Tim G : A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (m/ff)
Posted: Mon May 27, 2019 3:33 am
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
Tim G
Wed Oct 28 14:50:44 GMT-0500 (Eastern Standard Time) 1998
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court - Part 1
I'm going to start this by saying that I love this site and I visit often. Unfortunately, I was not lucky enough to grow up in some of the neighborhoods that many of the regular contributors to this site did. Darn the luck!! I did have one experience from my teenage years that I think applies, so after these many months of enjoying all of the posts here, I figured I had better finally put it to words and post it.
Like most contributors to this site, my early bondage experiences were typically fired up by what I saw on television at a very young age. Looking back at these stories though, and considering neighborhood I grew up in, I find myself wishing that I could have grown up elsewhere (especially dudalb's neck of the woods). But, alas, all I had was a very small and very conservative Southeastern Pennsylvania town. I did have television, and that provided many outlets for one of my main interests. Television shows like Batman, Get Smart, and later on Hart to Hart and Charlie's Angels, as well as animated shows like Penelope Pitstop were always staples that I could fall back on.
Anyway, my experiences of tying up the fairer sex were typically limited to my imagination. That is, until my junior year of high school. That was the year I decided to try my hand at becoming a thespian. I'm not sure what drove me to this decision. My schedule was fairly well booked with football in the fall and baseball in the spring. However, there was a void during the winter, and our junior class was putting on a production. So without even inquiring about what play we would be doing, I tried out.
It turned out that our class was putting on a production of Mark Twain's "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court". A group of us went through some on-stage tryouts to determine which parts each would be cast for. The teacher/director originally had me cast for the part of Clearance, which in the long run would have worked out pretty well, but since this was the late '70's early '80's, there were more girls trying out than guys. The part of Clearance went to a good female friend of mine named Alyssa. At this point, I'll point out here that all names are changed to protect the innocent. Clearance was essentially the court jester and could be played by either a male or female.
Alyssa was short, very cute, and very well endowed. She had very short dark hair and was always bubbly. We had a terrific friendship that one a year later sprouted into a romance, but that's a different unrelated story. I got the part of Sir Sagramore, one of the Knights of the Round Table. It was a medium sized part (smaller than Clearance's), but a lot of fun, because Sagramore was a blowhard who became the butt of many of the jokes that transpired throughout the play. It was neat to be a part of the light-hearted side of the play. The other main character in this story was a girl named Janice. Janice was, in my opinion, one of the better-looking girls in our class. She, too, was a good friend of mine. This friendship extended back through our elementary school years together. The opinion I had of Janice's looks was definitely shared by many of my friends. She too was rather short, around 5' 2" or so. She had fairly long dark hair that came to the middle of her back, a dark complexion, and the most beautiful dark, foreboding eyes. Anyway, she was cast as the heroine of the play. And many years of college drinking have destroyed the brain cells that used to contain the name of the heroine so I don't remember that character's name. It's not important for this story.
After one try-out session, all of the characters were cast, and all cast members were given scripts to begin memorizing their lines. I began by doing an entire read through of the play. I got through the first and second acts, and was generally pretty happy with my part in the play. Then I began looking at the third act, and my jaw hit the floor. A scene early on in the third act had Merlin up to no good. He was starting to plot against the Connecticut Yankee, and the heroine (Janice) overheard his plot. By this time in the play, my character, Sagramore, was beginning to side with evil. Essentially, I was becoming one of Merlin's henchmen. Merlin orders me to grab the heroine and tie her to a chair. The stage direction notes actually said, that Sagramore proceeds to tie the heroine to the chair. I must of reread that 10 times to make sure my eyes were not playing tricks on me. I suddenly thought that acting was about the coolest thing in the world. I kept reading on. Shortly after tying the heroine up in a chair, Merlin begins to gloat about his wonderful plan. At this point in time, both Merlin and Sagramore suddenly spot Clearance as he (she in this case) is overhearing the evil plot. Of course, Merlin orders Sagramore to grab him (her). The stage instructions here say that Sagramore grabs Clearance and ties his hands behind his back. Now my head is spinning, because, in one scene my character will be able to tie up, on-stage, in front of everyone, both Janice and Alyssa.
It's at this point that it clicks in my mind that I was originally slated for the part of Clearance. And here in the play I would have been taken captive by Merlin and tied up along with Janice. So, you can see why it turned out that it would have been great to play either part. I was just thankful that I signed up to do the play in the first place. I continued reading, and got to a scene a little later in the play where I get to lead the heroine, Clearance, and Queen Gueniveirre (spelling?) across the stage. They are to have their hands tied behind their backs, and Sagramore is holding a rope that is tied around each of their waists. After reading the script, I was definitely ready to begin rehearsals.
To say that I was in heaven over the next several weeks as we went through rehearsal would be a tremendous understatement. I relished the practice time we spent going over the scene where I got to tie Janice's hands behind her back and then tie her to the chair. She was supposed to act feisty and therefore generally put up a good struggle before the larger, more powerful Sagramore finally subdued her. In fact, I would often botch up accidentally on purpose so that we would have to do the entire scene over again. The best part was that after I got done tying up Janice, I would get to end the scene by subduing and tying up Alyssa as well.
Then the topper would be the scene where I got to escort 3 girls who had their hands secured behind their backs and were lashed together at the waist across the stage. This scene opened up with the girls all tied together, therefore, some preparation had to take place before the scene happened. The preparation, involved tying the hands of all three girls behind their backs and then lashing them together. Since I was an integral part of the scene, I was one of the people who got to do all of the backstage tying.
Sadly, the weekend came where we had to put on the play, and my opportunities to tie these girls up on an almost daily basis came to an end. The play received rave reviews. I thought we did a very good job, but I was a junior in high school, and not sitting in the audience. Plus, my review of the play would be rather slighted by the fact that I was in it. I had so much fun acting that when the time came for our senior class play the following year, I gladly applied. Sadly, though, that play's theme definitely does not fit here. I did get a chance to see a movie version of "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" a few years later. I think the movie was made in the '60s. The heroine was taken captive by Merlin in that version also, and did spend some time in chains as part of her bondage. I'll never remember the actors names, but the heroine was a beautiful redhead, and watching the scene brought back some terrific memories. That's my post. Like I said before, I think this is a great site. I always look forward to the chances I get to pay a visit.
Tim G.
Tim G
Wed Oct 28 14:50:44 GMT-0500 (Eastern Standard Time) 1998
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court - Part 1
I'm going to start this by saying that I love this site and I visit often. Unfortunately, I was not lucky enough to grow up in some of the neighborhoods that many of the regular contributors to this site did. Darn the luck!! I did have one experience from my teenage years that I think applies, so after these many months of enjoying all of the posts here, I figured I had better finally put it to words and post it.
Like most contributors to this site, my early bondage experiences were typically fired up by what I saw on television at a very young age. Looking back at these stories though, and considering neighborhood I grew up in, I find myself wishing that I could have grown up elsewhere (especially dudalb's neck of the woods). But, alas, all I had was a very small and very conservative Southeastern Pennsylvania town. I did have television, and that provided many outlets for one of my main interests. Television shows like Batman, Get Smart, and later on Hart to Hart and Charlie's Angels, as well as animated shows like Penelope Pitstop were always staples that I could fall back on.
Anyway, my experiences of tying up the fairer sex were typically limited to my imagination. That is, until my junior year of high school. That was the year I decided to try my hand at becoming a thespian. I'm not sure what drove me to this decision. My schedule was fairly well booked with football in the fall and baseball in the spring. However, there was a void during the winter, and our junior class was putting on a production. So without even inquiring about what play we would be doing, I tried out.
It turned out that our class was putting on a production of Mark Twain's "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court". A group of us went through some on-stage tryouts to determine which parts each would be cast for. The teacher/director originally had me cast for the part of Clearance, which in the long run would have worked out pretty well, but since this was the late '70's early '80's, there were more girls trying out than guys. The part of Clearance went to a good female friend of mine named Alyssa. At this point, I'll point out here that all names are changed to protect the innocent. Clearance was essentially the court jester and could be played by either a male or female.
Alyssa was short, very cute, and very well endowed. She had very short dark hair and was always bubbly. We had a terrific friendship that one a year later sprouted into a romance, but that's a different unrelated story. I got the part of Sir Sagramore, one of the Knights of the Round Table. It was a medium sized part (smaller than Clearance's), but a lot of fun, because Sagramore was a blowhard who became the butt of many of the jokes that transpired throughout the play. It was neat to be a part of the light-hearted side of the play. The other main character in this story was a girl named Janice. Janice was, in my opinion, one of the better-looking girls in our class. She, too, was a good friend of mine. This friendship extended back through our elementary school years together. The opinion I had of Janice's looks was definitely shared by many of my friends. She too was rather short, around 5' 2" or so. She had fairly long dark hair that came to the middle of her back, a dark complexion, and the most beautiful dark, foreboding eyes. Anyway, she was cast as the heroine of the play. And many years of college drinking have destroyed the brain cells that used to contain the name of the heroine so I don't remember that character's name. It's not important for this story.
After one try-out session, all of the characters were cast, and all cast members were given scripts to begin memorizing their lines. I began by doing an entire read through of the play. I got through the first and second acts, and was generally pretty happy with my part in the play. Then I began looking at the third act, and my jaw hit the floor. A scene early on in the third act had Merlin up to no good. He was starting to plot against the Connecticut Yankee, and the heroine (Janice) overheard his plot. By this time in the play, my character, Sagramore, was beginning to side with evil. Essentially, I was becoming one of Merlin's henchmen. Merlin orders me to grab the heroine and tie her to a chair. The stage direction notes actually said, that Sagramore proceeds to tie the heroine to the chair. I must of reread that 10 times to make sure my eyes were not playing tricks on me. I suddenly thought that acting was about the coolest thing in the world. I kept reading on. Shortly after tying the heroine up in a chair, Merlin begins to gloat about his wonderful plan. At this point in time, both Merlin and Sagramore suddenly spot Clearance as he (she in this case) is overhearing the evil plot. Of course, Merlin orders Sagramore to grab him (her). The stage instructions here say that Sagramore grabs Clearance and ties his hands behind his back. Now my head is spinning, because, in one scene my character will be able to tie up, on-stage, in front of everyone, both Janice and Alyssa.
It's at this point that it clicks in my mind that I was originally slated for the part of Clearance. And here in the play I would have been taken captive by Merlin and tied up along with Janice. So, you can see why it turned out that it would have been great to play either part. I was just thankful that I signed up to do the play in the first place. I continued reading, and got to a scene a little later in the play where I get to lead the heroine, Clearance, and Queen Gueniveirre (spelling?) across the stage. They are to have their hands tied behind their backs, and Sagramore is holding a rope that is tied around each of their waists. After reading the script, I was definitely ready to begin rehearsals.
To say that I was in heaven over the next several weeks as we went through rehearsal would be a tremendous understatement. I relished the practice time we spent going over the scene where I got to tie Janice's hands behind her back and then tie her to the chair. She was supposed to act feisty and therefore generally put up a good struggle before the larger, more powerful Sagramore finally subdued her. In fact, I would often botch up accidentally on purpose so that we would have to do the entire scene over again. The best part was that after I got done tying up Janice, I would get to end the scene by subduing and tying up Alyssa as well.
Then the topper would be the scene where I got to escort 3 girls who had their hands secured behind their backs and were lashed together at the waist across the stage. This scene opened up with the girls all tied together, therefore, some preparation had to take place before the scene happened. The preparation, involved tying the hands of all three girls behind their backs and then lashing them together. Since I was an integral part of the scene, I was one of the people who got to do all of the backstage tying.
Sadly, the weekend came where we had to put on the play, and my opportunities to tie these girls up on an almost daily basis came to an end. The play received rave reviews. I thought we did a very good job, but I was a junior in high school, and not sitting in the audience. Plus, my review of the play would be rather slighted by the fact that I was in it. I had so much fun acting that when the time came for our senior class play the following year, I gladly applied. Sadly, though, that play's theme definitely does not fit here. I did get a chance to see a movie version of "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" a few years later. I think the movie was made in the '60s. The heroine was taken captive by Merlin in that version also, and did spend some time in chains as part of her bondage. I'll never remember the actors names, but the heroine was a beautiful redhead, and watching the scene brought back some terrific memories. That's my post. Like I said before, I think this is a great site. I always look forward to the chances I get to pay a visit.
Tim G.