It all started so innocently: about 2 months ago I began volunteering at St. John's International School, a private U.S.-style school here in Waterloo. The middle school was putting on The Canterbury Tales (about which I knew absolutely nothing) and I agreed to help out with accents, learning lines, and acting skills. The juvenile version of this rather racy (not to mention religiously prejudicial) set of stories included 6 separate tales, as well as an introduction and closing by the off-stage voice of author Geoffrey Chaucer.
The director got the brilliant idea about a month ago to have yours truly read these lines...in their original Middle English. I assumed this would be similar to Shakespearean English, which was on the scene about 200 years after Chaucer. Wrong! Middle English sounds like some gibberish garble of English, Dutch, and German, with a few other weird sounds thrown in just for fun. Thanks to the internet, I found a couple of readings which I learned to mimic perfectly.
Then, just 2 weeks ago, the director got another brainstorm: why not have Chaucer on stage and in full 14th century costume, delivering the opening and closing lines of the play? One day I'm a drama coach; the next, an actor on stage. The only actor on stage, I should add, older than 13.
Did I like it? No; I loved it! Every minute of working with these 35 marvelous kids was great. I'm not sure who got more out of the deal. Now I find I have nothing to do with my afternoons and weekends. Maybe I should learn from the director what play he plans on staging next year, so I can start learning my lines - maybe next time they will be in Farsi, or Japanese, or Swahili...
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