Will you go hunt, my lord?

I loved acting but I was hopeless when I was involved in it, at school. I became paralysed by nerves and would be all stiff and awkward… I’m sure I’d be better at it now… but I no longer have any interest in doing it.

I came across this programme for Twelfth Night; I was Curio, a gentleman, and my first line was ‘Will you go hunt my lord?’… so simple… but how to place the emphasis… Will you go hunt? Will you go hunt? Will you go hunt?… the more I practised it the more confused I became. One line, a single line… not a speech or soliloquy I could get in to… and when the Duke replied I had to say ‘The hart’… and that was my total lines for that scene.

 

I had some more lines, the Duke asks for a song and I replied ‘He is not here, so please your lordship that should sing it.’ and then in reply to a further question ‘Feste, the jester, my lord; a fool that the Lady Olivia’s father took much delight in. He is about the house.’

Try as I might Feste the jester became Feste the jestey… I’m sure no-one noticed but in rehearsals I got to dread my couple of lines…

Looking back on this programme,some of the names are so familiar to me, some of the ‘girls’ I’m still in touch with… Happy times!