Da-da's Theater of the Absurd (Ga-ga)

Bronko decidedly Puckish as Ipso. Or is that Facto?

Da-da's in the process of reading John Lithgow's excellent new book, *DRAMA: An Actor's Education*. Bronko inquired as to what the book was about and Da-da tried to describe what "acting" is, as well as staging, etc. 4 and 6YO Bronko and Nagurski nodded, as if they understood perfectly. Unconvinced, Da-da decided to put it to the test and stage our own little acting exercise to see what would happen (this is, in fact, Da-da's favorite thing about BEING Da-da, being able to try something totally new with total newbies and see if the freshly minted Hindenberg rises aloft, sits there like a cinder block, or catches fire and crashes into Haddonfield, NJ). So, Da-da set the stage.

Da-da was to act as disinterested night janitor of a decided off-off-off-Broadway production of "Ga-ga," forced into helping two young renegade thespians, Ipso and Facto, run their lines. The boys were the young thespians.

Da-da then explained that the only word allowable was, "ga-ga." (Note: this has nothing to do with Lady Gaga, whom Da-da has never even heard. It's actually an inside joke, as Bronko, Da-da's youngest, has been having an inexplicable regression stage here and there, often using, "ga-ga" as his only linguistic currency. Thus, we would perform the entire improv using that one single word. So, Da-da dressed one boy in a red superhero cape with a blue/white "A" on it, and the other in a blue superhero cape with a red/gold "M," decked them in matching yellow funny pikachu hats and yellow Spongebob jammies, put both boys on the fireplace bricks in the family room and sat below them as if proofing stereo instructions in Hindustani, and said... "GO!"

[Note: 6YO Nagurski is Ipso, 4YO Bronko is Facto.]

Ipso: "GA-Ga!"
Facto [aside, nodding and pointing]: "GA-ga!"
Ipso: "Ga-GA!"
Facto [puzzled, shaking his head]: GA-ga.
Ipso: GA-ga?
Facto: GA-ga.
Ipso: GA! Ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga, ga-ga-ga-ga-gaga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-gA-ga-GA!

[Facto looks impressed, then looks at the night janitor for his reaction.]

Night Janitor (shrugs): "GA-ga?"
Facto: Ga-gA!
Ipso: GA-GA!

And so it went for about five minutes before Nagurski rolled his eyes and said, "Blah blah blah," then we were all laughing too hard to go on. Da-da has no idea what that was about, but for a brief moment, he could imagine how Edward de V... er, Shakespeare felt when he encouraged Flop to vomit over Improvio while sawing the air with a long and indifferent chicken. Or was that Beckett?

Gaga? You want want gaga? YOU CAN'T HANDLE GAGA!