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Home , Sonnet 129, Sonnet 138, Sonnet 2

Will and Whimsy: Sixteen Dramatically Illustrated by Alan Haehnel

Audition preparation: Listed are the sonnets we are performing, the synopsis of the scenes attached to that , and the demographic of the characters. Find 3-5 sonnets that speak to you and be prepared to read for those at auditions.

Sonnet Scene Characters Gender Breakdown Josh is trying to propose to Laura Josh 1 male Let me not to the marriage of true minds Laura 1 female Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove. O no! it is an ever-fixed mark That looks on tempests and is never shaken; It is the star to every wand'ring bark, Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken. Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle's compass come; Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom. If this be error and upon me prov'd, I never writ, nor no man ever lov'd. Sonnet 89 Jake wants girlfriend Jessica to ‘fix’ him and all his Jake 1 male Say that thou didst forsake me for some fault, faults. Jessica 1 female And I will comment upon that offence: Speak of my lameness, and I straight will halt, Against thy reasons making no defence. Thou canst not, love, disgrace me half so ill, To set a form upon desired change, As I'll myself disgrace; knowing thy will, I will acquaintance strangle, and look strange; Be absent from thy walks; and in my tongue Thy sweet beloved name no more shall dwell, Lest I, too much profane, should do it wrong, And haply of our old acquaintance tell. For thee, against my self I'll vow debate, For I must ne'er love him whom thou dost hate. Maryanne despairs as she compares herself to the Maryanne 1 male My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun; perfect magazine girl. Steve reassures her. Steve 1 female Coral is far more red than her lips’ red; If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. I have seen roses damasked, red and white, But no such roses see I in her cheeks; And in some perfumes is there more delight Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. I love to hear her speak, yet well I know That music hath a far more pleasing sound; I grant I never saw a goddess go; My mistress when she walks treads on the ground. And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare As any she belied with false compare. Karen shares her frustrations with her pet fish when Karen 1 female When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes, Bilbo, her dog, reminds her how simple pleasures can Bilbo 1 either I all alone beweep my outcast state, be. And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries, And look upon myself and curse my fate, Wishing me like to one more rich in hope, Featured like him, like him with friends possessed, Desiring this man’s art and that man’s scope, With what I most enjoy contented least; Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising, Haply I think on thee, and then my state, (Like to the lark at break of day arising From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven’s gate; For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

Sonnet 90 Bob believes his wife, Carol, is leaving him. Bob, 1 male Then hate me when thou wilt; if ever, now; Carol 1 female Now, while the world is bent my deeds to cross, Join with the spite of fortune, make me bow, And do not drop in for an after-loss: Ah, do not, when my heart hath 'scoped this sorrow, Come in the rearward of a conquer'd woe; Give not a windy night a rainy morrow, To linger out a purposed overthrow. If thou wilt leave me, do not leave me last, When other petty griefs have done their spite But in the onset come; so shall I taste At first the very worst of fortune's might, And other strains of woe, which now seem woe, Compared with loss of thee will not seem so. As Mom cleans out Rick’s room, Blanky appears and Mom 1 female That time of year thou may'st in me behold reminds Rick about their past friendship. (voice) 2 either When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, Rick Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang. In me thou see'st the twilight of such day, Blanky As after sunset fadeth in the west, Which by-and-by black night doth take away, Death's second self, that seals up all in rest. In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire That on the ashes of his youth doth lie, As the death-bed whereon it must expire Consum'd with that which it was nourish'd by. This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong, To love that well which thou must leave ere long. An old married couple find a spark again. Earl 1 male When my love swears that she is made of truth Marneeta 1 female I do believe her, though I know she lies, That she might think me some untutor'd youth, Unlearned in the world's false subtleties. Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young, Although she knows my days are past the best, Simply I credit her false speaking tongue: On both sides thus is simple truth suppress'd. But wherefore says she not she is unjust? And wherefore say not I that I am old? O, love's best habit is in seeming trust, And age in love loves not to have years told: Therefore I lie with her and she with me, And in our faults by lies we flatter'd be. Kalee, Ashley, and Jonica fight over a piece of chocolate. Kalee 3 female The expense of spirit in Ashley Is lust in action; and till action, lust Jonica (Note: Is perjured, murderous, bloody, full of blame, must be Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust, Enjoy'd no sooner but despised straight, willing to Past reason hunted, and no sooner had do physical Past reason hated, as a swallow'd bait stage On purpose laid to make the taker mad; work; fight Mad in pursuit and in possession so; choreo) Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme; A bliss in proof, and proved, a very woe; Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream. All this the world well knows; yet none knows well To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell. Sonnet 120 Using elevated language, Rachel and Carmen debate Rachel 2 females That you were once unkind, befriends me now, whether they should be friends. Carmen And for that sorrow, which I then did feel Needs must I under my transgression bow, Unless my nerves were brass or hammered steel. For if you were by my unkindness shaken, As I by yours, y' have pass'd a hell of time, And I, a tyrant, have no leisure taken To weigh how once I suffer'd in your crime. O, that our night of woe might have remember'd My deepest sense, how hard true sorrow hits, And soon to you, as you to me, then tendered The humble salve which wounded bosoms fits! But that your trespass now becomes a fee; Mine ransoms yours, and yours must ransom me. Sonnet 146 Darlene and Cory try to convince Mindy to go to the Darlene 3 females Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth, mall. Cory [Why feed'st] these rebel powers that thee array? Mindy Why dost thou pine within, and suffer dearth, Painting thy outward walls so costly gay? Why so large cost, having so short a lease, Dost thou upon thy fading mansion spend? Shall worms, inheritors of this excess, Eat up thy charge? is this thy body's end? Then soul, live thou upon thy servant's loss, And let that pine to aggravate thy store; Buy terms divine in selling hours of dross; Within be fed, without be rich no more: So shalt thou feed on Death, that feeds on men, And, Death once dead, there's no more dying then. Martha puts a mirror to husband Scott’s face. Martha 1 male When forty winters shall beseige thy brow, Scott 1 female And dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field, Thy youth's proud livery, so gazed on now, Will be a tatter'd weed, of small worth held: Then being ask'd where all thy beauty lies, Where all the treasure of thy lusty days; To say, within thine own deep-sunken eyes, Were an all-eating shame and thriftless praise. How much more praise deserved thy beauty's use, If thou couldst answer 'This fair child of mine Shall sum my count and make my old excuse,' Proving his beauty by succession thine! This were to be new made when thou art old, And see thy blood warm when thou feel'st it cold. Sonnet 76 Singer (Marla) and agent (Sal) try to figure out how to Marla 2 either Why is my verse so barren of new pride? restart her career. Sal So far from variation or quick change? Why with the time do I not glance aside To new-found methods and to compounds strange? Why write I still all one, ever the same, And keep invention in a noted weed, That every word doth almost tell my name, Showing their birth and where they did proceed? O, know, sweet love, I always write of you, And you and love are still my argument; So all my best is dressing old words new, Spending again what is already spent: For as the sun is daily new and old, So is my love still telling what is told. Sonnet 44 Barb and Max try to negotiate a long-distance Barb 2 either Why is my verse so barren of new pride? relationship. Max So far from variation or quick change? Why with the time do I not glance aside To new-found methods and to compounds strange? Why write I still all one, ever the same, And keep invention in a noted weed, That every word doth almost tell my name, Showing their birth and where they did proceed? O, know, sweet love, I always write of you, And you and love are still my argument; So all my best is dressing old words new, Spending again what is already spent: For as the sun is daily new and old, So is my love still telling what is told. Young kids (Jon and Sally) make a massive sand castle Jon 2 either When I have seen by Time's fell hand defac'd on the beach. Sally The rich-proud cost of outworn buried age; When sometime lofty towers I see down-razed And brass eternal, slave to mortal rage; When I have seen the hungry ocean gain Advantage on the kingdom of the shore, And the firm soil win of the wat'ry main, Increasing store with loss, and loss with store; When I have seen such interchange of state, Or state itself confounded to decay; Ruin hath taught me thus to ruminate -- That Time will come and take my love away. This thought is as a death, which cannot choose But weep to have that which it fears to lose. Sonnet 57 June counsels Fiona as she, yet again, waits for Brian to June 2 females Being your slave, what should I do but tend call. Fiona Upon the hours and times of your desire? I have no precious time at all to spend, Nor services to do, till you require. Nor dare I chide the world-without-end hour Whilst I, my sovereign, watch the clock for you, Nor think the bitterness of absence sour When you have bid your servant once adieu; Nor dare I question with my jealous thought Where you may be, or your affairs suppose, But, like a sad slave, stay and think of nought Save, where you are how happy you make those. So true a fool is love that in your will, Though you do any thing, he thinks no ill. Sonnet 23 Billy is trying to say ‘I love you’ to Janine. Billy 1 male As an unperfect actor on the stage, Janine 1 female Who with his fear is put besides his part, Or some fierce thing replete with too much rage, Whose strength's abundance weakens his own heart; So I, for fear of trust, forget to say The perfect ceremony of love's rite, And in mine own love's strength seem to decay, O'ercharg'd with burden of mine own love's might. O let my books be then the eloquence And dumb presagers of my speaking breast, Who plead for love and look for recompense More than that tongue that more hath more express'd. O, learn to read what silent love hath writ: To hear with eyes belongs to love's fine wit.