The Rory Story
My first semester at school I encountered a student named Rory. From that first moment I laid eyes on him, I knew he would provide me with humor.
Rory hardly came to class and on the days he did he was extremely late. Sometimes, more than two hours late (it was a four hour class.) One day Rory came to class (late) with a neck brace on. He told the professor that he could not perform because he was not capable of turning his neck.
You select a scene with at least two characters, but you don’t have a scene partner. You play all the roles. The way your audience deciphers between characters is based on how convincing your performance (interpretation) of the text (literature) is. In addition to bestowing each character certain traits to make them standout; you also clue your audience in by your line of vision. For instance: When the main character is speaking you look directly ahead. The second character would look slightly to the right. The third, slightly to the left. The more characters, the more times you will pivot your neck. Got it? Basically it’s acting with the script in your hand.
By now you should have already observed the irony in Rory’s neck brace. It was a performance day and Rory couldn’t pivot his neck. Of all the days to injure ones self doing… Wait, how did he hurt his neck? Nevermind. How Rory injured his neck is moot because no one in the class honestly believed him because he really didn’t hurt his neck. He came to class and told Aleksander that he could not perform because his neck was incapable of movement. The Professor told him he could perform though. “Turn your entire body”, he told him. And so Rory did. When his turn came, he got up in front of the class and delivered some strange scene where he sounded like John Wayne. All I can really remember of Rory’s (ahem) performance was when he said, “I come and go in this jacket.” Since Rory was ill prepared, his performance turned into a workshop. Rory was correct so many times that, “I come and go in this jacket,” will forever be imprinted in my mind.
The following week Rory came to class without a neck brace. The week after, no neck brace. The week after that was a performance class though, and Rory showed up with the neck brace, along with the excuse that he could not pivot. Earlier that same day, I saw Rory in the library, sans neck brace. Proof that he was either faking or just really sensitive to pivoting. Where does one acquire a neck brace for entertainment purposes anyway? I come and go in this neck brace.
One day Rory showed up late to class with the neck brace, but it wasn’t on his neck. He had it stored nicely in his satchel. Class continued until a girl in class, Jolene, (pronounced “Jo-Lean”) noticed a microphone on a chair. The microphone wasn’t stealth at all. It was one of those big microphones and attached to it was some sort of recording device. Jolene asked about the microphone but we all knew it had to be Rory’s. It was. Rory brought the microphone to class, like he apparently does in every class, to record everything so that he can listen to it later. Now this would make sense in a class where the professor lectured, but this was not that kind of class. Basically Rory recorded everything that happened in class, our performances included. I come and go with this recording equipment.
Upon the discovery of Rory’s microphone, Jolene, who did not take well to being recorded without her written consent, expressed her discontent for Rory’s malcontent. Jolene asked Rory why he needed the microphone. Rory responded that he listened to it at home, for reference. Jolene grew annoyed and complained that Rory only needed to record his performance and not everyone elses. Rory argued that he sometimes didn’t pick up on things and that the recordings helped him. Obviously Rory hadn’t picked up on the fact that everyone wanted to break his neck, for real. Eventually the matter was dropped.
About fifteen minutes later Rory left the room. As soon as he cleared the hallway, Jolene expressed her hatred of Rory to the class. Then someone else responded with another negative comment about Rory. And another. And another. Almost the entire class partook in the impromptu bitch session. It might have gone on forever if I had not asked if the recorder was still recording.
Everyone froze. Jolene looked as if she had shat herself. The entire class had just expressed how much they detested Rory and it was all recorded on Rory’s audio equipment. There was only one thing to do - Enron the evidence. One person stood guard and watched for Rory’s return while Jolene tinkered with Rory’s equipment. She played the audio at one point to see if she had gone back far enough. Everything they said was recorded. We laughed. Jolene worked fast but Rory rounded the hallway and she quickly abandoned the mission. Jolene wasn’t sure if she succeeded but we would probably know next class…
The next week Rory didn’t come to class at all but he was there the week after. That was our last class, final performance day. Our finals were showcases that consisted of three pieces of literature. Rory didn’t come to class on time, in fact he showed up nearly two hours late. When he entered, he interrupted someone’s performance. The entire class groaned. Rory was one of the last to go and just before he got up, he braced his neck. He only had one piece and it wasn’t ready at all. It was quite lame.
Towards the end of class Rory finally mentioned something about the recording. There was no drama; he just expressed concern that someone might have damaged his tape recorder. At the end of class, Rory offered everyone a ride home. Of course nobody accepted Rory’s offer, for fear of whiplash.