Exhilaration | Shawn Hunter [Boy Meets World]

The Play's the Thing

At school-

"Good morning, class," Mr. Feeny greeted. "I would like you all to let out your most agonized groan." We all did so. "Good. Now, let's start planning our springtime class play." We all groaned again. "Been there, heard that. Now, before you give up in despair you may want to hear my play selection. It has sword fights, murder, skulls even ghosts. How does that sound?"

"Sounds like Spielberg," Cory spoke up.

"Sounds like Shakespeare," Mr. Feeny corrected.

"Sounds like a loser," Shawn remarked.

"I knew it," I sighed. "Too good to be true."

"We will be doing selected scenes from the play Hamlet," Mr. Feeny spoke, showing us the books. "Mr. Hunter, in the parlance of the theater you will be a spear carrier."

"Excellent," Shawn answered. "So this guy I play is like, what, a warrior and a hero?"

"No. This guy you play has very few lines to memorize." He handed me a book. "Ms. Cooper, you will be playing Gertrude."

"Yay," I fake enthusiasm. "Side character?"

"No, she's one of the lead roles."

I sunk in my chair. "Joy."

"Betts," Shawn called. "Why so down about playing a lead?"

"You know I don't like to be the center of attention...sometimes."

Mr. Feeny gained my attention again. "Miss Lawrence, you will be playing the tragic heroine, Ophelia. Now, this is a challenging role. She goes quite insane."

"Topanga insane? What a stretch," Cory remarked.

Topanga turned to him. "If I were a less-evolved person, I'd say cram it, brillo-head."

I grinned. "Don't you just love her?"

"Mr. Minkus you will be playing the role of the wise old Polonius," Mr. Feeny told him, setting a book on his desk.

"Polonius? He only has forty-eight lines," Minkus replied.

"Gee, cause that's not enough for you," I remark.

"I sort of pictured myself as the melancholy Dane."

"For those of you unfamiliar with the reference Mr. Minkus means the lead role, Prince Hamlet," Mr. Feeny answered. "Now, this is a tricky part to cast because Hamlet gets on a lot of people's nerves. He makes one stupid mistake after another and for five acts he never shuts up."

All of us looked to Cory. He looked up, not paying attention as to what Mr. Feeny just said, "What, do I have a booger?"

"Oh how perfect," I laugh as Mr. Feeny dropped a book on his desk.

***

The next day, I got to rehearse my lines more, but now it was Cory's turn. By the way, I don't like my character.

"'To be or not to be, that is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind "to suffer the slings and arrows of ...' Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Mr. Feeny, who wrote this garbage?"

"Some say Shakespeare's plays were written by a group of individuals but I don't necessarily believe that," Mr. Feeny answered.

"I personally subscribe to the Francis Bacon theory," Mr. Minkus spoke up.

"I go with the Jimmy Dean sausage theory," Shawn added.

"Eh," I say.

"Please continue, Mr. Matthews," Mr. Feeny told him.