the curtain rises on the alderidge school, slowly reawakening as winter break draws to a close. over the past couple days, students have been returning to their dormitories, the refectory has been opening its doors, and faculty are dusting their offices for the beginning of the spring semester. rather than the usual excitement, however, a strange apprehension fills the campus, particularly among the theatre students. the absence of orson hobbs is palpable, and the question of what happened to him hangs heavily in the air.
still, the show goes on, and with the beginning of the semester comes one of alderidgeâs most beloved traditions: the winter masque. each spring, on the saturday night before the first week of classes, the student body gathers for a glamorous masquerade ball. the refectory is transformed into a grand ballroom, and students don masks and fine attire for a night of music, dancing, and revelry. but thatâs not all; it wouldnât be alderidge without some theatrics, would it?
school tradition dictates that when the clock strikes midnight, the annual performance of selected scenes from romeo and juliet begins. the scenes are always performed by fourth-year theatre students, although third-years are often drafted to fill in extra parts. still in their masquerade attire, the actors use the entire ballroom as their stage to dazzle with shakespeareâs most beloved tragedy. there is, of course, a catch: none of it is rehearsed beforehand. two weeks before the masque, actors are sent their roles and scenes to memorize, but they cannot rehearse with their peers or even share which role they will play. anything could happen once they step into character... anything at all.
welcome to ensembleâs opening event, the beginning of which will mark the start of in-character interactions: tomorrow, june 2nd, at 6pm EST. thereâs a whole lot going on with this event, and we couldnât fit it all into the above paragraphs, so please see below for more details regarding the winter masque. let us know if you have any questions!
THE PARTY:
the winter masque begins at 8pm sharp.
students are encouraged to go all-out in their ball attire, and everyone must be wearing a mask.
the refectory has been converted into a ballroom, with a dance floor taking up the center, a band playing by the windows, and small round tables with chairs set up along the walls.
also to the side of the room are tables with appetizer-style food and beverages.
the music and dancing are ballroom-style; what they might expect if they were attending a masquerade ball in fair verona.
when they arrive at the ball, our students will be met with an unpleasant surprise: two detectives, in uniform, standing off to the side and patrolling the room periodically for signs of any suspicious behavior. you are welcome to use this in your threads!
THE PERFORMANCE:
shortly, everyone will be receiving a letter in their inbox, listing your characterâs role(s) and the scene(s) in which they appear. ooc, please do not state the role for everyone to see; and ic, do not have them reveal it to anyone pre-performance.
if youâd like, however, you can give away your characterâs role when plotting privately with other muns; and if you discover your characters have stagetime together, you can write the scene as an event thread!
should you choose to write out part of a scene on the dash, we encourage you to be as creative as you want in making something actually happen, beyond the characters saying their lines back and forth to each other (because what fun is that?). theyâre intense actors surrounded by ambiance who have never rehearsed any of this before-- donât be afraid to let things get a little wild! just be conscious of not godmodding any other actors in the scene.Â
note that these threads are 100% not mandatory, since they require a little research and will be easier to come up with for some than for others, depending on your characterâs role. but if you want to look into it, here are some websites that might help: hudson shakespeare (summary of each scene), open source shakespeare (full text of each scene).
the list of scenes being performed is as follows:
act 1, scene 1
act 1, scene 5
act 3, scene 1
act 4, scene 5
act 5, scene 1
act 5, scene 3
you can write out parts of any of these scenes on the dash with the exception of act 5, scene 3. we repeat, please do not write any threads of act 5, scene 3! but everything before that...go crazy!
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the tradition began in 1958. eager to prove that theyâd toughened as a result of three-and-a-half years of alderidgeâs rigorous theatre program, the fourth-years selected one weekend early in their second semester to retreat into the woods surrounding campus. there, they slept in tents, endured the cold, and made memories that would last far beyond graduation day. several more fourth-year cohorts took up the retreat in the years that followed, until eventually it was a non-negotiable rite of passage, well-known throughout the theatre department.
there was, of course, the tragic event of the 1970 retreat. the students were severely under-prepared, resulting in the pneumonia-related death of jennifer andrews and several other severe cases of frostbite. following these events, alderidge made the decision to ban the fourth-year retreat; but this made theatre students even more ardent in carrying on the tradition. while the school continues to frown upon it to this day, the students now know to come well-prepared for the cold-- and the class of 2020 is certainly not planning to be the first to chicken out.
with the weekendâs forecast predicting clear skies and reasonable warmth for this time of year, the students gather their tents and supplies in anticipation of the weekend. while it looks promising in some respects, there isnât nearly as much excitement surrounding it as everyone thought there would be--- with the retreat coming on the heels of the recent police report, the air is thick with tension. what will a weekend of isolation in the woods with the whole fourth-year cohort bring?
welcome to ensemblehqâs act i finale. the event will begin on sunday, august 2, at 1pm est, and run for approximately two weeks (although this is flexible and will be officially decided once things have gotten into full swing). in addition to regular event threads on the dash, every character will be involved in a choices-based thread on discord which will not only determine how the event ends, but affect plot progression going forward! see below the cut for more details, and please let us know asap if you will not be able to participate in the discord thread (in this case, we wonât assign your character to a group).
at the start of the event, characters will be split into five groups (maybe fewer if multiple people arenât able to participate). theyâll be as mixed up as possible to group people together who donât normally interact a ton!
each group will be given a channel in the discord server, a specific scenario in which their characters have found themselves, and a choice to make.
as the group threads commence on discord, admins will interject at certain points with further choices! they might be directed to a specific character (weâll @ them if thatâs the case), or meant for anyone in the group to jump onto.
there are multiple potential outcomes for each group, and every outcome will have an affect on our plot in one way or another. so just respond to the scenarios ic, and letâs see what happens!
the group discord threads will be running concurrently with normal dash threads for the event, and youâll have the whole duration of the event to complete them. we encourage short replies to these threads, and they will be counted toward activity as well! so weâd really like everyone to participate unless youâre in need of a hiatus during the event.
