"It oft falls out, To have what we would have, we speak not what we mean. I something do excuse the thing I hate..."

Gah. So, I've gotten behind on blogging. No surprise there. I've gotten somewhat discouraged. I've had "big" seasons out there before (lots of roles or lines or responsibility), but this one seems to be getting to me. We open in two weeks and I don't know how we got here already. Plus, we essentially had a week off when our director was laid up, so all in all, I feel underprepared. I been thinkin' about a lot recently as pertains to the show and some of that stuff is gonna come out now, most likely in a haphazard way.

First of all, I've decided I disagree with the politics of the play. The invasion of France (including Edward III's and Ed Jr.'s previously) were wrong. Not just in a "all war is wrong" way, though I agree with that sentiment, but morally it's pretty indefensible. The English didn't want to pay rent on their French holdings and they wanted to make sure their wool exports would continue to go through Flanders, so bang zoom, let's kill some Frenchies. Henry and his court puff everyone up with the new religion of nationalism, mom and apple pie (or would that be Mum and figgy pudding?) but they've got to realize that their fine sentiments can't excuse their basic greed. I could never be a politician because apparently it involves doing a lot of bad things while making pretty piss poor excuses for them.

Thusly, I find it hard to relate to Henry, to really believe what I'm saying when I know he probably didn't believe a lot of it himself. I've played characters before that I didn't agree with (like when I played a rapist), but when the 'mirror of Christian kings' is a big fat liar, it makes it hard to jump in with both feet.

Ok, done with that. To be fair, Henry was a pretty good king for his short reign. He had a knack for problem-solving in the short term: he basically turned a dynasty that stunk pretty fairly of regicide and turned it into a war machine that handed one of Europe's strongest monarchies its royal Ass. If Henry hadn't died so soon after uniting France and England, we might be calling a
croissant 'crescent bread' and Joan of Arc might have been an unassuming farmer's wife. His ability to inspire men and win allegiance may have been overblown (three guys tried to kill him in Southhampton, after all), but he ultimately was an effective general and strategist, wisely playing the warring French factions against each other in order to improve the English chances. Historically, his life was meteoric.

The trouble with meteors, though, is that they burn up...aaannd I've lost my thread. I'll pick this up later...

WTF!?!