Chevvy

I like women. Does that bother you? It doesn't me. Blondes, brunettes, hybrids and redheads….mostly blondes. There are few pleasures in life comparable to that ultimate satisfaction of rolling around some abandoned barn or closed-off bedroom with a woman. Laughing, smiling drippinin sweat. That's really all there is to it.

They're just so attractive. Truly the fairer sex. Pretty faces, smooth bodies, and small, delicate hands. I will not blush in admitting that I thoroughly enjoy clasping hands with a woman. Interlocking fingers, a small stroke of the thumb. It's beauty tangential.

I was born and raised in Paris, son of Bertram and Amelie Chenneviette. My father ran a modestly succesful shoe factory just outside the city.
I had a rather enjoyable childhood despite my to older brothers Ramon and Monfils, who wasted no time in teaching me the ancient and powerful arts of seduction.

In my younger days, before women were so readily in my mind, I spent a lot of my time sneaking into clubs and playing poker with my friends.
Now let me be very clear: certain vices have no grip on men. Alcohol, for example, while something I enjoy from time to time is not worth the pain which follows in it's excess. But gambling? Gambling is different.
Drinking can be only damaging for a person. It clouds judgement, and will make a man go wild.
But gambling can often be a vice worth investing in. How else can a man with one franc, end the day with 1,000? It has far more potential for advancement than alcohol does, or violence, and all in all it can be a very useful thing to relieve stress on a bad day.
I shall not deny that it has plagued me all of my life, but of all the plagues a man can have…at least this one comes with hope.

As the youngest of three sons I quickly had to establish myself. As a young man it became clear that I would turn out handsome as the rest of my family (if not moreso, so Ramon says), and I started to learn what a pleasure a good woman could be. Young women, old women, poor women, rich women…when you're young, all flowers are worth stooping for.

In fact I shall admit freely without any hesitation that were it not for my lady skills, (and the fact that English and Arithmetic were both taught by very pretty, very young girls), that I quite likely would not have passed through finishing school. It's difficult to make all classes on a busy schedule.

In my young adult life both my parents kept me afloat financially rather nicely, giving me ample freetime to spend at the casinos and improving my art.
Women came from all over it seemed. And in my insatiable hunger I took whatever I could with very little care or devotion to them at all.

But that was all before I met Lucette Gautier.
I was in Monte Carlo for a vacation with some friends. Every now and then we like to go and check out the casinos. There's no place like Monte Carlo in the springtime. Beautiful beaches, plenty of weddings to crash, and some of the loosest women in all of France.
We had it all planned: a different casino every night, a different part of town, and as many different women as we could handle. There's some blinding recklessness about a youthful male which always puts quantity before quality.
Anyway, it was our usual scheme; me and four others put down one hundred francs apiece and whoever had conquered the most women by the end of the trip got the whole pot. Furthermore, we had to keep at least one piece of lingerie from each triumph as proof.
I usually won.

I was in a small club downtown with Matthieu and Bastian. Men on the prowl should always travel in groups at least of two. I had played a few hands and we were about to head out, when they announced that a new singer would be premiering. How could I have known that this night would change my life.
She was beautiful. Long hair shining gold in the stage-lights; a bright red dress fitted to her supple curves like a second skin, and those eyes…those beautiful, wide eyes, so light-blue and so innocent. Looking in Lucette's eyes was like staring skyward on a clear day.
She could also walk in heels.
I love a woman who knows how to walk in heels.

I went back to that club three nights in a row, and each night she'd walk on, sing, and disappear offstage. I knew that eventually she'd come step off the stage and have a drink. It always takes a while for new singers.
The fourth night it happened. She and her sister decided to mingle with the audience after a particularly exquisite performance of the same songs I had heard three times before.
It didn't take long to charm the sister. I bought her two cups of "pineapple juice" and she was back at their hotel room snoozing. It was only me and Lucette then: me, Lucette, and the silver beams of a full moon reflecting off of the Monte Carlo bay.
Lucette slept in my room that night.

I'd go to Monte Carlo more and more often after that. My friends were understanding of my newfound love of course, seeing as it meant more frequent visits to the city of boards and broads. After six months, and one particularly tipsy night in the abandoned back room of Lucette's club, we discovered that we had a baby on the way. Her and Marceline decided to come live with me; I was happy to have them both since they could give adequate attention to each other, without my actually being in the room.
I shall not deny that throughout Lucette's pregnancy and in our entire marriage in general, I was not entirely faithful to my wife. But be sure, I do not see this as an especially dire fault in my character.
A man who takes on a mistress, or several, is no different than the man who creeps downstairs for a midnight snack after dinner.
It's not to say that the dinner wasn't well made, indeed, often as the case may be the dinner is the man's favorite meal prepared to his utmost satisfaction. It's only to say that there wasn't enough of it.
And what should a man with a healthy appetite do? Wake up his wife to cook for him every night he's still hungry? No! Certainly not. By my reasoning the best way to preserve the sanctity of my marriage was through infidelity.

I don't believe that Lucette was ever aware of these conquests of mine, and I bought her pianos and things to keep her happy, although her parents' butler Firmin has caught me in the act on more than a couple occasions. This has led to an odd relationship with him now that he lives with her.

My son's name is Gaston Jean-Paul Bertram Monfils Franco Gautier-Chenneviette. Now before you start please let me explain that a young gambling man can make many foolhardy bets, and that often times bets made between good friends will involve the naming of a first-born son.
I need better friends who won't hold me to these bets.

Anyway after my son was born, Lucette wanted to get right back into singing and as she became more popular I gradually started working less, and gambling more. After Chagizaro was only a year old Lucette and Marcelline moved out.

It's the only time I ever recall being heartbroken.

I love my son, although to be frank he can rather bore me at times. He loves to watch the races with me, and often chooses the winners based on their colors better than I. But he's still only six and I look forward to the first time I catch him staring at a woman quizzically, wondering how it all works. Until then it's kind of like caring for a puppy.
All in all though, he's cute enough to attract women and has Lucette's eyes. I like having him around.

So long as Lucette has money, I'm set to pretty much do a I please. Chagizaro's living with me means that I always have an excuse to ask her for cash.

That's why I'm not all too fond of the Bois D'Eghien fellow. He's a nice enough guy, but isn't rambunctiousness enough to take out for a drink, nor nearly rich enough to keep at home with Lucette.
While he supplies entertainment in the form of a good scrape though, I do quite like him. There's nothing like a good scrape to me. I whine and insult Bois- DeEngien, but really hi-jinx like his triangle with Lucette and Vivianne are one of my favorite things in the World.

Great. Now please do the voice and movement journal, and the relationships and moment before/moment after journal. Good start. you and Siri need to do an improvisation. Too much of the detail of your relationship is being lost in the rehearsal process.

WEEK THREE: My character prop is a pair of lucky dice, which my eldest brother Matthieu gave me on a returning trip from the army. In my adventures, they've managed to get me out of a few scrapes. They're not weighted or "trick" dice in any sense of the word, but simply get the job done when necessary. I suppose that every gambling man has at least one superstition, and this undoubtedly is my own. I never leave home without them; I find it helpful to have a little luck in my pocket at all times. They give me confidence that no matter how rough a situation I'm in, I can always get out of it. **You will have to research the dice but what a great personal prop. Bring in dice to the stumble through on Sunday and start to incorporate them into the show.

Oh, and you are still missing journals, Nate.**

Week 2: Building the Character 1:
Relationships: Lucette is my ex-wife. Although I used to cheat on her and still sleep around, she is the only woman that I ever loved. Before the play I go to her house to get money for Chagizaro. but my alterior moment is to get with her while she's in her shattered state over the loss of Boise. Our teasing relationship doesn't change much throughout the play, although there are glimpses of how much we care about each other.

Firmin: Fun relationship. He knows exactly what I'm capable of, but luckily is in a position of no power and therefore cannot act on it. I enjoy joking around with him. He seems to like me generally, and we often team up since we have lots of common goals throughout the play.

Marceline: Very interesting relationship—she's kind of like my little sister, whom I still flirt with. I feel like it's helpful to her. She's always been in Lucette's shadow, and, being the youngest sibling myself in my family, I can understand a little bit of her pain. So I flirt with her, and tease her too. I'm very happy when I see her with Antonio, and feel like it's been my years of abusing her which has prepared her for a man in her life. Oh, and she can still annoy me quite a lot.

Boise: Not a fan of this guy at fist. He's got no cash to burn, so that could mean less for me down the road. He achieves some of the attractiveness naturally which I have to work at, despite the fact that I'm far better at it, it can still annoy me. As we begin to bond though, and especially as I learn that he's leaving Lucette, we can bond a lot more and actually work toward some common goals at the end.

Fontanet: I think that I like this guy less than anyone else. He's nice, but he's a total mood-killer. I deal with him and am polite, but he's really got nothing to offer me since I'm not that interested in his conversational skills.

Nini Galant: Now this girl I like. She's hott and stupid. A beautiful conversation for a purely sexual lover. She gets kind of uppity with me now that she's marrying the Duke, but I'll get her back the next time that we're alone.

The General: He's rich. He annoys me to no end, but I'm sure that he'd annoy Lucette too, probably right into my bed. And so long as he gives her enough cash to have it go into my pocket, he's alright in my book.

Bouzin: At first I quite like him. Then I find out that he has no money, and there's no reason for me to like him anymore. I find his clothes a crime against fashion, to be honest.

Vivienne: Hott hott hott hott hott hott hott hott hott.

Week Eight: Character Diary:
Chagizaro jumped on top of me in his usual form around 10:00, and that kicked off my day. By 10:30 we were in the marketplace. I bought him a baguette and a radish from a lover of mine who works in the marketplace. I like to intentionally not eat anything and work up an appetite before going to Lucette's house. Drives her butler crazy.

By 11:00 we were back at the house where Chagizaro put on his good clothes. I'm glad I'm getting his allowance today. We're beginning to run a little short.
By noon I am at her house, having dropped off Chagizaro at his schoolmate's house. I go in and see Marceline and Firmin, Nini Galant comes over, I meet with Lucette, Fontanet comes, Nini leaves and we go to lunch. It was good. Firmin was in and out. I sat in between Marceline and Lucette, away from Fontanet. That Bois D'Enghien is not the finest conversationalist.

After that we discovered the flowers from Bouzin. I thought that he was rich, and was looking forward to meeting him. Boise was acting strange.
Bouzin came and I met him. His clothes were an atrocity and his attitude matched his clothes. Lucette gets the WORST suitors.

Lucette then took me to draw up Chagizaro's allowance. She then left and her manservant Firmin drew up the papers. I went back to give them to her and walked in on her kissing the loverboy. He then proceeded, with only a little push from me, to tell me about his engagement (after Lucette had left the room of course). We then heard that the General was coming, so we went into the next room where he went into the situation in more detail. I was also given an invitation to the party that night from Firmin. I quickly went to Chagizaro's school, picked him up, and took him to a…nanny of sorts that he could stay with that night. Although I had a little cash, I always enjoy paying women's services in other ways if possible.

I left her house and went immediately back to Lucette's, where we then left for Madame Duverger's. Lucette had on a beautiful dress. She looked absolutely sexilicious. Eventually we were let in, and I saw Vivienne for the first time. Wow.

I also met Madame Duverger, who was told that I was Lucette's manager. It's a part I've had to play many times before. I get to party and she gets to seem more legitimate. I followed Duverger, and Vivienne, into the room where Lucette would be singing. I went back in to tell Lucette it was acceptable, and instead ran into Boise Idaho. Wonderful.

He was acting oddly and ran out of the room. I played it pretty cool, if I do say so myself. Eventually the others left, and he came back to tell me exactly what was going on. It seems that he's marrying Vivienne. Once agian, wonderful.

So Vivienne came in and then Vivienne with Lucette. I couldn't very well let them find out about Boise's true perogative, because if he doesn't marry Vivienne then I could be stuck with him hanging around Lucette's quite a lot. So I actually…removed Lucette from the room, and kept her distracted long as it took. When we went back in I learned that the General was coming. He arrived in his usual fashion, and I tried to get him closer with Lucette. Then Vivienne and Boise came in, and then that Bouzin fellow of all people. It seem that he's the notary for their marriage. Wonderful.

I went into the next room with Vivienne to watch the contract signing. When Boise didn't come in, they went out to look for him and Irrigua caught glimpse of the songwriter. Chaos broke out. Luctte called upon me to chase him down, which I did all the way around the house. We came back in and I was quite exhausted. Lucette seemed to have fainted too, for some reason.

Fontanet was unhelpful, as usual. I'm not quite sure what he was actually doing there, to be honest. He let it slip that Boise was Lucette's lover, and the General tried to kill him. Then Boise walked in and the General tried to kill him. I figured that I should stip them, and it was all straightened out eventually. I saw that Lucette was awake, and Boise asked for some alone time with her. So we all left and waited for him to come in and sign the contract. We heard Lucette shouting instead, so we went in and saw them both in a most uncompromising situation. Lucette was actually quite turning me on actually. Regardless, the General said that he would kill Boise the next day. There was then this very awkward silence, and suspecting that the festivities were more or less over for the evening, I left the house. I'm not sure if Lucette actually ended up singing anything.

So I left my card with a servant for Vivienne, and went to pick up Chagizaro so I could take him home.

It was quite a fun day actually, to say the least. I love getting into scrapes.

WEEK EIGHT: EVALUATION

I feel like, in approaching the role again, I would have benefitted from looking at some of the character relationships more closely. It probablu would have been good for me to pick a character voice and start working with it earlier on. I kind of knew that I should have done that earlier, but it wasn't really happening until later. David helped out quite a bit with that. I feel like I tried to make the best of a part which I admittedly wasn't so thrilled about at first, and that I took a lot of risks too. As far as my rehearsal journals go, as always they could have been better. I was fine at first, but then just started doing the ones I felt would be the most beneficial to me at the time. I feel like I tried to take the notes which you gave me, and took most of them pretty well.

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