Ida and the Youth of Today are in rehearsal, setting blocking in a newly invented style called "Cyrano de Berger-block." A trio of actors sits upstage right with a bulb horn while Ida discusses a note with an actor who has been working a different scene in another room.
Ida: Do you have your script? Great. I want you to add specific gestures here, here and--
Ida overhears something from the actors upstage. It does not seem appropriate.
Ida: --here. They should be as ridiculous and obvious as possible. Keep what you had for--
Ida hears it again. The word she hears is not swearing, but is most definitely not appropriate for general chatter from 10-to-14-year-olds in the middle of rehearsal.
Ida: --what are you guys talking about?
The trio looks at her without a sense of being caught. H. takes the bulb horn and demonstrates.
H: How they test microphones? Syphilis, syphilis, syphilis.
Ida grins. Her SM laughs outright.
Ida: Sibilance.
P: What?
Ida: Sibilance. A hissing sound. Like "sssssssssss."
H: Oh. Sibilance, sibilance, sibilance.
Ida: Syphilis is something elsssssssse.
P: I knew it!
Fin.
Posted by Ida at May 7, 2008 02:10 PMQuite true. Syphilis is, as we all know, the name of a Greek King forever doomed to roll a rock up a steep cliff, only to have it roll back down again...
Posted by: COMTE at May 7, 2008 03:43 PMNo, dummy, you're thinking of that paper they give out in college classes at the beginning of the semester that tells you what's going to be taught.
Posted by: Yellow Dog at May 7, 2008 06:16 PMNo, no, that's one of those mythical demons that takes the shape of a woman to feed on your precious bodily fluids.
Posted by: COMTE at May 8, 2008 01:58 PMYou're both wrong. It's a breed of dog. Duh.
Posted by: ian at May 13, 2008 09:33 AM