Impassioned Gibberish

Yesterday at fight call I had an extended conversation with Mrs. Manteo (Allison Arvay) in authentic Algonquin.

Just kidding – no one here has the faintest idea what authentic Algonquin sounds like. I think a number of years ago Robert Midgette and Pete Peterson did some research and Indians were provided with a phonetic list of phrases (or my brain just made that up), but all trace of that is gone. What Allison and I conversed in was, of course, gibberish. A bunch of made up syllables randomly strung together. But we knew what we were talking about.

There is a lot of such gibberish in the show, and always has been. During rehearsals the director made some references to the Indians sounding like they were speaking Mandarin.

During Amadas and Barlowe there is a whole lot of gibberish bandied about by the alarmed Indians as the white men invade their village. Likewise in the Ralph Lane massacre scene. In the Indian Dance there are a number of different words being sung/chanted. “Any-Way-Ki-Yah-Nee” seems pretty simple but there are variations.

During the battle sequences lots of gibberish is being yelled. We are directed to fill the scenes with noise. I yell lots of “No!” and “God save us!” and “Save him!” but mostly I’m yelling “Ga-blah!” Just random noise.

I recall one summer when I was Old Tom and Mike Campbell was the Runner. During Large Assembly, after I said “I’ll kill the first man that tries to pass me!” Mike and I would hurl impassioned gibberish at each other during the crowd reaction.

Last night was the first Dare Night, when local people can get in to see the show for free (a donation of food for the food bank is requested). It used to be that there was only one night for Dare County citizens and that performance would be closed to the public at large, but now there are three chances for locals to get in and tickets are also sold to the general public.

We gave them a good show but the enjoyment was diluted when, in the middle of Act I, the wind shifted and we were blanketed with heavy smoke from the wildfire that continues to burn south of Roanoke Island near Stumpy Point and the bombing range. We’ve had the smoke before but never this bad. From the stage one could barely see the light shack at the top of the hill. Actors and audience alike coughed their heads off.

Allison Arvay as Bad Ass Mrs. Manteo