Topic: West Side Story

Mataya

Date: 2017-12-04 14:09 EST
Cast

The Jets - principals Riff - Dorian Hadley Tony - Craig Cleric Diesel - Garry Poole Velma - Saila DeFortes Graziella - Carina Cox

The Sharks - principals Bernardo - Asher Price Chino - Brendryck Stormgaard Pepe - Hector Brady Maria - Belle Gallows Anita - Yassidy

The Adults - principals Doc - Bob Krupke - Eregor T"r Gaird"n

Mataya

Date: 2017-12-04 14:09 EST
Synopsis

Act 1

Two rival teenage gangs, the Jets (White) and the Sharks (Puerto Rican immigrants), struggle for control of the neighborhood somewhere in the Upper West Side of New York City amidst the police (Prologue). They are warned by Lt. Schrank and Officer Krupke to stop fighting on their beat. The police chase the Sharks off, and then the Jets plan how they can assure their continued dominance of the street. The Jets' leader, Riff, suggests setting up a rumble with the Sharks. He plans to make the challenge to Bernardo, the Sharks' leader, that night at the neighborhood dance. Riff wants to convince his friend and former member of the Jets, Tony, to meet the Jets at the dance. Some of the Jets are unsure of his loyalty, but Riff is adamant that Tony is still one of them ("Jet Song"). Riff meets Tony while he's working at Doc's Drugstore to persuade him to come. Tony initially refuses, but Riff wins him over. Tony is convinced that something important is round the corner ("Something's Coming").

Maria works in a bridal shop with Anita, the girlfriend of her brother, Bernardo. Maria has just arrived from Puerto Rico for her arranged marriage to Chino, a friend of Bernardo's. Maria confesses to Anita that she is not in love with Chino. Anita makes Maria a dress to wear to the neighborhood dance.

At the dance, after introductions, the teenagers begin to dance; soon a challenge dance is called ("Dance at the Gym"), during which Tony and Maria (who aren't taking part in the challenge dance) see each other across the room and are drawn to each other. They dance together, forgetting the tension in the room, and fall in love, but Bernardo pulls his sister from Tony and sends her home. Riff and Bernardo agree to meet for a War Council at Doc's, a drug store which is considered neutral ground, but meanwhile, an infatuated and happy Tony finds Maria's building and serenades her outside her bedroom ("Maria"). She appears on her fire escape, and the two profess their love for one another ("Tonight"). Meanwhile, Anita, Rosalia, and the other Shark girls discuss the differences between the territory of Puerto Rico and the mainland United States of America, with Anita defending America, and Rosalia yearning for Puerto Rico ("America").

The Jets get antsy while waiting for the Sharks inside Doc's Drug Store. Riff helps them let out their aggression ("Cool"). The Sharks arrive to discuss weapons to use in the rumble. Tony suggests "a fair fight" (fists only), which the leaders agree to, despite the other members' protests. Bernardo believes that he will fight Tony, but must settle for fighting Diesel, Riff's second-in-command, instead. This is followed by a monologue by the ineffective Lt. Schrank trying to find out the location of the rumble. Tony tells Doc about Maria. Doc is worried for them while Tony is convinced that nothing can go wrong; he is in love.

The next day, Maria is in a very happy mood at the bridal shop, as she anticipates seeing Tony again. However, she learns about the upcoming rumble from Anita and is dismayed. When Tony arrives, Maria asks him to stop the fight altogether, which he agrees to do. Before he goes, they dream of their wedding ("One Hand, One Heart"). Tony, Maria, Anita, Bernardo and the Sharks, and Riff and the Jets all anticipate the events to come that night ("Tonight Quintet"). The gangs meet under the highway and, as the fight between Bernardo and Diesel begins, Tony arrives and tries to stop it. Though Bernardo taunts and provokes Tony, ridiculing his attempt to make peace, Tony keeps his composure. When Bernardo pushes Tony, Riff punches him in Tony's defense. The two draw their switchblades and get in a fight ("The Rumble"). Tony attempts to intervene, inadvertently leading to Riff being fatally stabbed by Bernardo. Tony kills Bernardo in a fit of rage, which in turn provokes an all-out fight like the fight in the Prologue. The sound of approaching police sirens is heard, and everyone scatters, except Tony, who stands in shock at what he has done. The tomboy Anybodys, who stubbornly wishes that she could become a Jet, tells Tony to flee from the scene at the last moment and flees with the knives. Only the bodies of Riff and Bernardo remain.

Act 2

Blissfully unaware of the gangs' plans for that night, Maria daydreams with her friends, Rosalia, Consuelo, Teresita and Francisca, about seeing Tony ("I Feel Pretty"). Later, as Maria dances on the roof happily because she has seen Tony and believes he went to stop the rumble, Chino brings the news that Tony has killed Bernardo. Maria flees to her bedroom, praying that Chino is lying. Tony arrives to see Maria and she initially pounds on his chest with rage, but she still loves him. They plan to run away together. As the walls of Maria's bedroom disappear, they find themselves in a dreamlike world of peace ("Somewhere").

Two of the Jets, A-Rab and Baby John, are set on by Officer Krupke, but they manage to escape him. They meet the rest of the gang. To cheer themselves up, they lampoon Officer Krupke, and the other adults who don't understand them ("Gee Officer Krupke"). Anybodys arrives and tells the Jets she has been spying on the Puerto Ricans; she has discovered that Chino is looking for Tony with a gun. The gang separates to find Tony. Action has taken charge; he accepts Anybodys into the Jets and includes her in the search.

A grieving Anita arrives at Maria's apartment. As Tony leaves, he tells Maria to meet him at Doc's so they can run away to the country. In spite of her attempts to conceal it, Anita sees that Tony has been with Maria, and launches an angry tirade against him ("A Boy Like That"). Maria counters by telling Anita how powerful love is ("I Have a Love"), and Anita realizes that Maria loves Tony as much as she had loved Bernardo. She admits that Chino has a gun and is looking for Tony. Lt. Schrank arrives to question Maria about her brother's death, and Anita agrees to go to Doc's to tell Tony to wait. Unfortunately, the Jets, who have found Tony, have congregated at Doc's, and they taunt Anita with racist slurs and eventually simulate rape. Doc arrives and stops them. Anita is furious, and in anger spitefully delivers the wrong message, telling the Jets that Chino has shot Maria dead.

Doc relates the news to Tony, who has been dreaming of heading to the countryside to have children with Maria. Feeling there is no longer anything to live for, Tony leaves to find Chino, begging for him to shoot him as well. Just as Tony sees Maria alive, Chino arrives and shoots Tony. The Jets, Sharks, and adults flock around the lovers. Maria holds Tony in her arms (and sings a quiet, brief reprise of "Somewhere") as he dies. Angry at the death of another friend, the Jets move towards the Sharks but Maria takes Chino's gun and tells everyone that "all of " killed Tony and the others because of their hate for each other, and, "Now I can kill too, because now I have hate!" she yells. However, she is unable to bring herself to fire the gun and drops it, crying in grief. Gradually, all the members of both gangs assemble on either side of Tony's body, showing that the feud is over. The Jets and Sharks form a procession, and together carry Tony away, with Maria the last one in the procession.

((Here we are, folks, the place to post if you fancy it! Respect the setting, but have fun!))

DemiBob

Date: 2017-12-05 22:05 EST
Rehearsals, it turned out, were a bit of a problem for Bob. For one, it wasn't easy to regularly park a spaceship outside the theater. Two, on the first day, Bob showed up in his own Doc outfit.

"Uh, Bob — I don't think that costume is quite right."

"What's wrong with it?" Bob asked, squinting at the rest of the cast. He'd stuffed two tentacles down one sleeve of the doctor's lab coat, and three down the other, so maybe that's what they meant' It wasn't Bob's fault he had an odd number of tentacles that day.

"Well, uh, Doc's not actually ....a doctor. It's just his name." Really, they were trying to be helpful about it, and they were quite nice. It's just that —

Bob's one of those 'I reject your reality and substitute my own' types. Bob just stared blankly at them until the very awkwardness of the situation boiled over, and some of the senior actors quietly excused everyone and promised they'd explain it to the guest actor by the time they came in for the next rehearsals. And they did, they really did, for they were quite talented people who were serious about the play. It only took:

12 hours of drawing examples on a white board. 3 different people explaining the concept of nicknames. 5 separate conversations over the course of 3 days. 90 minutes of charades (which had no impact, but was quite fun). 7 'work' lunches (in 1 day!).

And, finally, just stealing and burning the costume when Bob was distracted, and replacing it with the proper one. Bob never even noticed. Later they all agreed they should have done that in the first place, despite the demicreature's reputation for trouble.

"Really, he's quite nice once you get to know him."

"Yeah, he is. He invited me out the other night."

"Did you say yes?"

"God no. Do you think I'm crazy?"

"Weeeeeellllll —-"

The costuming error wasn't Bob's only contribution to troubles; he was convinced the only way to truly know a role was to employ 'the method'. Which meant, unfortunately for a certain drug store corner top just around the way from the theater, that Bob needed to live the role of Doc until opening night. For a normal person, this would have meant working the job, pretending to be old, perhaps having other members of the studio stop by and do lines with him. For a Bob person, this meant paying, and possibly kidnapping (though his lawyers would deny it later and there's totally not evidence to say those kids were here against their will despite anything they might have said), a couple of rough hoodlums to hang out in the store, get into trouble, feud with each other, and ignore Bob's advice about how to solve their problems. Thankfully this period of his acting career was short lived, and totally not because of the charges a few annoying Watch Officers were trying to stick him with. It turned out that being a shop keep was boring, and by the third week of work, Bob simply stopped showing up. (The owner threw a party, to which Bob showed up at, oblivious to the meaning.)

Even then, Bob had issues. He started bringing in changes he thought would make the play better ("What if Doc were a BATTLE ROBOT"! And he could have CHAINSAW HANDS and a mysterious past!!"), and tried pushing romances between his character and every female character in the play, regardless of the age differences, impact to the story, or sheer wtf'ness involved. He was finally given a sit down meeting about it all before he got on board with things, and he wrote everyone very nice and meaningful apologies about it. Some of them were quite strange, and at least one person on the staff simply got a box of cheese crackers instead of a letter, but he was sincere about it. From there he showed up on time, tried his best, and showed real enthusiasm and encouragement for everything and everyone.

He might have also been hitting the baked goods before each rehearsal, but a Bob's going to Bob. By opening night he had the role down perfect and invited everyone out for drinks and food.

He just didn't mention beforehand he was taking them to Chuck E. Cheese's.

Eregor

Date: 2017-12-12 20:51 EST
Surprisingly, Eregor had never performed in West Side Story until now, though he'd seen it both on stage and screen many times. So this production was fresh ground for him, and he bit into it with zest.

Being one of the other "adults" in the cast, of course, left him with less stage time, but he made up for it by being the unofficial "Bob wrangler" throughout the production. For example, he was the one who ended up stealing and burning Bob's....uniquely original choice of costume.

It was quite a relief when the Shanachie higher-ups sat down with Bob to set him straight. Eregor did have to admit, at least to himself, that he did feel a bit aimless between his scenes after that, however.

Tempus Fugit

Date: 2017-12-15 00:12 EST
Yasmin's words still rang in his ears. She'd slapped him and stormed off, leaving him both more than slightly stunned and startled. Usually it was amusing how deeply she delved into her roles, but other times it was dangerous.

Maybe he was guilty of the same, though. He'd been running around like a gun toting maniac, essentially. He always had a piece - a prop piece that is - thrust into the waist of his pants or between his belt and his hip, adjusting the strap of leather just enough that it managed the firearm and his pants at the same time. Playing Chino came with a certain amount of self loathing, too, faced with the recognition of a total inability to control one's own emotions. Brend wasn't used to being so reactionary; he was more used to being in more of an instigator role.

Or maybe it was that he'd taken it a step too far this last time. Yas had approached him talking about Tony, accusing him as though Brend and Chino were one in the same. When she asked him, 'What did you do' How could you do this?', he should have responded differently.

Fingers tapping the piece at his hip and muttering that Tony had to say hello to his little friend proved to be a little too antagonistic.

Yasmin

Date: 2017-12-15 00:18 EST
In Yas's defense, she slapped Brend cuz it was the wrong movie reference.

KhaoticBliss

Date: 2017-12-16 09:49 EST
https://ak2.polyvoreimg.com/cgi/img-set/cid/232300203/id/sBEK4Rnh5xGWk466oDbrPw/size/l.jpg

"Riff steps forward and beckons to his girl, Velma." Saila was sprawled on her belly on the mattress, reading the blocking in her script aloud to Hex. "She is terribly young, sexy, lost in a world of jive." Brows furrowing, she pondered that for a moment. "Hm. Two out of three I get, but...what the heck is jive?"

***

"Hey, babe? Do you know how to mambo?"

Still poring over her script, Saila looked up when there was no answer immediately forthcoming, only to find Hex staring at her.

"You do, don't you?" She grinned. "You totally do."

The man sighed. "...Yeah. I know how to mambo."

Her brows lifted, expectant.

"...It..." he rubbed at the stubble on his jaw with the back of one hand and then reached for his cigarettes. "If it was ever trendy and would've drawn women's attention, I ...know how to do it, doll."

"Oh, yeah...that makes sense. I was thinking it was 'cause you were in a gang."

He nearly choked on the drag he'd been taking, thick black brows rising. Covering a cough, the Hellion cleared his throat. "I'm...gonna need you to explain your reasoning, babe."

Saila stared at him, confused by his confusion. She gestured her script as though it were obvious. "That's what gangs do, right' This mambo thing is a "challenge dance" —whatever that is — and there's a lot of snapping later..."

***

"I don't know this word, and I can't find it, either. What's it mean?" She held her script out for him to look at, tapping the highlighted line with her index finger. He read it and then shook his head, smiling. "No, that's not a real word."

"Really' Are you sure?" The teen searched his face for signs that he was teasing. Finding none, she laughed, completely entertained. "...So my only lines in this thing are all nonsense. That's awesome."