| Title | I Know! Let's Put on a Show! |
|---|---|
| Contributor | Robert Stauffer (author) |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.21983/P3.0205.1.08 |
| Landing page | https://punctumbooks.com/titles/the-ballad-of-the-lone-medievalist/ |
| License | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ |
| Copyright | Stauffer, Robert |
| Publisher | punctum books |
| Published on | 2018-08-23 |
| Long abstract | Perhaps one of the earliest narrative tropes I encountered was the one where a group of kids try to save the orphanage, or their parents’ homes, or the school by putting on a show. I still have a clear image of a five- or six-year-old Spanky, dressed as a Ro-man soldier, reciting Mark Antony’s speech from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, while trying to dodge spitballs from his friends and the domineering of his overprotective mother. By bringing down the house (quite literally, of course) he was able to win the prize so the young girl with stage fright could buy a new dress.1The trope was made famous in Rodgers and Hart’s musical com-edy, Babes in Arms, starring Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland, and the two actors made quite a few movies featuring this plot device. I guess having had this story line run through my head so many times as a kid, it sank in and resurfaces every now and again as something I would like to try. So when I encountered trouble getting students and colleagues interested in the work featured in my dissertation, the old trope naturally sprang to mind. |
| Page range | pp. 79–93 |
| Print length | 15 pages |
| Language | English (Original) |