Hi, Angie,
Gosh, your question about Et and his age in 1968 and 1975. I just looked at the script, and I can’t remember what I intended. Maybe I intended nothing, and just decided that Et remained in school for many, many years. Maybe he dropped out and then went back shortly before crazy Uncle Harry showed up.
Weirdly, I don’t think this question ever came up in the original production. It’s a perfectly good question…
I would say for the actors, either invent your own personal story that works — such as he was kicked out every year for several years for misbehaving and picking on people; and then aroound Uncle Larry he suddenly gets patriotic and follow through by 1975.
Or (what I probably would do, and what I probably unconsciously intended), he maybe doesn’t age and time isn’t real in this play. (Or it’s like “Cloud 9″ — remember in Act 1, they’re one age; and in act 2, it skips 50 years ahead, but the character only age 10 years? That’s inexact about the numbers, but correct about what Churchill does in that play.)
Does that help?
How’s it going otherwise? best, Chris D