A Play to Remember

[garden_of_maidens]

"Gokigenyou."

"Gokigenyou."

The clear morning greeting travels through the serene, blue sky.

Today, once again, the maidens that gather in the Virgin Mary's garden smile purely to one another as they pass under the tall gateway.
Wrapping their innocent bodies and souls is a deep-coloured school uniform.

Walking slowly as to not disturb the plaits in their skirts, so as to not toss their white sailor scarves into disarray... such is the standard of modesty here. Running because one is in danger of missing class, for instance, is too undignified a sight for students to wish upon themselves here.

Lillian Private Academy for Women.

Founded in Meiji 34, this academy was originally intended for the young women of nobility, and is now a Catholic academy of prestigious tradition. Placed in downtown Tokyo, where you can still see traces of Musashi Field's greenery, it is protected by God, a garden where maidens can receive tutelage from pre-school to university.

Time passes, and even now, in Heisei, three era-names past Meiji, it is a valuable academy, where nurtured ladies raised in greenhouses are shipped out in carefully packaged boxes after 18 years of schooling - an arrangement that continues to survive.

"Two houses, both alike in dignity, in fair Verona where we lay our scene..."

An important time is upon the school. Once per year, a festival, just after the opening of the school year, in which the Yamayurikai sponsors a play. In normal circumstances, the lead male role would go to one of the students from Hanadera Boys' Academy, just on the other side of the hill from Lillian Academy - the Student Council president or Drama Club president. It's a time-honored tradition meant to solidify the solidarity and camaraderie between the two schools. It seems, however, as the time draws close for the play to begin...

A lone girl walks feverishly from the Drama Club room to the Rose Mansion, daring to disrupt the pleats on her skirt for the urgent news she bears. Not long after, one of the Yamayurikai joins her back to the Drama Club room, both striding with poise and purpose. It isn't long before the rumor breaks to the rest of the school, hungry for news...

... Neither the representative from Hanadera, nor his understudy, will be able to attend the play.

But the show?

The show must go on.

"Romeo, Romeo, where art thou, Romeo?"

Info | FAQ | Rules


[[Round 2 begins now. Capulet or Montague, Romeo or Juliet, the show must go on! Whether it be the drama leading up to the play, the night of the play itself, or the aftermath, in which case typically some members of the band get together to play and the whole school gathers around a bonfire to celebrate the performance as a sort of cast after-party - the next stage begins now!]]

Comments

Kumiko Oumae | 1st Year

[ufonium]

[A:

Kumiko still isn't entirely sure why she joined the band... again. Or how she ended up playing the Euphonium... again. Or even how she got dragged into being part of the pit orchestra for a play that wasn't even a musical - but the Yamayurikai wanted live music for background, and thus the group had been assembled... and she had been conscripted. Again.

Ergo, she can be found doing a bit of extra practicing - sometimes in the music room, sometimes outside, always by herself and mostly unenthusiastically. Still, follow the sound of the euphonium tooting away, and you'll find Kumiko.]


[B:

She's also part of the group of students that takes up their instruments to the bonfire afterward in celebration - likely just sort of dragged along, but while she plays about as well as someone that's been playing for several years can play... including some of their competition pieces and a couple easy dance songs for people to dance to... she seems mesmerized by the fire about as often as not.

The real fun will be in asking her to dance, but no one's going to do that. Someone might want to interrupt her to remind her that the waltz that's playing needs a bass line, though.]

Sei Satou | 3rd Year

[ibara_no_mori]

[A:

Well of course she's part of the overall play. Head of the Montague family, actually, and she looks rather regal trying to play a patriarch. The glue-on beard's a nice touch. At least this time she didn't have to stuff her clothing with pillows to fill out her bulk, no one suspected Montague to be a particularly portly man, after all, so that's a relief (though she thought about it. It was a funny idea at the time).

Her lines are relatively few, all things considered, but she prefers it that way, and most of the time, she ends up backstage helping put things together, or attending rehearsals.

Hopefully whoever ended up as Lady Montague or the ill-fated Romeo has a good rapport with her... it might be a little awkward otherwise.] We've got more foam swords, who else was supposed to be part of the battle?

[Yeah, that, too.]

[B:

SURPRIIIISE! Yes, she's actually at the after-party. Sei Satou, weirdo and somewhat antisocial enigma is actually at the after-party, mostly yucking it up with the other members of the Yamayurikai and-]

Hey, did you have fun?

[ people she dragged into the whole affair. Yes, you. All of you. B) She has your number.]

Yukari Takeba | 2nd Year

[ofwindandarrows]

[A:

Well, duh she's part of the play, she's Rosa Chinensis en Bouton.

As Tybalt.

This is Yukari's face upon realizing she's basically the antagonist of the entire play.] Have at thee, coward...? ... Ugh, this character's just a big bully!

[She loves it, can't you tell?]

[B:

And this is Yukari after the play, flopping down and spreading her arms out on the small hill near where the bonfire is blazing.

Anyone that approaches her gets her raising her hand - and her pointer finger - toward the sky.] I don't like anything I had to say, before you ask. [Who knows if that was even what they were going to ask.]

Kaede | First Year

[long_live_the_queen]

A. Pre-drama

[Kaede had a responsibility to help with the sets themselves, often whenever she had enough of people. This time, she was helping to pretty up the wooden scaffolding Juliet was supposed to stand on. Potted plants and painted wood were all very nice, but the banners and flags had been finished today as well, and needed putting up.

She slouched over the balcony, and reached for the end of one of the painted banners folded on the sort-of-distant ground.]

Hand me that.

B. Pre- or During-drama

[Of course Kaede was one of the innumerable nameless extras wearing different hats for different moments of staged violence. Her...enthusiasm tended to carry her throughout an exhausting number of rehearsals and scenes, but even Kaede got tired eventually and started making mistakes.

Like this time, when she put her foot down in just the right way to make her ankle collapse in protest. She wasn't hurt, but she was careening straight at someone.

At least Kaede was scrawny, if armed with a foam sword.]