Soaking up the Sunshine…
When someone tells you to go to a Shakespeare play, musical, two person show, dance off–whatever–just go. Do yourself a favor and go. They have rarely gone wrong for me. A visiting cast of 5 in a British company blew my mind away with a hilarious production of Twelfth Night that came to Vanderbilt last year. Each cast member played various characters and would run on and off the stage, changing in and out of costumes. I was anticipating a disaster. But, my abs hurt for a good rest of the day from laughing. Shakespeare does that–he has that kind of ‘swag’–his creativity inspires others to be creative. (For the sake of argument, I do acknowledge that there have been extremely awful productions–but thank goodness–I have had the good luck of not seeing them)
So under the stars we sat on my checkered masaii blanket. The slightly chilly fall breeze swept away the humidity. Moose Kettle corn popcorn was in hand–then in mouth–the salty sweetness transporting me to another planet of culinary delight. The Midnight Summer’s Dream was a mix of tweaky costumes, sparkly everything, southern twang, and just plain old fun. Tatiana was pretty much fairy Beyoncé. Hermia and Helena were Valley girl-ish. There were so many fairies–just fairies everywhere. But, my favorite character was the wall, all bets aside. Part of what made it an interesting performance was that their spins didn’t overwhelm the characters as caricatures. Every accessory enhanced and didn’t overpower. Snaps to you my Shakespeare in the Park friends!
Next night, I had some duck soup. No…not really. On the same blanket on a much harder
surface–the parking lot of Belcourt theatre–we watched the Marx brother’s fantastic Duck Soup. I’m slowly easing myself into American classics. The humor is still a little weird to me. But, I’m working on it. Freedonia might just have to wait another day for me to become a citizen. Still, I enjoy the Belcourt Theatre’s tradition of bringing together the Hillsboro community to host a free outdoor movie and give us a little bit of a film education. Added plus, Jeni’s Icecream was there. Clearly, it is a lost opportunity if you don’t get any Jeni’s.