Merlin Trivia 20060414

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=26.25% BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <div> <IMG SRC="24417d700.jpg" border=0 width="125" height="112" ALT="Branch River Theatre, Inc. Logo" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> <A HREF="id115.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="25th Silver Jubilee Show"><U><B>Current Production</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id107.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Season 200708"><U><B>Season 2007-08</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id108.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Players 200708"><U><B>The Players 2007-08</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id109.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Production Staff 200708"><U><B>Production Staff 2007-08</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id110.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Special Thanks 200708"><U><B>Special Thanks 2007-08</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id5.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Past Productions"><U><B>Past Productions</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id12.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Photo Gallery"><U><B>Photo Gallery</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id60.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="BRT Archives"><U><B>BRT Archives</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id13.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Playbill Advertising"><U><B>Playbill Advertising</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id30.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Advertisers/Sponsors"><U><B>Advertisers/Sponsors</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id14.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Production Checklist"><U><B>Production Checklist</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id102.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Vision/Mission/Goals"><U><B>Vision/Mission/Goals</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id103.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="ByLaws"><U><B>BRT By-Laws</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id25.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Roles Responsibilities"><U><B>Roles & Responsibilities</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id19.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="BRT Newsletter"><U><B>Calendar/Newsletter</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id3.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Chair Fund Raiser"><U><B>Chair Fund</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id20.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Directions"><U><B>Directions</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id8.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Contact Us"><U><B>Contact Us</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Branch River Theatre"><U><B>HOME</B></U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF" background="13fea8783.png"> <div> <B><IMG SRC="fac273f0.jpg" border=0 width="295" height="63" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">  <IMG SRC="296c643e0.gif" border=0 width="100" height="62" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> <IMG SRC="096f4010.png" border=0 width="500" height="1" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="1405323f0.jpg" border=0 width="50" height="63" ALT="V" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">ery little is known about Merlin's mother. Her actual presence in the Arthurian legend is usually brief or rarely mentioned at all. The magician's mother has been called Aldan in Welsh tales, Optima in French legends, and Marinia in other stories.  Some legends reference Merlin's mother as the daughter of a great king, while other folklore denotes her as a common peasant woman. These different extremes created a dilemma for me when I was attempting to develop the character of Merlin's mother in our production of "Merlin." One thing seems to be quite common in the majority of these legends and stories. Merlin was conceived in his mother's womb without any intervention from an earthly father. Most of the legends acknowledge the fact that the devil was Merlin's father. And that when Merlin was born, his mother has him immediately baptized to dispel the evil that may have been in him. That is the reason why Merlin's conduct in the Arthurian epics mixes good with evil in his persona — but mostly that of good. The evil usually represented his magical powers that most people in the realm could not fully comprehend. With all this information to consider, I chose to combine various characteristics form the past and create Merlin;s mother based on both worlds — as they say. I opted for the Optima (from the French) because for one, I liked the way it sounded — and two, the pronunciation of it reminded me of a person with a sparkling and enthusiastic personality. This character of Optima was based on the idea of combing the nobility of one legend with the peasantry of the other. Hence our Optima is a peasant domestic engineer who sometimes behaves like a reigning monarch.</div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <A HREF="id78.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Merlin Trivia Menu"><U>Return to Trivia Menu</U></A>  </div> </td> </tr></table></body>