When I did my theatre major admissions interview back in May, I was supposed to have a monologue prepared, and the one I did was Elizabeth Sawyer from The Witch of Edmonton.   I thought I did an awesome job translating the monologue to ASL, but when I did the monologue at the interview, I goofed the last part.  I am still pretty annoyed about it considering I put so much work into it!  But one day, I will find another chance to do it.  Here it is:

A witch! who is not?
Hold not that universal name in scorn, then.
What are your painted things in princes’ courts,
Upon whose eyelids lust sits, blowing fires
To burn men’s souls in sensual hot desires,
Upon whose naked paps a lecher’s thought
Acts sin in fouler shapes than can be wrought?
These by enchantments can whole lordships change
To trunks of rich attire, turn ploughs and teams
To Flanders mares and coaches, and huge trains
Of servitors to a French butterfly.
Have you not city-witches who can turn
Their husband’s wares, whole standing shops of wares,
To sumptuous tables, gardens of stolen sin;
In one year wasting what scarce twenty win?
Are not these witches?
Why, then, on me,
Or any lean old beldam? Reverence once
Had wont to wait on age; now an old woman,
Ill-favoured grown with years, if she be poor,
Must be called bawd or witch. Such so abused
Are the coarse witches; t’other are the fine,
Spun for the devil’s own wearing.

If you look at my pages, next to the About page, you’ll find one called “Bucket List.” This page lists all of the things I want to do before I die.  It is kind of morbid, I know, but I am the kind who loves to make lists.   I am a very stubborn person, and I am not one to back down from a challenge–even one I give to myself–so it’s a good reminder and motivator.  I get a rush from ticking off canned corn from my shopping list, so imagine what happens when it’s from my Bucket List!  Anyway, you’ll see that one of my list items is to play a witch onstage.  To be honest, the thought of getting onstage makes me really nervous; I’m not really an actress, I’m more of a writer and a behind-the-scenes kind of person.  But playing a witch?  I think I would be perfectly alright risking my stage nerves with that!

When I was a kid, there were witches everywhere, starting with my mother.  Mind you, I’m not dissing my mother, it so happens she dressed up like one every Hallowe’en!  That is one of my favourite childhood memories of her, her dressing up as a witch and going to teach at her school all-out in the role.  Then when I was about 8 or 9, amongst other witch-themed television shows and films, I was absolutely crazy about the movie Hocus Pocus.  I even sent a fan letter to Bette Midler!  Unfortunately, the letter got returned, I guess that’s what happens when you just completely make up the address!  This was a good thing for my mother because she thought the letter was pricelessly funny, and she kept it in her store of embarrassing Victoria Artifacts to show to boyfriends and friends in the years afterward.

There were many more witches in my life: Worst Witch, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, The Craft, Practical Magic, and even in books by Mary Stewart.  The first witch I think of if anyone asked would probably be Morgan le Fay, who I read about in Stewart’s books and many other books about the Arthurian legend.  One particular book I read was The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley, which is an absolutely amazing feminist take on the Arthurian legend.  By the way, I got that novel as a birthday present from my speech therapist in the 5th grade.  I read it again in 2007, and my reaction was, “This is so not kids’ reading material!!!”  There’s sex, incest, murder, rape, etc!  But anyhow, that 2nd reading really made me think about the Witch, and her role in society.   In Marion Zimmer Bradley’s novel, Morgaine –the name Morgan le Fay is called in the novel–is not a witch in the strict sense, but a woman raised to become a priestess of the Mother Goddess in the old, pagan ways of druid mysticism and magic.  Morgaine is seen as a witch because her matriarchal religion is considered a threat to the Christianity that her brother, King Arthur, welcomes to his kingdom.  Witches are women who are outcasts because of fear of who they are, and because they go against the patriarchal ideals of beauty, female subordination and the virginal.

When looking at witches throughout legend, there are basically two types: the beldam, and the femme fatale.   The beldam is an old crone with knowledge and wisdom, which often lends them the aspect of being seers.  Recently, I saw Big Fish (for the 1,000th time), the Swamp Witch in the film is what one would call a beldam, a terrifically old woman who lives alone, whose notoriety inspires terror in the hearts of neighbourhood children.  When one looks into the Swamp Witch’s eye after she peels back her eye patch, one will be able to see how they “go”.  As for the femme fatale, she is an enchantress with the ability to change things, especially through using the power of womanhood.    Besides Morgan le Fay, an example of a femme fatale would be Lilith, who, in Jewish mythology, was Adam’s first wife before Eve.  Lilith, as the story goes, was created from the same dust as Adam, and so was equal to him.  Lilith would not become subservient to Adam, then left from Eden, and the result was she became painted as a terrifying hell-beast bent on destroying manhood and quenching life.  Come to think of it, I don’t think I have read about very many witches who had husbands, only minions;  I think that makes the witch more terrifying in society’s eyes, really, as it means she doesn’t have a man to “control” her.

Now when I think about Elizabeth Sawyer, she is just an old lady, a beldam embittered by her community’s rejection of her.  Elizabeth is falsely accused of practicing witchcraft, and only resorts to it when she begins to feel that there is no other way to redeem herself.  I can see why she does what she does: her means to power is limited, so she tries to get around that by becoming a witch–a woman of power.  With all that said, if I should ever play a witch onstage, I will enthusiastically carry out the role, and with the utmost wicked pleasure!