My last night at theater group. We started a scene from The Breakfast Club, the one where Bender and the Principal (is it? Ringo kept calling him the
surveillant, which is someone at school pretty much soley responsible for crowd control but I'm pretty sure he has more responsibility than that) have it out about the door and Bender gets five more years roughly of detention. ("Screws fall out all the time; the world is an imperfect place") 'A bit rough ("Eat my shorts" kept coming out as "Heat my shirts," and Bender's outraged scream of F*** YOU at the end kept coming out downright polite). I'm taking off next week for Good Friday, but I would have really liked to see it...
We all went out to a couscous restaraunt afterwards (if I'm ruined for American coffee forever, I'm also ruined for Near East couscous...I can't describe it but it was soft and fluffy and not nearly so coarse...yum!!!) Horace fooled around with Ringo's ultra expensive camera (the one he takes photos for his gallery with, I believe), there was much laughing and eating. And I can't believe it won't come again; I won't see all these people in the same place again. It's weird, the first day when Ringo expected five people to show up (if he was lucky) and I had no idea what to say to any of them...I don't think anyone hoped we'd have a group of seventeen such bright, enthusiastic (if albeit not always punctual or diligent about being present and learning lines), fun students.
Ringo made t-shirts for Anastasia and I bearing the likeness of Marilyn Monroe. I will treasure it always.
He also gave the students a pop (group) quiz at the restaraunt dealing with lines from films we'd done. There wasn't a line he threw at them, even if it had only two words, that they couldn't match up with the film.
I also gave a speech for the occasion. It went something like this (parentheses just for your information...they obviously didn't need it.)
"I will soon be returning from France. It will feel like entering another life, but "I'm not dead yet!" (Monty Python and the Holy Grail). I know this summer, when I'm sticking my head "In the icebox!" (Seven year itch) trying to keep cool, or even "Chicki-chicki dancing" (Brooklyn Boogie), I'm going to be saying to myself, "Are you stupid or something?" (Forrest Gump) How could you leave France? But my life will go on, and so will yours. I just wanted to say something about how much you all mean to me.
"I know you are all bright, and aren't likely to end up like "the little waitress with the fat
culo" (BB). And I know some people will try to convince you that success is everything, and that "in order to achieve that success, you need to sell cars!" (Arizona Dream). But I know that you are all individuals, and that you can all do great things. I just want you to take what you've experienced here, and consider it as a "symbol of your individuality and personal freedom" (Sailor and Lula), and know that I've treasured it too. So now, with fond memories, I say, from the bottom of my heart, "Bye bye, anybody!" (Arizona Dream). "
I think they enjoyed it.
Here they have, not the April Fools, but the April Fish.
