Last night I saw MLAM rehearsed for the first time, and one particular aspect of the staging bothered me and several other cast members. As Tuptim is singing, the King is still on his throne watching her sing! Isn't the whole point of the song that the King *doesn't* know that Tuptim loves somebody else? Is this basic staging, or is something amiss with our director? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this bizarre bit of staging.

We had everyone leave the stage, Tuptim by herself for this scene...at the end of the applause, the gong sounded, the King entered and she was back in her bow on the floor for his meeting with Anna.

Very strange though!

Now I know why this topic hasn't goten very many replies! I had voiced this staging concern to many people who saw the show, and one person in particular who has seen over twenty productions of TKAI (many of them professional) said that the way we staged it was customary. But comments are still welcome!

it not really customary that way. actually its usually staged with the rest of the actors in a free...tuptim is in light the lights fade to a blueish tint around her. signally that we are getting a glimpse into what she is thinking. its an internal monolouge.

Well, in terms of Tuptim's role in the song, we stayed very true to the internal monologue aspect (or as one cast member put it, her 'out of body experience'). The concern was the King's inclusion onstage; I would have rather seen it the way that ConverseSneaker described, where Tuptim is the only one onstage.

I seem to remember that in the Broadway revival with Donna Murphy and Lou Diamond Philips (though I could be misremembering - I was only seven when I saw it) they brought down the curtain behind Tuptim for that song.

I was watching the DVD of our production last night with my dad, and he noticed yet another strange piece of blocking. Our director decided to include Tuptim in "Geting to Know You". To those of you familiar with the show, is her inclusion in that song odd to anybody else and is that the norm?

It's not unheard of. She's one of the wives, and the king wanted Anna to educate the wives.

But Tuptim isn't one of his "official" wives. She's a concubine, I think.

Since our concubines also had children, all wives and concubines and children were in Getting To Know You, including Tuptim in my production. We actually made a point of her being offended but unable to say anything at the line where Lady Thiang comments on how greater Siam is over Burma and Anna noticing and taking the lesson back over.

If I remember correctly, she stays on in the scene for her duet afterwards? At any rate, she was in the schoolroom scene in the movie as well.

Well, remember that the King has a small monologue after his fight with Anna. In my production, Anna, the Wives, and Children (including Tuptim) clear the stage, King does monologue, and then Tuptim and Lun Tha meet onstage.

I actually like the king, as well as others, being on stage- if there would some kind of spotlight on Tuptim, and the rest freezing- that would make the point of 'fighting inside, but not able to show on the outside" even stronger