Titania.

Titania from Persona 3 (click to source)

I promise this post won’t all be about video games, but if you want to hear an awful anecdote about me being a play then you must read on!

Isn’t she a beaut? I’ve been playing video games all day today, and studying somewhat. I know that I stated in my previous post that I was going to talk about tarot cards, but it will have to wait. For some quick geekery, I have finally been able to fuse Titania and she is so great! I mean, I know once I start leveling up even more I’m going to have to ditch her, but for now, she is my go-to Persona. Whenever I need to heal my characters, or just lay serious wind-wastage on the shadows, with the flick of Titania’s dress it is done! She is the fairy queen! She is Queen Titania!

Anyway, being an amazing Persona is not the only reason why I am in love with her. Okay, her animation is really cool, but she also brings up some memories of mine. For G/T (gifted and talented) I was part of a Shakespearean production. The 3rd-5th G/T grade levels had to participate. The 3rd and 4th graders did a mini-version of their plays, and sadly my memory fails me as I cannot remember what plays they did. I do remember that the multi-age G/T kids had to do Romeo and Juliet. The 5th graders had to do a full-fledged reenactment of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Of course, it was condensed to about ten minutes, but this was still a big deal. I still remember who played who.

(People you do not know will be named) Raymond played King Oberon, Johnna played Queen Titania (!!!), Analyssa played Hermia, Sarah played Helena, Daniel played Lysander and I played Demetrius. I don’t remember who played the narrator or Bottom, so I guess I was lying when I said I remember who played who, but I do remember that Sharon played Puck. An outrage! A girl playing PUCK?? I know that the last few sentences don’t really matter to those who don’t know who those people are, but this Puck thing definitely was an outrage. All of the guys in my class wanted to be Puck. For those who don’t know, in the play, Puck is a mischievous fairy that sets everything into motion under the guidance of King Oberon.

Obviously, all the prepubescent boys wanted to be him. (click to source)

To summarize the play really quickly: Hermia, Helena, Demetrius, and Lysander get caught up in this twisted love square thanks to the mischievousness of Puck because he puts love stuff in their eyes, but really King Oberon just wanted to play a trick on his wife and he orders Puck to put love stuff on Queen Titania causing her to fall in love with this guy from a theater troupe that was magically transformed into a donkey. The play is a lot more exciting than my grammatically incorrect summary would lead you to believe.

Anyway, back to the outrage. Almost all the guys auditioned to be Puck, but instead we were foiled and Shannon was Puck. A GIRL PUCK? The ten year old me must have done some serious Z-snaps back then, along with my fellow bros. We all wanted to be Puck. Puck was a big’n big’n big deal. It was such a big deal, that we need to release our frustrations by making fun of Shannon in recess, calling her awful names that rhymed with Puck. Like Duck. Yeah, I’m not even kidding. We were G/T kids, we weren’t going to pull the f-word. (Or we didn’t know it yet, my memory fails me once more!) How could a girl play a boy?? Shannon got really upset and told on all of us. We were reprimanded by my G/T teacher, Mrs. Dullnig.

I suppose this was one of our first lessons is gender equality. (I had a previous one back in Kindergarten, but that can be reserved for another day) I feel like we all learned, not only a lesson in not being awful ten-year old boys, but that even girls can play boy characters. We should have known this. Not only were we in G/T, but we learned about how men had to play the role of women back in the good ol’ Shakespeare days.

So whenever I summon Titania to use Maragula, a medium wind attack that strikes all foes, I think about fifth grade. I think about the play and I think about lessons learned. That play was a lot of fun to do, and Shannon did a good job as Puck. Heck, we all did a great job as our respective characters, especially being fifth graders. I got to be in a sword fight with my friend Daniel, I got to get my woman, and I got to bow in front of a clapping audience. I don’t know if I would ever want to be in a play, but looking back, that was a lot of fun. Too bad our Titania didn’t have a bad-ass green dress as Persona’s Titania.

Did you all participate in any plays when you were younger? Do you remember any funny stories that caused you to learn an important lesson? Leave me a comment and let me know!