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nexstage · 4 years

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STARLESS

Peridot: Nowhere to fit

For someone like Peridot, problems of any kind could always be solved by cleverness and perseverance.

Something broke? She could fix it. A new building needed to be built? She knew how to start. Someone had a plan to improve Little Homeworld? She had the resources to make it true in a snap.

However, bringing Steven back after everyone was told that he left was a challenge Peridot never expected to face. It happened so quickly. Bismuth, her and Lapis were informed by the freaked out Crystal Gems that Steven was gone as his car and some clothes of his. Lapis immediately flew away to try to find him, she felt that her blue companion could understand Steven's reasons to leave on some level despite the absurdity behind the mess.

Bismuth stayed with Pearl, who was an emotional avalanche, and she, Garnet and Amethyst got some gems Steven had befriended to create a rescue group, just in case the kid was found in serious trouble. Still, none of their efforts were enough to find him. Not even Lapis', who returned somber and at the edge of an anxiety attack.

What stroke Peridot most was why Steven would do something like this. Quitting his teacher career on Little Homeschool wasn't a red flag for her as she knew that taking charge of everything sometimes was exhausting, so he needed a good vacation. Spending time in things he liked didn't seem bad either, as everyone had hobbies. But the root of the problem wasn't those activities; it was Steven's volatile and closed-off behavior.

The things he said about the Crystal Gems and himself: the reason to be needed, Amethyst being too mature to get why he felt like he felt, Pearl blaming herself for him to just pick the pieces, Garnet's almighty pieces of advice that didn't help at all. Yeah, there was too much baggage on those statements. Peridot, though, got a very weird but sounding conclusion about why he said what he said.

This pattern of behavior reminded her of her own struggles to adapt when she resigned to her fate to be stuck on Earth with their once-former-enemies. Back then, she was just like anyone else of her kin before Era 3: a Yellow Diamond-loyalist Peridot with duties to fulfill, too many problems in her way and too little time. Dealing with the fact that her limb enhancers had been rid of was annoying and frustrating, but the fact that she had to work with a bunch of rebellious off-colors that were supposed to be dead was another story.

Everything on Earth was so different, so confusing. A Pearl who could build machines and didn't receive orders from anyone, an overcooked Amethyst with a vulgar foreign language, a crossed-fusion who acted so freely and a hybrid of a gem and a human? Where was she, in a circus from another planet?

Whatever. She wanted to live, not be shattered by the Cluster, so if Peridot had to become an ally of those clods, so be it.

However, life got more difficult when she found out via communicator that her oh-so-logical Diamond wasn't that perfect as she thought but a flawed, emotional person.

After that, the flow of things and confusion took a hold on her life. Without Diamond's orders, a caste system, her limb enhancers and with the fact that her new home would be the same planet she despised and worked hard to destroy, what was Peridot going to do?

Everyone seemed so content and secure about their lives, even if it went out of the model set for them. Something she had trouble to grasp because, if no one told you what to do, what were you supposed to do then? There was no system, everyone acted so independently but with a teamwork spirit, it baffled her totally.

Peridot, at first, thought the Crystal Gems and especially Steven were utterly delusional. I mean, how could they go on so smoothly in the chaotic disorder they were so immersed to? It was as if they were mismatched pieces of a puzzle trying to fit with each other and not seeing it didn't work.

However, time showed her otherwise. Pearl could fit without being someone's possession, and her mechanical and technological knowledge wasn't product of copying from superior gems, but from her own hard work.

Amethyst felt at home, not because of the technicality of being made on the Prime Kindergarten on Earth, but because she was let to be herself and had people who cared for her.

Garnet didn't need to hide or feel self-conscious because she was in an environment where differences weren't deemed as something to punish but to celebrate.

And Steven, the one who Peridot owed the many opportunities to show her true self and her abilities, he was so carefree and accepting. He made her feel that the impossible was possible no matter if you thought you were powerless.

With his help, many gems learned that they didn't need to be pieces of some square-minded puzzle, but the complements of themselves and each other to create a whole, beautiful picture.

Now, sadly, the picture was in half because Steven was gone.

Steven, who was the sole cause that their lives had some meaning.

Steven, who taught her she could be more than a mindless, Diamond-loyalist Peridot and find her own powers and identity.

Steven, who established peace between Earth and Homeworld, and even created a place for gems who wanted to start again.

Steven, who gave them hopes to fit without being matched pieces.

But he started to see himself as a mismatched piece of an old puzzle who couldn't find a place to belong despite having so many people loving him. Ironic, right?

What did Steven see in all his success and the gems he helped that made him feel so out of place?

She never noticed something wrong on him until the news of his departure came, though the root of the issue was still elusive to her.

He should've been happy to accomplish things that were deemed impossible. He faced the Diamonds and changed their minds for star's sake!

It was so frustrating! She felt the answer was there, in all those comments towards the Crystal Gems and his very out-of-place behavior, but another factor needed to be found to see the full picture.

But what was it?

"Thinking about Steven again?" Lapis' voice got her by surprise and Peridot looked at her friend. Her blue eyes were darkened by sadness, tear tracks decorated her cheeks and her posture was resigned and depressed.

Instantly, Peridot took her hand to make her feel a bit better which Lapis appreciated "Yeah, a bit. No, a lot. It doesn't make sense! HE doesn't make sense at all! Why would he leave?! Why would he feel like this?! If it weren't for him, none of this -Little Homeworld, Little Homeschool, living in peace- wouldn't have happened. Why not enjoy it?!"

"Maybe he did enjoy it, but... But something else got in his way and now he doesn't know what to feel any more"

"How could you know?! He hadn't told anyone about this! Not even the same people who raised him since he was a baby!"

"I'm not saying I know with total certainty. I just feel it"

"Feeling doesn't help to bring him back!!" Peridot yelled enraged. Lapis flinched a bit but didn't say anything, just stared at her friend.

"Sorry, sorry. I got carried away"

"It's alright" Lapis places a hand on Peridot's shoulder to try to comfort her "I miss him too. I wish I could have known about how he felt before this happened"

"I have some ideas of why he left, but it will sound silly"

"It's ok, maybe we can understand better and use it to find him"

"It's not a clue to find Steven but a list of reasons why he did what he did. Maybe I'm right, maybe I'm wrong or just exaggerating, but I think he is struggling with the many things that have transpired around him which had never happened, you know? I mean, this is Steven we're talking about! He is the guy who helped us to adapt on Earth, encouraged us to be and do better, to feel at home on a foreign planet. Now though..."

"Roles have inverted. It's Steven now who felt like he can't belong here, like all the changes around him are just pushing him out of everyone's help"

"Which is absurd! He belongs here with all of us!"

"Remember how we used to despise Earth because it reminded us of all the trouble we went through?" Peridot nodded "Maybe Steven is remembering something nasty when seeing everyone living so well their lives, though what that's what I want to know"

"Me too. Besides, yeah, we have been attacked by Spinel, there are many gems unhappy with the changes made by him, but Steven had always been so optimistic. Why stop now? Why-why leave?" The pent-up emotions were so much for Peridot that some tears rolled down her cheeks. Lapis side-hugged her and sighed.

"Steven always fit everywhere he went" Peridot said with a shaky voice "I remember how he wanted us to be ourselves so we could adapt better, no rush. But, if what he said about Garnet, Pearl and Amethyst during that cactus incident is proof enough, then did he really felt like he never belonged or fit with all of us? With his own family and friends?"

"I don't know... Perhaps, it didn't last that long as he thought"

Peridot deflated even more. It was the biggest and most tragic irony.

#Steven Universe Future #Steven Universe #Peridot #Lapis Lazuli #angst #Feelings #Inadequancy #Not belonging #Post-Prickly Pair episode #Chapter 5

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diveronarpg · 4 years

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Congratulations, NAY! You’ve been accepted for the role of JULIET. Admin Minnie: My arms are wide open for you to return to us, Nay! I am so unbelievably thrilled to have your Juliana join us again. You capture her completely, without reservation and without a bit of doubt — and for good reason. You understand Juliana in a way that honestly leaves me speechless. And the fact that you wrote a whole new app that incorporated the darkness you’ve discovered in Juliana along the way? The potential, the precipice that she stands on now with so much to lose and even more to gain? Wow. Nay, I’m so glad you’re back. I can’t wait to weep reading your writing yet again. Please read over the checklist and send in your blog within 24 hours.

WELCOME TO THE MOB.

OUT OF CHARACTER

Alias | nay.

Age | twenty-one, but my birthday is next month (january 8th!) so i'm already telling people i'm twenty-two. or eighty? spiritually, i'm eighty & i'm knitting these days, so.

Preferred Pronouns | she/her.

Activity Level | my life is something of a circus, i'll be real with you. i live between two houses, i'm trying to get through my final year of undergrad while trying to earn money writing, fighting mental illness (aren't we all?) and basically having a midlife crisis every other week. but, like. an 8. i love y'all such a lot, you can't keep me away ;)

Timezone | gmt+5.

How did you find the RP? | i… don't even remember at this point. it's just home.

Current/Past RP Accounts | to quote Hamlet, act III, scene iii, line 87? no.

IN CHARACTER

Character | juliet / juliana rosa capulet.

J U L I A N A | the name is chosen before she is even born. picked out of a Bible resting askew atop rounded-belly, like a flower from a garden: Juliana. she is named in devotion to the once-suffering patron saint of sickness, Saint Juliana of Nicomedia (now, Naples). she is only a squirming bundle, already carrying a legend of martyrdom through a namesake.

R O S A | what smelt sweeter than a rose? her mother adored them – and thus, there could never be anything sweeter ever again. so sweet, many hearts yearn to pick them. enchanted by the intoxicating perfume, many lovers cut themselves on these thorns.

C A P U L E T | who truly understood the magnitude of a name? a name of Anglo-Saxon origin; coming from a wooded area beside a chapel, hailing from a family who once-lived in a village named Caplewood. a prophecy, then—taken, and bastardized: paupers evolving into the kings, a chapel beside no more than a house to their sins.

What drew you to this character? | i remember fragments of the last time i answered this question. this time, i made it a point not to read my old application, because if i was going to reapply? i wanted to do it the right way, go through the whole process, start on a fresh page. that said, i do recall my own surprise at a reincarnation of juliet capulet being my character of choice. i remember my own poetic gibberish; this romanticisation of colours & versatility, the whole universe inside juliana that causes her so much pain. somehow, after the span of only months of writing her, i can't answer it the same. somehow, a paltry chunk of time has turned an idea i was enchanted by into a person. somehow… it made the experience of reading her biography again, after all this time, a more impactful one. and perhaps that's the mark of rosey being the wretchedly talented wordsmith we must suffer angst for loving, but i found myself picking up on details i had missed, and lines i had forgotten to be arrested by – and somehow, a character i had, swathed in my own contradictory brand of hubris, thought i knew like the back of my hand? she still inspired me. i still had ideas flooding in my head, and love swelling my heart. i think that's the mark of a well-written character, every bit as much as it is an indicator that the character is one you can write with integrity.

thrive. ghost. onlooker, helplessness, obsession, lamented, saint, blood, symbol, succumbing.

isn't it absolutely prophetic?

what draws me to juliana is her complexity, at the heart of it. i love the boundless possibility of her; this dainty, precious, precocious slip of a girl—not just a girl, but not quite a woman yet—and the enormous weight of a last name, which really has nothing on the burden that is the heart she carts around in her chest. there's something peculiar about her, an eeriness about how truly, genuinely tender she is. and as easy as her tenderness is to mistake for weakness, she isn’t. she is the embodiment of love – and much as it is absolutely the greatest source of pain to her, it is her greatest strength. love is what makes her, and it is what has the power to completely undo her: to a different version of herself, harder or softer, or undone.

i’d see it as a great privilege to get to explore her story.

What is a future plot idea you have in mind for the character? |

TRIGGER WARNING: suicide mention, mental illness mention, postpartum depression mention, drowning mention

LOVER / her heart is her biggest strength, just as it is her biggest weakness. it always has been. just like it was her mother's. it's why her father worries so much about her – and how can she begrudge him for it? she worries about herself, too. jia capulet had had a bleeding heart; where had that landed her? six feet under is where. and thus, they worry, worry for the ways that she is her mother's daughter. but juliana worries about the ways in which she is her father's daughter, too. she loves him so dearly, so reverently, that she has been his dutiful puppet. she has been a figurehead, a symbol, a caricature. she has smiled… she has been smiling for an eternity, for an audience that never stops watching. she worries, still, about how much war steals: time, and lives, and this city that is their home. there is some irony to it, she thinks; the girl they say has everything, so terrified of loss.

› juliana is so thoroughly a person led by her heart. moreover, she is a compulsive overthinker. she nitpicks (internally, constantly), she analyses, she wonders and lays awake at night plagued by questions she cannot answer, and answers she knows not questions to. it isn't a surprise that her own story — i.e. the people she comes from — is something that weighs on her, heavily, and shapes her, influencing her thoughts, perceptions and choices.

this is a self-driven plot, i know, but i want to headcanon that her mother, jia, suffered from a devastating case of postpartum depression after she prematurely conceived juliana's little sister. italy is actually a frontrunner in hands-on understanding of mental health without the questionable committing to an institution, but with that said, jia capulet wasn't italian. she was chinese, and didn't grow up in a society where she would at all be open to entertaining the idea of mental illness perpetuated by pregnancy. it is incredibly difficult to help someone who does not want to be helped – and all juliana and cosimo could do for her was pray. and when they failed her, and she and the baby girl were found floating in the lake behind capulet manor, all they could do was hide the story from the world, the first secret between father & daughter. it is a personal headcanon of mine that juliana bears an eerie resemblance to her mother, and that doesn't help the difficulty of separating her own identity from the trauma that's tainted her childhood, and the trauma currently tainting her adolescence.

i'm dying to explore how it produces an adulthood for her. as much as i love a good coming of age story, juliana's needs to be something darker. i want to see what she takes from her parents, what she tucks away, what she tosses aside – and who is left, ultimately, after it all.

ALL MY FLOWERS GREW BACK AS THORNS / two years: that's how long it's been since juliana's world was turned upside down. oh, of course she'd heard the rumours. of course she'd heard snippets of conversations, caught the caution in some eyes, malice in others, in too many others. she had never asked questions for the answers she was given, had she? but an evening in her father's study — cosimo's brows furrowed, and vivianne's arched, expectant — and reality was unveiled, all the same. beneath the cover of those luscious roses, nurtured and adored, was reality. go on, they had urged her. la principessa was to get her hands dirty, to seize the opportunity she had never been brave enough to ask for – and now, those hands bled, reality's gritty red, ruddy & relentless, oozing out of thorn-impalement, those puncture wounds. it stings. it stings, it stings, it stings, over & over. how much can she take?

› the biggest overarching plot-point for juliana's i story that i would so like to explore is the changes in her as the war progresses, and how it transforms her. i genuinely believe that she is, at heart, a good person. she is also, however, a good person who has grown up with a very basic, one-dimensional view of morality and goodness and their opposites, in the way that children are. in large part, that's attributed to the extremely sheltered way juliana has been raised, protected so suffocatingly, and that's why i understand that it hits her and begins to shape her immediately, going from the extreme of being in the dark about everything and then essentially becoming the figurehead for a war that has been going on for way, way longer than she has even known about it. there is a difference between idealism and optimism, and the lesson to understand it is a painful one. i would like to put her through that, and peel back the layers of her naiveté to unveil the woman she must grow into.

GLORY & GORE / verona is falling apart. lives are being lost – innocent, guilty… who is man to decide, what is to be done with Dio's creations? juliana was raised to believe in God. she was raised to respect the universe, to do her duty to spread kindness, to work to spread good fortune where it was lacking and to be generous with it. is a gun in her hand one day meant to change who she is at heart? who is this violence for, for whose good? what is to come of it all? is power ever enough? will it ever be? who will be left standing? will anyone? the streets run too red. this is not her verona.

› i would love to see juliana, at a point, actually take over the reins from cosimo. now, the possible events that could lead up to that as endless: a death, a coup, a voluntary succession? i'm here for any of it. but a plot i'm very interested in is seeing juliana, who has spent a majority of time being rigid, and uncomfortable, too caught up in a holier than thou take on mob reality taking on power and defining it for herself now that the war has begun to very personally take from her – first, the near-assassination of her father, then vivianne's blood on her hands, and now, her beloved rafaella. i want to see how she balances her humanity and diplomacy, if it truly isn't possible to both be in power and not be corrupted by it. i want to see who follows her, who would pledge allegiance to her, and what she would do of those who do not. spicy plot, right?

Are you comfortable with killing off your character? | so long as she dies for love.

IN DEPTH

In-Character Para Sample:

NOTE: i cheated and stole an excerpt of my own thread for juliana. oops?

Excruciating awareness seemed to be her stock in life. One would think—as, frankly, Juliana herself often did, excruciatingly aware of her mind’s rapid, ricocheting song—that it would be she was used to it by now. But she was no such thing, and it was because of this that she found herself ultimately unable to detach herself from what a companion of hers thought of her, unable to keep from recording even the most minute of details, some of them caught out of the corner of sharp, dark eyes. Even though Juliana Capulet knew that she thought she knew better than to care what anyone thought of her, given how routinely she exploited popular perception for the benefit of her own agenda, she had only ever been able to claim the victory of divorcing what people thought of her from what she knew of herself.

Lately, that hadn’t been feeling like much. A victory, still, but only a half-baked one. One that didn’t keep her from feeling an elementary sort of embarrassed shame, like she was a child who’d got caught with her hand in the cookie-jar. Perhaps that was only because what she knew of herself was a chapter already passed by… and the person who sat in front of Katarina DuPont was not the person she knew. This person was not Juliana alone; they did not sit together to share conversation about art and religion, about culture and cuisine, about music or magic. They sat together: the future Capulet mafiosa and a soldier in the army she would inherit. It was simple and as complicated as that.

At least there will still be wine, Juliana thought, halfheartedly.

Intravenous therapy was more than what was necessary to stay the inner-workings of the heiress’ mind, unfortunately. And there wasn’t enough chilled glasses of it poured down her throat to keep Juliana from wondering what it was that Katarina DuPont knew of her. Whether there was a file out there that encompassed all the myriad reasons in which she was the awful, doubtful fit for leading the Capulet mob, and had been from the first moment that she had finally been told about it. Whether that supposed file would be a less pathetic read even with a couple of pages worth of additional material on a traumatically-revised mindset pressed between its lips in offering. Would it make a difference? After nearly three years worth of distastefully looking down upon a history begun by an ancestor called Lucius Capulet; a man who had taken power into his own hands, with a vengeful spirit burning from years worth of mistreatment setting it alight – and then eating through it, like fire through paper, until what he resented in power-wielding elite that brought as much ruination as it did opulence is what his initiative rotted down to. Three years, and all her judgement bowed its self-righteous head down to was, what? Ah, agony that altered her. A night—one night—and she was no longer the same. Did it make her enlightened, then, to be awoken by her own thirst for vengeance, now – by an insatiable urge for Rallis—and those like him—to suffer as they ought to? Or was she just another hypocrite?

Juliana had always rather liked her eyes. They were so dark, so shadowed by raven-haired lashes casting shade over enigmatic irises, it at least kept her from flustering herself over the blonde being able to read the questions she had no answers for burning darkly within them. At least there was that. It kept her from her own worries clouding the clarity with which her honeyed counterpart answered her question. And for that – oh, for that, Juliana was ever-glad. Eternally, and boundlessly. For as right as she was about their relationship being that of a leader and soldier? She was terribly wrong, as well, for the conviction with which Katarina’s words spilt felt like poetry. They touched her soul. They stirred it. Our cause, the dauntingly tall woman called it. It warmed Juliana’s gut more than even her laugh had done. Every second we live and breathe, gives us a chance to do better. “Yes.” The word was a rough whisper, sounding from the embrace of the swelled walls of her throat. “Yes,” but her own conviction cut through it, exhaled a second time.

“Better is all I want. I –” Would it be a mistake to say it out-loud? Perhaps. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps. “Well, I want more than this. For this city I love, for this universe that speaks to my soul, for… these hearts that live in my heart. Better – yes, I do agree, Katarina. I believe, as well. I want more than mindless bloodshed. I want more than fear and terror, more than domination for the sake of domination. I do not know just how clearly you can see it,” wryness laced the words as fluidly as her emotions had done, “I am not my father.”

Then that, too, dissolved. It gave way to gold, still hot & bubbling: “I am another entity entirely. Not a mouth-piece, not a symbol. I am a woman, and one of my word at that. I told you I would tell you why I asked – so here is why, signora. I ask because one of those who hold room in my heart, one of the largest… was nearly lost to me. This war takes and takes. From all of us, Capulets and Montagues and those who watch, who savour, and who suffer. I got out of bed today to work towards better.” Her head canted. Lashes lifted, unveiled those same dark eyes. Juliana let them burn.

“Would you like to join me?”

Extras:

pinterest;

playlist;

headcanons -

due to having spent a large portion of her childhood on her own, juliana very early on developed an appreciation for time to herself. many of her interests, in fact, are shaped by it: her love for learning, for one, no matter the subject matter; her attachment to art, an outlet she keeps a secret, locked away in a room no one but herself is privy access to, and; additionally, the amount she talks to and counsels herself to stay sane.

her aesthetic preferences meander on the side of classic, vintage and minimalistic. it is extremely rare for juliana to opt for overt flashiness. she's pearls over diamonds, matte lip-stain in lieu of gloss, and neutral tones apparel over pops of colour.

she is petrified of rabbits, and their evil red eyes.

juliana enjoys music, but she prefers it not having words.

she has a codependent relationship with coffee. no one with a body this slight has any business throwing back that many shots of espresso, but here she is anyway.

she has never learnt how to swim.

her nails and lips are always red, no matter the outfit. she enjoys having a signature of her own that has nothing to do with anyone else, as if it is her own private act of rebellion.

#accepted #everyone give nay a warm WELCOME BACK #accepted: juliet

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paralleljulieverse · 5 years

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Oh! I do like to be beside the seaside!

70th anniversary of Julie Andrews’ three-month run in “Coconut Grove” at the Blackpool Hippodrome (26 June - 1 October 1949)

When discussing her long and varied career, Julie Andrews is fond of representing it as a series of fortuitous “stepping stones,” “great, wonderful bursts of good fortune [that] I would race to be worthy of" (Brockes 2004).

The first of these auspicious breaks was Starlight Roof, the up-scale London variety revue that marked Julie’s professional debut in late-1947. At the end of her one year run in the show –– limited to a strict twelve month maximum by council laws governing theatrical employment of minors –– Julie recounts that she was awash with tears. “I honestly thought that was the end of my career, the end of all the fun, and that I would never work again” (Andrews, 2008: 88).

Such was the impact of Starlight Roof, however –– and such the ambitious management of those around her, perhaps –– that the pint-sized soprano was quickly launched into a series of follow-up engagements that further advanced her budding celebrity. From singing on the radio to appearing in big London pantos and even performing for royalty, the young Julie Andrews carved out a solid career as post-war Britain’s singing child wonder, a virtuosic “prima donna in pigtails” (Pearce: 3).

Most of these early performances were patterned more or less directly on the Starlight Roof novelty theme with Julie appearing as the unassuming little girl from Walton-on-Thames –– complete with white smock dress, ankle socks and Dolly shoes –– who would gaily skip onto the stage and let forth with this phenomenal coloratura singing voice. Touring the British variety circuit, often on the same bill as her parents, Julie typically stole the show...and the notices! “Julie Andrews...provides the highlight of the evening,” enthused one review of an appearance at the Hackney Empire in May 1949. Her “[o]peratic selections and ballad numbers, with excellent pianoforte accompaniment, are enjoyed in an all-too-brief appearance” (’Round the Halls’: 5).

Before long, Julie emerged as the star in the family with theatrical billing shifting from ‘Ted and Barbara Andrews with Julie’ to ‘Julie Andrews with Ted and Barbara’. “That was not a very happy state of affairs,” Julie later recalled, “certainly not for my stepfather who had an ego to think about” (Moir: 17). The growing disparity of professional fortunes became plainly apparent in the summer of 1949 when Julie and her parents were contracted to perform in the northern English town of Blackpool.

The largest seaside resort in the UK, Blackpool has been a longstanding epicentre for domestic British tourism and, with it, summertime entertainment (Brodie and Whitfield, 2014). Widely lampooned today as down-market and a little seedy, the Blackpool entertainment industry in its heyday was hugely vibrant. Theatres, opera houses, ballrooms, winter gardens and a whole multiform “infrastructure of fun” sprang up to service the town’s massive seasonal market of family holidaymakers with something for everyone from grandparents to children (ibid: 51ff).

By the 1940s, Blackpool was at its peak as the British capital of summertime entertainment. Boasting fourteen live theatres and eighteen picture theatres, it was reputed to offer “the biggest show biz in the world for the size of the town” (Regensberg: 52). These venues provided “a flow of entertainment comprising revue, vaudeville, ice and water spectacles and circus to millions of visitors and locals,” offering lucrative opportunities for performing talent “with the season absorbing some of the biggest radio and vaude[ville] names” (ibid.).

It was in this context that, in the summer of 1949, the Andrews family was placed under three-month contract by Tom Arnold and Jack Taylor, a pair of seasoned theatre producers who had recently set up as independents after years of supplying shows for the Blackpool Tower Company (Regensberg: 52). Following initial success in the 1948 season, Arnold and Taylor went all out in 1949 mounting three big shows: Water Follies, an aquatic spectacular housed at the Derby Baths with Johnny ‘Tarzan’ Weissmuller flown in from Hollywood as star attraction; Coconut Grove, a lavish Hollywood-style revue at the Blackpool Hippodrome, a 2500-seat theatre in the heart of town; and Orchid Room, a slightly more modest variety show at the smaller Central Pier Pavilion on the seafront (Band, 2018).

Barbara and Ted Andrews were placed on the bill of the Orchid Room, playing support to the comedian Frankie Howerd as headliner, while Julie appeared as part of the Coconut Grove line-up. The latter owed more than a passing nod to Starlight Roof. Alongside Julie, it featured several other Starlight alumni including balloon-man Wally Boag and singer Jean Carson. A glowing report in the British show biz paper, The Stage gives a sense of the revue’s opulence:

“The whole theatre is converted into a lavish auditorium, with bands on either side of the stage and another playing in the vestibule. Silver decorations seem to dominate the scene, and some of the spectacular ensembles are beautiful. One, in which the whole stage is starlit, is extended to the theatre itself, with the chorus coming out into the auditorium carrying lighted trees, and is particularly effective (”Summer Entertainment”: 5).

The Yorkshire Post was equally rhapsodic, describing how “the unstinted lavishness of costumes, scenery and effects give the show an overwhelming appearance of magnificence” (“Blackpool’s Square Mile”: 6). Coconut Grove even garnered international attention with US entertainment bible, Variety running an extended profile on Blackpool’s bumper season, noting that “Julie Andrews, a kid protegee, whams ‘em” (Regensburg: 52).

Behind the glitter, though, the summer was not a happy one for the Andrews clan with problems in Ted and Barbara’s relationship coming to the fore. As early as her 1958 serialised memoir for Woman magazine, written barely nine years after the fact, Julie admitted that the “summer season in Blackpool...should have been lovely, but there was some strange atmosphere at home which I kept trying not to notice––and couldn’t help noticing more each day” (Andrews 1958: 45). In keeping with the era’s culture of circumspection about such matters, the 1958 Julie gingerly glossed the familial unease as a case of marital tensions due to financial stress. But fifty years later in her 2008 autobiography, she would be much more forthright with details about Ted’s chronic problem drinking, her mother’s own developing co-dependent alcoholism, and a domestic environment of sporadic violence (Andrews 2008: 104-106). With a degree of melancholic irony, she writes:

“There was a publicity photo taken during this period of the family walking together along the front at Blackpool, looking very happy. These days, my brothers and I marvel at how far removed that photograph was from the reality of what was actually going on” (ibid: 106).

A painful time for all, no doubt, but the summer at Blackpool was an important one in the professional and, one suspects, personal life of Julie Andrews. It consolidated her breakout performance in Starlight Roof, bringing her to the attention of an expanded audience, as well as further cultivating professional networks that would prove valuable in coming years. By Julie’s own reckoning, it also firmed her renowned sense of personal discipline and dutiful resolve as she recognised the need to step to the fore and fill the void as the family’s main emotional support and breadwinner. “I felt extremely responsible,” she recalls,

“felt that I had to take care of the whole family, that it was only me being an adult around the place. So I [tried] to preserve what was good, being cheerful, and saying, ‘Things aren't so bad. We'll manage.’ And, of course, we did” (Meryman: 87).

Sources:

Andrews, Julie. “So Much to Sing About, Part 3.” Woman. 17 May, 1958: 17-18, 41-46.

_____________. Home: A Memoir of My Early Years. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2008.

Arntz, James and Wilson, Thomas S. Julie Andrews. Chicago: Contemporary Books, 1995.

Band, Barry. “Showbiz spat led to a great summer line-up.” The Gazette. <www.blackpoolgazette.com> 23 August 2018.

“Blackpool’s Square Mile of Stars Thrives on Banter.” The Yorkshire Post. 26 July 1949: 6.

Brockes, Emma. “Thoroughly Modern Julie.” The Guardian. 13 October 2004.

Brodie, Alan and Whitfield, Matthew. Blackpool's Seaside Heritage. Swindon : English Heritage, 2014.

Fleming, Craig. “Raising the Curtain on the Blackpool Hippodrome’s History.” The Gazette. <www.blackpoolgazette.com> 7 January 2014.

Meryman, Richard. “Mint Julie.” Lear’s. September 1992: 82-87.

Moir, Jan. “An Overdose of Sugar.” The Guardian. 5: 7, 30 September 1992: 17.

Pearce, Emery. “Command Singer in Pigtails.” Daily Herald. 1 November 1949: 3.

Pearson, Lynn F. The People's Palaces: The Story of the Seaside Pleasure Buildings of 1870-1914. Buckingham : Barracuda, 1991.

Regensburg, Harry. “Blackpool, Britain’s Atlantic City Still Boff Show Town, U.S. Acts Score.” Variety. 10 August 1949: 52,60.

“Round the Halls.” The Stage. 19 May 1949: 5.

“Summer Entertainment 1949.” The Stage. 14 July 1949: 5.

#julie andrews #coconut grove #Blackpool #hippodrome #music hall #variety #theatre #british #Child Star #1949 #ted and barbara andrews

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tyrantisterror · 6 years

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Thoughts on Song For Spider-Man

Remember that Song of Spider-Man book I bought a while back? The tell-all book by the co-writer of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark? The one that I hoped would be what I’ve wanted since news of that play’s disastrous production started - i.e. an in depth explanation and analysis of the production, detailing every creative decision and disastrous misstep?

Well, it’s not quite that, unfortunately. It’s more of a new piece of the Turn Off the Dark puzzle, rather than completed puzzle that I’ve been looking for. The world has yet to produce the exhaustive documentary on that musical that I crave. But as puzzle pieces go, it is a fairly large and enlightening one, albeit one that’s also deeply biased. It’s the story of a disaster from the perspective of one of the key players in that disaster, and, as you’d expect, is full of “this wasn’t my fault!” explanations and pleas of ignorance. I don’t know how much you can trust the narrative, even though (and honestly, because) it’s an enthralling and emotionally gripping read.

The biggest disappointment about the book for me is that it doesn’t go very deep into the creative journey of the musical, which is the aspect I’m most interested in. Instead it focuses more on the managerial aspects of it, which is admittedly where the drama is. There’s money woes, conflicts of personality, miscommunication, backstabbing, and negligence that leads to a lot of good people getting hurt - the juicy gossipy shit that drew most people in. As trainwrecks go it’s pretty compelling stuff, and the author uses the benefit of hindsight to foreshadow eventual dooms well in advance.

It’s a fun read and sheds some light on how that infamously troubled production became “a machine that teaches humility,” but it’s not the whole story, and as such my lust for the ultimate Turn off the Dark autopsy remains unsated.

Some scattered notes:

Julie Taymor was really only in this to tell the story of Arachne, and in fact was only sold on the idea when one of the producers showed her a page of a Spider-Man comic that mentioned the myth. The Arachne character and plotline was what ultimately got Julie fired, because not only did it shift focus from Spider-Man to an obscure Greek mythological character, but it also was built upon the musical’s worst songs AND required the most complicated set piece that no one could figure out how to accomplish, and yet Julie refused to let it go.

Incidentally, I’m nerdy enough to recognize from the brief description given in this book which Spider-Man comic the Arachne reference came from. It was Ultimate Spider-Man #1, and is made by Norman Osborn, who in the context of that comic is presented as a pretentious ass who uses bullshit philosophy to cover up his delusions of grandeur. There’s a bit of irony here is what I’m saying.

Another “oh god I AM a nerd” moment the book made me have: the writer claims that Green Goblin has used his goblin glider since his first appearance, but, um, ACTUALLY Green Goblin used a flying broomstick in his first few outings, and didn’t get the goblin glider until later. I remember this fact because it was in the Complete Guide to Spider-Man book I got when I was thirteen, and because the picture of the Green Goblin riding a mechanical jet-powered broomstick was delightfully stupid.

The above two facts are why I desperately want to know more about the creative process of this play - on the one hand, it has some obscure elements of the Spider-Man comics in it, like Swarm, the nazi-made-out-of-bees supervillain. On the other, it fucks up key aspects of the story, like having Uncle Ben get killed in a car crash that has nothing to do with Peter Parker whatsoever.

One of the things I gleaned was that most of the people involved - Julie Taymor, Bono, and the Edge specifically - seemed far more familiar withe the Sam Raimi movies than the comics, and also seemed more interested in their vague notion of what a superhero means rather than any actual pre-existing superhero story. There’s an air of condescension towards the source material, but I’m not sure how much of that is my own biased assumptions at work, the author’s definite bias, or an actually true analysis of the creative team. Again, I want a deeper look at what they were thinking!

One part of the creative process that was explained in an illuminating way regarded the music. Apparently, part of Bono’s process in songwriting involves him writing lyrics in “Bonoglese,” where the lyrics are just random words and Seussian things that sound vaguely like words but are actually nonsense, all mixed together in a way that does make a coherent thought at all. This explains why the lyrics in Turn Off the Dark’s songs are either instantly forgettable (and by that I mean you forget what the words were literally one second after they are sung) or, when memorable, are just... really bad, forced attempts at rhymes.

At one point Julie, Bono, the Edge, and the other writer agreed that they weren’t trying to make a musical so much as a “rock and roll circus experience,” which, y’know, is accurate.

The guy they got to replace Julie as director was actually FROM a circus. That’s not a joke, he literally directed a bunch of different circus shows, including ones with live animals and shit. So in some way an aspect of the original artistic vision remained.

As much as I love to make fun of this horrible show, reading the book did inspire some compassion in me. These people were all passionately dedicated to a very grand artistic vision, and they accomplished a lot of stuff that has never been tried in theater before. While a lot of horrible failures occurred, the amount of stuff they got right is still pretty notable, and a part of me wished they could find a way to make it work.

I felt especially bad when the book gets to the initial fan-reaction early in the musical’s production process, where I realized that the fan’s initial criticisms of the musical’s concepts did look kind of shallow and petty. I felt like a bit of a jerk for a moment.

Then another part of me remembered that the one song Julie Taymor refused to cut, comparing the demand for its excision to having a mastectomy, was the song where Arachne tells her minions to go buy her hundreds of shoes so she can seduce Peter Parker, because lol women love shoe shopping and if they had eight legs they’d love it even more AMIRITE? So, y’know, guilt rescinded, we were right to be skeptical.

That said, I am legitimately pissed that the producers adamantly refused to tape a single recording of the first version of Turn Off the Dark, aka Spider-Man 1.0, aka Julie Taymor’s (approximate) vision. Julie herself begged them to do so before and after she was fired and they didn’t listen and that sucks. I mean, it sounds like a trainwreck of a show, but it’s a trainwreck that’s BROADWAY HISTORY. It should be preserved! It belongs in a museum!

The tell-all book draws an obvious parallel between the relationship of Arachne (the brilliant and misunderstood but also megalomaniacal and controlling artist) and Spider-Man (the geeky young man who suddenly has great power and responsibility thrust onto him by the aforementioned older female artist, who he also has the hots for) and the relationship of Julie Taymor and himself. It’s pretty clever but also, like, a huge dick move since it implies Julie Taymor is a tragic villain that the author was forced to destroy just like Spider-Man is forced to destroy Arachne. Good writing, sure, but fucked up man.

“Spider-Man was not a musical, but rather a machine built to teach humility.” A fuckin’ excellent description, even if the account of that machine’s creation is pretty heavily biased.

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fmdjaewonarchive · 6 years

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MBC’s cover song festival 2017 - an interview with unity’s jaewon

how do you feel about performing the song you’re covering? are you a fan of the original artist? the smile on jaewon’s face might have seen polite but truly, it was nothing else than incredibly fake. for one, he hated interviews but most importantly, jaewon really hated this stupid cover song festival. “it’s all kinds of exhilarating really.” no it wasn’t but dimensions knew how exactly how displeased jaewon had been ever since unity had been informed about the song they’d be performing so they had warned him to be on his best behavior, they couldn’t risk the gossip that would stem from having their youngest group acting incredibly indifferent about their sunbae’s song. “i mean getting to perform a song from one of our seniors is an honor of course, especially a song as good as chained up.” that wasn’t even lied actually, chained up was an amazing song, all of mars’ songs were good songs, jaewon just happened to not particularly thrilled to be reminded of the fact that there had been a time that mars’ music had almost been his own music. now he had unity and he wouldn’t change that for the world but back when he was a trainee, ruthlessly being cut from mars had been the most devastating thing that could have happened. he’d given it a place now but no, the irony that dimensions had ripped his debut with mars away from him yet still expected him to perform their songs whenever suitable for them was not much appreciated. “i’m a huge fan of mars, they’re incredibly talented and great seniors as well. i trained together with all of them-“ he tried his best not to grimace at the comment. “so it is really fun to cover their song and have them perform ours in return.”

was there anything particularly difficult about covering the song? how does it compare to your usual songs in choreography/concept/etc.? again jaewon bit his tongue, truly he had been over this entire interview before it even started but he was also not feeling the drama that would come with not staying in line and not answering their stupid questions in a perfectly politically correct manner. “i think that the thing about mars is that there isn’t quite anything like it out there, they rightfully earned their title as concept kings.” he smiled forcedly, nodding lightly as he spoke. he absolutely loathed this entire circus act. “so it’s very different from what we’re used to really but that’s also what made it a really fun challenge for us as a group to take on.” where they really going to make him compare mars to unity? It wasn’t even the stupid interviewers fault but god jaewon was livid, fucking dimensions was probably having a good laugh over this right. “in a way i feel like chained up is a very sexy song. It definitely has that dark seductive vibe to it and I think that was the biggest challenge of them all for unity. we’ve never really done anything like that and it’s not something you can just fake, if you can’t pull off that aura properly it ruins the entire performance. at first we all definitely felt a bit awkward about it which just made us look weird but we all found our confidence in the performance and that was the thing we really missed at first.” and their fanbase would love it too, which was probably why they had been assigned the song in the first place but oh well, jaewon wasn’t one to sulk over that, it fit his own dancing style really well actually. if anything, getting to show said side of himself to the media was the only redeeming part of this whole damned festival.

if you could have covered any other group or soloist participating today, whom would you have chosen? it didn’t take jaewon long to answer. “origin’s fire, most definitely.” he nodded firmly. he was glad to finally leave the topic of mars behind him, that at least made the remainder of the interview bearable. “i’ve been a really big fan of the choreography ever since the song has been released so it would definitely have been cool to give that a try.” he stopped to think for a second. “but any powerful song with a strong choreography i would have loved. like impulse’s hard carry, knight’s monster or alien’s one shot. those really just are my favorite types of dances so they would all be a lot of fun.” jaewon glanced at his manager quickly, being signaled it was almost over and he wanted to sigh in relief, he had about enough of this. “but really, were a rookie group with so many incredible sunbaes in the industry, to cover about anything would be a honor in itself.” and with that the interviewer rounded the interview up and with a few polite bows and thank you’s jaewon was free again. not that it mattered, his mood was already more than ruined for the rest of the day.

#fmdcoverfestival #*:･ﾟ♛– «for some reason you're lying inside» // interviews.#//someone is bitter #//its jaewon

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