Tragic Hero

         “Is it just Willow, or does everyone think I’m a bad Stage Manager?” Let us take the Fifth Amendment on that one for now. Nevertheless, the answer to that question is what proves that Nathan Fleer is a tragic hero.

         Aristotle says that a tragic hero should be a “larger and better” version of the people in the audience. Nathan’s title of Assistant Stage Manager, for the school musical, High Society seems to qualify him automatically as a tragic hero. In addition, as much as Nathan cares about theater, somehow his natural flaw for being especially lazy seems to get in the way.

         Due to his fault, whenever someone offered his or her help, Nathan used is as an excuse to do nothing. However, usually someone offered help because Nathan was not doing anything to start with. The head Stage Manager, Willow Lupa, noticed these methods of avoidance. Moreover, she grew more impatient with every rehearsal.

         Finally, it reached a point where a Stage Crewmember was doing Nathan’s job for him. Further, the crewmember had never really learned how to do their job. It was not until the Senior Matinee that the realization of Nathan’s mistake dawned on him.

         It is a rule that all crewmembers’ working onstage must wear black. This creates uniformity and makes them less noticeable during scene changes. On the day of the Matinee, however, Nathan was able to slip into the wings without anyone noticing he was not in solid black. However, this meant he could not go onstage so the crewmember that had been doing his job had to attempt to take over their original duties.

         The concealment of this switch, however, was not to be. After a set piece nearly missed its mark and almost threw off the lighting, Willow pulled Nathan aside.

         After speaking with a few other crewmembers Nathan realized that if he had been more on top of things, it would have made the performance, run a lot more smoothly. To answer his question: “Sorry Nathan, but yes.”