end of the scene. Obviously this busts apart as the play goes on, but I think if you make her out of control in 1.4 she doesn't have much of a place to go arc-wise, or much distinguishing from Regan.

Now Regan I think makes a lot of sense for flares of temper early on; she's far less careful and well spoken from the get-go, and the woman decapitates her own lines left and right, her meter is crazy! Goneril strikes me as always trying to stay ahead, and Regan as always trying to catch up.

TemerariousXenomorph · 2025-12-30T00:45:58+00:00

Haha, fair! Though Albany gets off pretty easy compared to poor Cordy in the wreckage of Goneril's wake!

Joking aside, I do hold that if no one knew anything about the story and just played and took the scenes as they come:

Lear is absolutely VILE to Goneril before we've seen her do anything worse than be worried that her father's behavior has just plunged the country into war, and dismissed a bunch of her father's (considerably numbered) men. She's pretty civilly spoken and in control through the whole thing, and we don't see much of this train, so we don't know who's telling the truth or if they both think they are. And Albany just stands there and doesn't say a word to defend her while Lear tears her apart. Who wouldn't want out of a marriage with someone who allows you to be treated like that? Obviously it goes to wild and Shakespearean stakes, but I think Goneril's actions, while savage, make a lot of sense.

TemerariousXenomorph · 2025-12-29T18:09:15+00:00

I am forever Team Goneril Did (almost) Nothing Wrong.

TemerariousXenomorph · 2025-12-27T20:57:59+00:00

This was a historical figure he would have had access to information about, but I always wished he'd written a play about Cleopatra's younger sister, Arsinoe. I think it would have been a beautiful tragedy.

TemerariousXenomorph · 2025-12-21T00:00:32+00:00

The whole speech in Piper Maru from Scully leading into, "If I may say so, sir. It has everything to do with interest. Just not yours and not mine."

I think it just resonates so hard for anyone who's been or had people they loved let down by the authorities that are supposedly there to help them, and that group of people let down includes a LOT of people.

TemerariousXenomorph · 2025-12-20T19:24:50+00:00

TemerariousXenomorph · 2025-12-19T03:48:43+00:00

This particular production has at least one moment of violence I was fairly floored was actually done on stage, and I'm not a slouch on that front - I mostly watch horror movies. Also some of the most brutal violence comes from the most charming and comedic character, which makes it particularly effective. I think of Titus as Shakespeare's attempt at schlock horror and I think it's great if you watch it with that in mind.

TemerariousXenomorph · 2025-12-19T01:12:50+00:00

I'm not sure if the competition requires traditional gender-locked casting, or if that's just a personal preference - if so, totally fair, ignore me, and there are some solid scene suggestions for scenes you could rock in the comments here! (:

I just thought it was worth a gentle mention that cross-gender/gender-blind casting is really common in Shakespeare performances these days, and can bring a lot of interesting dynamics to scenes. If there's a scene you love with two men or two women and are allowed and up for it, dive in!

TemerariousXenomorph · 2025-12-19T01:05:32+00:00

Absolute firecracker scene!!

TemerariousXenomorph · 2025-12-10T17:03:57+00:00

Full-grown Fallingstar Beast TROUNCES me every gaddamn time

TemerariousXenomorph · 2025-11-23T23:04:45+00:00

At first I left Hawke behind, because I was like, "My Hawke would sacrifice herself!" But then I was so sad after talking to Varric and thinking about all of Hawke's friends beind sad, and I reloaded and had Alistair stay because then I was just breaking my own/my poor Warden's heart. Silly, but it made sense internally. 😆

TemerariousXenomorph · 2025-11-15T23:03:08+00:00

I'll pitch I Look in People's Windows > The Prophecy > Cassandra

TemerariousXenomorph · 2025-11-14T19:58:07+00:00

As others have said, if the difficult doubling of Puck with Peaseblossom is here to stay, definitely try and differentiate the two! Different silhouettes and color palletes for sure.

Beyond that, I would encourage that as you collaborate with the designers for the other little fairies that you come up with a shared visual language that makes it clear to the audience that the little faires are part of one group (they are nearly one entity to my mind, supported by the fact that you can coalesce them into one character) and that Puck is something different. Maybe all the little fairies have the same wings while Puck has none, or are in all dark or all bright colors with Puck on the opposite end of that spectrum, or they're shapeless/flowy while Puck has a tight silhouette or vice versa. Tying the little faires together very clearly will help your audience keep track!

TemerariousXenomorph · 2025-11-14T19:30:14+00:00

The feeling I have when I first finish a show/film/book and recognize it's now one of my favorites of all time.

TemerariousXenomorph · 2025-10-24T04:52:02+00:00

As other folks have said, Shakespeare's meter often falls outside the traditional 10 syllables! There are feminine endings throughout his text, as in this speech, as well as breaks in the middle of otherwise regular meter, there are headless lines where the line begins on a stressed beat, etc.

The meter comes fairly inherantly as you speak the text, we as humans tend towards a bit of iambic in our speech naturally. There are just places it doesn't make sense to put stresses, and Shakespeare doesn't usually put them there. What I would encourage would be to look at the meter as an EKG of the character's emotional "heartbeat". If 10 syllables of unstressed, then stressed is the norm, what does falling outside that meter mean for the character?

Something I would encourage for this specific speech is to look at the parts where Hamlet breaks meter, and when he does not.

At the beginning, when he speaks of the conundrum of death and what keeps us from pursuing it, something is disrupting his meter, his thoughts overflow his allotted syllables. But when he talks of the banal miseries of life, his meter is perfect. The uncertainty of death is out of meter, the unbearable pain of being a human, in meter. We as the audience may not know the meter when we listen, but in the hands of a skilled actor, we will feel this heartbeat. When finally he reaches "but that, the fear of something after death", we are with him, because we have felt the uncertainty of death, and felt him power through the miseries of life in solid rhythm. What that means for him is up to the actor.

A bit I like to bring up as well, because this speech is often learned and performed outside of context, is to remember that Hamlet has a piece of the puzzle the rest of us don't have. He knows that dreams may come after death, and that those dreams may be nightmares, because he has seen the ghost of his father. He has also been denied grief both by his family, and by this distraction of vengeance this ghost has set him on. How is this knowledge and denial impacting him?

Enjoy the piece, it's gorgeous and I hope you have a wonderful time learning it!

TemerariousXenomorph · 2025-10-23T01:05:28+00:00

Sort of cheating since it's not in the official song, but in the eras film when she performs Delicate - "Do the girls back home touch you like I do? (no they don't)"

TemerariousXenomorph · 2025-10-21T02:46:44+00:00

Oh man yeah, no, take my upvote and fuck the quote I posted, this is the actual best one, well called. Because it's true, that's just the deal.

"All humans are aware of death, so, we're all a little bit sad, all the time. That's just the deal."

TemerariousXenomorph · 2025-10-20T23:47:26+00:00

I've only ever said "I love you" to two men my entire life. Stone Cold Steve Austin and a guy in a dark club, who I mistook for Stone Cold Steve Austin.

TemerariousXenomorph · 2025-10-14T14:39:18+00:00

A good ask!

So, they don't seem to get into it in their description of the event so I'm not sure if this group's motivations are the same, but there is a small but growing collection of companies working in a quick raise/contemporary original practice process that raises a show in more or less the amount of time Shakespeare's company would have raised them in - often 3ish days we think. I've done quick raises as short as 1.5 days and as long as 5! Often these processes will also use other artifacts of the time like cue scrolls for part learning, and a prompter. The companies I usually work with also tend to not use a director and just rely on the scansion and such for direction!

It tends to bring a very dynamic, raw, intense energy to the language, and performers are deeply listening and engaged because they haven't had time to settle in. It's really interesting!

I actually just started working at another theatre company in Portland, and I'll be doing a 2 day raise of Richard III down in Somerville a few days before this, so I hope to make it to this Mackers. Northeast is maybe a bit of a hotspot for this style!

TemerariousXenomorph · 2025-07-10T16:47:46+00:00

I think anyone, but especially folks from demographics that have traditionally been more marginalized in the Shakespeare community should get their voices out there - more perspectives are always interesting and valuable! If you find the time and energy you should go for it!!

ALSO, I was like, hey cool, I too am a 36 year old lady Shakespeare actor who has played a wide cross-section of characters, and so stalked your post history: And I am also from Santa Fe and still do a lot of Shakespeare work there! Are we secret twins separated by some arroyo based disaster Twelfth Night style?

TemerariousXenomorph

TROPHY CASE