Essential elements of Act Two, Scene One:
* To condense the long dialogue of the Neapolitan courtiers, I’ve excised Gonzalo’s utopian fantasy. But it’s important text, and it’ll be used in the audio score as elements of scene bridges. Two minor courtiers have been excised because of cast size.
* Central focus at the outset is on the King’s grief, but the scene is balanced among all four. Having seen the farcical conquistdores Stephano and Trinculo, we’re attuned to a sharper awareness of the stressful dynamics of the real court.
* We should be surprised by Gonzalo’s vigor and fast reflexes in his awaking. In this court, an old guy still has to handle a sword with the best of them. It’s a shock to the would-be assassins and short-circuits any attempt to continue the attack. Antonio and Sebastian are thrown into frantic improvisation; it’s humiliating to them.
* Irony of Sebastian, the weaker of the duo, being promoted by Antonio to a rank above Antonio: it’s clear that Antonio would dominate the relationship.
* The scene wants very spare movement; everything is in the characterizations. Permeating everything is the strangeness and terror of the island.

2:1 – PROSPERO’S MAGIC FOILS A COUP AGAINST HIS GREATEST ENEMY.
Sound bridge: voices calling for Ferdinand. Shadows of the searchers overlap, moving as the ships did at the beginning.

01-Lights, revealing Alonso DC, Antonio & Sebastian UL, Gonzalo UR. All startle, look around baffled. Alonso, with a cry of grief, goes to his knees. Gonzalo comes forward to him, on R.
>>>Gonzalo: Beseech you, Sir, be merry: you have cause,
>>>So have we all, of joy. Our stint of woe
>>>Is common: every day some Sailor’s wife,
>>>The Masters of some Merchant and the Merchant,
>>>Have just our Theme of grief; but for the miracle,
>>>I mean our preservation, few in millions
>>>Can speak like us: then wisely, good Sir, weigh
>>>Our sorrow with our comfort.
>>>Alonso: Prithee, peace.
>>>Antonio: He receives comfort like cold porridge.
>>>Sebastian: Look, he’s winding up the watch of his wit; by and by it will strike.
>>>Gonzalo: Sir,–
>>>When every grief is entertain’d that’s offer’d,
>>>Comes to the entertainer–
>>>Sebastian: A dollar.
>>>Gonzalo: Dolour comes to him, indeed: you have spoken truer than you purposed.
>>>Sebastian: You have taken it wiselier than I meant you should. >>>Gonzalo: Therefore, my Lord,–
>>>Alonso: I prithee, spare.
Gonzalo backs away UR. Rapid tempo, punctuated by Alonso’s sounds of grief.
>>>Gonzalo: Well, I have done: but yet–
>>>Sebastian: He will be talking.
>>>Gonzalo: Though this Island seem to be desert,
>>>Uninhabitable, and almost inaccessible,–
>>>Sebastian: Yet–
>>>Gonzalo: Yet–
>>>Antonio: He could not miss it.
>>>Gonzalo: It must needs be of subtle, tender, and delicate temperance.
>>>Antonio: Temperance was a delicate wench.
>>>Gonzalo: The air breathes upon us here most sweetly.
>>>Sebastian: As ’twere perfumed by a Fen.
>>>Gonzalo: Here is everything advantageous to life.
>>>Antonio: True; save means to live.
>>>Gonzalo: But the rarity of it is,–which is indeed almost beyond credit,–
>>>Sebastian: As many rarities are.
>>>Gonzalo: That our Garments, being, as they were, drenched in the Sea, hold notwithstanding their freshness; being rather new-dyed than stain’d with salt water.
All look at their garments, startled: it’s true.
>>>Methinks our garments are now as fresh as when we put them on in Afric, at the marriage of the King’s fair daughter Claribel to the King of Tunis.
>>>Sebastian: ‘Twas a sweet marriage, and we prosper well in our return. >>>Gonzalo: Sir, we were talking that our garments seem now as fresh as when we were at Tunis. Is >>>not, sir, my doublet as fresh as the first day I wore it?
>>>Alonso: You cram these words into mine ears, against
>>>The stomach of my sense. Would I had never
>>>Married my daughter there! for, coming thence,
>>>My son is lost; and she so far from Italy remov’d,
>>>I ne’er again shall see her. O thou, mine heir
>>>Of Naples and of Milan! what strange fish
>>>Hath made his meal on thee?
>>>Gonzalo: He may live:
Gonzalo down again to Alonso.
>>>Alonso: No, no; he’s gone.
Sebastian down to L side of Alonso, who is still kneeling.
>>>Sebastian: Sir, you may thank yourself for this great loss,
>>>That would not bless our Europe with your daughter,
>>>But rather lose her to an African.
>>>Alonso: Prithee, peace.
>>>Sebastian: You were kneel’d to and importun’d otherwise
>>>By all of us; and the fair soul herself
>>>Weigh’d between loathness and obedience.
>>>We’ve lost your son, I fear, forever:
>>>The fault’s your own.
>>>Alonso: So is the dear’st o’the loss.
>>>Gonzalo: My lord Sebastian,
>>>The truth you speak doth lack some gentleness
>>>And time to speak it in; you rub the sore,
>>>When you should bring the plaster.
>>>Sebastian: Very well.
Sebastian back UL to Antonio.
>>>Antonio: And most Surgically.
>>>Gonzalo: It is foul weather in us all, good Sir,
>>>When you are cloudy.
>>>Sebastian: Foul weather?
>>>Antonio: Very foul.
>>>Gonzalo: And,– do you mark me, Sir?
>>>Alonso: Prithee no more: thou dost talk nothing to me.

02-Sudden movement: Alonso X L. Sebastian DL to him. Antonio counter URC. Gonzalo delay, then DR.
>>>Gonzalo: I do well believe your Highness; and did it to minister occasion to these Gentlemen, who >>>are of such sensible and nimble Lungs that they laugh at nothing.
>>>Antonio: ‘Twas you we laugh’d at.
>>>Gonzalo: You are Gentlemen of brave mettle.
>>>Antonio: Nay, good my Lord, be not angry.
03-Ariel pops up by Gonzalo, playing flute. Solemn music.

>>>Gonzalo: No, I warrant you; I will not adventure my discretion so weakly. Will you laugh me asleep, for I am very heavy?
>>>Antonio: Go sleep.
Ariel taps Gonzalo on head. He falls asleep, leaning. Ariel disappears.
>>>Alonso: What! all so soon asleep! I wish mine eyes
>>>Would, with themselves, shut up my thoughts: I find
>>>They are inclin’d to do so.
>>>Sebastian: Please you, sir,
>>>Do not omit the heavy offer of it:
>>>It seldom visits sorrow; when it doth
>>>It is a Comforter.
>>>Antonio: We two, my Lord,
>>>Will guard your person while you take your rest,
>>>And watch your safety.
>>>Alonso: Thank you. Wondrous heavy.

04-Ariel pops up, taps Alonso, who falls asleep. Ariel disappears. Sebastian up to Antonio, UC.

>>>Sebastian: What a strange drowsiness possesses them!
>>>Antonio: It is the quality o’ the climate.
Sebastian & Antonio look simultaneously at Gonzalo & Alonso, then back together.
>>>Sebastian: Why
>>>Doth it not then our eyelids sink? I find not
>>>Myself dispos’d to sleep.
>>>Antonio: Nor I: my spirits are nimble.

05-Both X DC.
>>>They dropp’d, as by a thunder-stroke. What might,
>>>Worthy Sebastian? O! what might?–No more:–
>>>And yet methinks I see it in thy face.
>>>My strong imagination sees a Crown
>>>Dropping upon thy head.
>>>Sebastian: What! art thou waking?
>>>Antonio: Do you not hear me speak?
>>>Sebastian: I do; and surely,
>>>It is a sleepy Language. What is it thou didst say?
Both look again, this time first to Gonzalo, then to Alonso.
>>>This is a strange repose, to be asleep
>>>With eyes wide open; standing, speaking, moving,
>>>And yet so fast asleep.
>>>Antonio: Noble Sebastian,
>>>Thou let’st thy fortune sleep.
>>>Sebastian: Thou dost snore distinctly:
>>>There’s meaning in thy snores.
>>>Antonio: I am more serious than my custom: you
>>>Must be so too, if heed me; which to do
>>>Trebles thee o’er.
>>>Sebastian: Well; I am standing water.
>>>Antonio: I’ll teach you how to flow.
>>>Sebastian: Prithee, say on:
>>>The setting of thine eye and cheek proclaim
>>>A matter from thee, and a birth indeed.
>>>Antonio: Thus, sir:
They shift positions, looking about, then together again.
>>>Although this Lord of weak remembrance, this
>>>Who shall be of as little memory
>>>When he is earth’d, hath almost persuaded the King, his son’s alive,
>>>’Tis as impossible that he’s undrown’d
>>>As he that sleeps here swims.
>>>Sebastian: I have no hope that he’s undrown’d.
>>>Antonio: O! out of that “no hope”
>>>What great hope have you! Will you grant with me
>>>That Ferdinand is drown’d?
>>>Sebastian: He’s gone.
>>>Antonio: Then tell me
>>>Who’s the next heir of Naples?
>>>Sebastian: Claribel.
Both circle UC in a melodramatic sweep, then again together.
>>>Antonio: She that is Queen of Tunis; she that dwells
>>>Ten leagues beyond man’s life; she that from Naples
>>>Can have no note, unless the sun were post–
>>>The man i’ th’ moon’s too slow–till new-born chins
>>>Be rough and Razorable.
>>>Sebastian: ‘Tis true my brother’s daughter’s Queen of Tunis;
>>>So is she heir of Naples; ‘twixt which Regions
>>>There is some space.
Heads together, close.
>>>Antonio: A space whose every cubit
>>>Seems to cry out, ‘How shall that Claribel
>>>Measure us back to Naples?–Keep in Tunis,
>>>And let Sebastian wake!’–Say this were death
>>>That now hath seiz’d them; why, they were no worse
>>>Than now they are. There be that can rule Naples
>>>As well as he that sleeps; Lords that can prate
>>>As amply and unnecessarily
>>>As this Gonzalo. O, that you bore
>>>The mind that I do! what a sleep were this
>>>For your advancement! Do you understand me?
Outside mutual circle, further US, then close.
>>>Sebastian: I remember
>>>You did supplant your brother Prospero.
>>>Antonio: True:
>>>And look how well my garments sit upon me;
>>>Sebastian: But, for your conscience–
>>>Antonio: Ay, sir; where lies that? if ’twere a blister,
>>>’Twould put me to my slipper; but I feel not
>>>This Deity in my bosom: twenty consciences,
>>>That stand ‘twixt me and Milan, candied be they,
>>>And melt ere they molest! Here lies your Brother,
Both X DC forward.
>>>No better than the earth he lies upon,
>>>If he were that which now he’s like — that’s dead;–
>>>Whom I, with this obedient steel,–three inches of it,–
>>>Can lay to bed for ever; whiles you might put
>>>This ancient morsel, this Sir Prudence, who
>>>Should not upbraid our course. Draw thy sword, one stroke
>>>Shall free thee from the tribute which thou payest,
>>>And I the King shall love thee.

06-They take hands. Antonio kisses Sebastian’s hand, then Sebastian kisses Antonio’s. Antonio holds on till “draw together.”
>>>Sebastian: Thy case, dear Friend,
>>>Shall be my precedent: as thou got’st Milan,
>>>I’ll come by Naples. Draw thy sword.
>>>Antonio: Draw together;
>>>And when I rear my hand, do you the like,
>>>To fall it on Gonzalo.
Both draw, move to stab, then Sebastian immediately recoil, both circle and cross to come together UC.
>>>Sebastian: O! but one word.
They converse apart. Music. Ariel pop up DC.
>>>Ariel: My Master through his Art foresees the danger
>>>That you, his friend, are in; and sends me forth–
>>>For else his project dies–to keep thee living.

07-Sings in Gonzalo’s ear.
>>>While you here do snoring lie,
>>>Open-ey’d Conspiracy
>>>His time doth take.
>>>If of Life you keep a care,
>>>Shake off slumber, and beware:
>>>Awake! awake!
Ariel disappears.
>>>Antonio: Then let us both be sudden.

08-Antonio & Sebastian move to stab L & R. Gonzalo up, sword drawn, Alonso a moment after. Antonio & Sebastian recoil, collide. Spin, collide again.
>>>Gonzalo: Good Angels preserve the King!
>>>Why, how now! ho, awake! Why are you drawn?
>>>Wherefore this ghastly looking?
>>>Alonso: What’s the matter?

09-Sebastian narrates with broad gestures, Antonio echoing with gestures.

>>>Sebastian: Whiles we stood here securing your repose,
>>>Even now, we heard a hollow burst of bellowing–
>>>Antonio: Like Bulls–
>>>Sebastian: Or rather Lions; did’t not wake you?
>>>It struck mine ear most terribly.
>>>Alonso: I heard nothing.
>>>Antonio: O! ’twas a din to fright a Monster’s ear,
>>>To make an earthquake: sure it was the roar
>>>Of a whole herd of Lions.
>>>Alonso: Heard you this, Gonzalo?
>>>Gonzalo: Upon mine honour, Sir, I heard a humming,
>>>Which did awake me. There was a noise, verily. ‘Tis best we stand upon our guard.
Alonso draws his sword. A moment when all four armed men look at each other.
>>>Alonso: Lead off this ground, and let’s make further search
>>>For my poor son.
>>>Gonzalo: Heavens keep him from these Beasts!
>>>For he is, sure, i’ the island.
>>>Alonso: Lead away.

10- Sebastian & Antonio off DL. Then Gonzalo. Ariel up directly behind Alonso, holding him suspended.

>>>Ariel: Prospero my Lord shall know what I have done:
>>>So, King, go safely on to seek thy Son.
Releases Alonso, disappears. Alonso is disoriented a moment, looks about, then follows the others off L.

* * *
So this week we have call-backs and also finish our final week of Rash Acts with two performances at the Arcata Playhouse, a five-hour drive north. Then our structural frame will get set back up in our studio and we’ll start creating elements of the set, going back and forth between the set model, now in process, and the real thing.
–Conrad