What Fools These Mortals Be

We're dealing with a blizzard. It's been snowing off and on since yesterday morning and it's escalated into a full blizzard. Many of the interstates and highways in the state are closed. The rest are Travel not Advised. I'm a home listening to the wind howl. I'm also contemplating my upcoming car repairs. The Corolla decided that today would be a great day to die. It's not been a good day. I could use some cheering up. Thank goodness this weekend was so much fun. The memories help.

Jeff and I headed out of town this past weekend to visit friends in Minneapolis. Two of our friends were performing in a version of Midsummer Night's Dream and we decided last minute to go up to see the show. Jeff dropped me off and picked me up from work on Friday and we headed out right at 5. The roads were good and we made fantastic time. We got there early enough to spend some time playing video games with our friend Jon until we were all too tired to keep our eyes open.


The next day we met the same friend for some breakfast at our favorite little diner in Uptown and then went shopping. We ended up in my new Mecca, a fantasy game store called The Source. As we were heading in I turned to Jeff and said, "You're probably going to want me to hand over my wallet." I could have spent most of my life savings in that store. I left with just a book and a business card. I'll be back.


After some shopping we met our friends Lon and Lisa for a quick but wonderful dinner. Then left just in time to meet more friends at the theater. I had been warned that the show was a bit of a different version of the Bard's tale. I didn't realize how different. I wish we had brought our camera. This was a show to remember.


Our friend Megan played Hermia, a lead role, and was just incredible. She sang, she wept, she got kissed. And she was fantastic. It was incredible to watch her up there. Our friend Josh played Snout, the Tinker. He got a ton of laughs and played the role with a constant smirk. It was a great role for him. The show was unconventional to the extreme. Helena was played by a drag queen. The faeries were goth dancers. And the ending is a surprise that even I wouldn't give away. Needless to say, this version wasn't exactly what Shakespeare had written. The performance was pitch perfect. I laughed so hard my face hurt by the end. Everyone played their roles well. I only wish I had gotten some pictures.


After the show we headed out for a drink or two with Jon and our friend Dan. It was nice to just get a chance to sit and relax. We told stories and talked until about 11 and then Jeff and I headed back to the hotel. The next morning (after being rudely awakened by a drunken wedding party that decided that hotel halls are for yelling) we headed home along the back roads. It was a great weekend, filled with friends. I loved the show and loved the chance to hang out. I sometimes wish we lived up North. Sometimes. Not today though. I'm not looking forward to all that snow tomorrow. Brrr.


PS. If you live up in the Twin Cities area, they will be performing Midsummers again this coming weekend. It is well worth the $5 admission.

Don't Know Much About...Shakespeare

Like most kids I was first introduced to one of Shakespeare's plays in my freshman year of high school. We were required, like pretty much everyone else, to read Romeo and Juliet. The play was good but mostly I remember that I was forced to read it and how much of a joke we all thought it was at the time. In my Junior year I took advanced literature and we read Julius Caesar. Except we read it in modern translation. For some reason "Friends, Romans, Country people, listen to me" just doesn't have the same ring as "Friends, Romans, Countrymen, Lend me your ears." It was an even bigger joke. I actually got in trouble for following along in the old English.

It wasn't until I actually sat down on my own and read Twelfth Night that I fell in love with Shakespeare. I took a course in college where we dissected at least 8 of his plays. I loved reading them in the old translation and understanding the jokes and asides behind them. What they didn't teach me in high school was that Shakespeare was funny and insightful and political. I was just told that he was a classic and that I had to read him. And he is a classic and his plays should be read. But not just because he is listed as a classic. Shakespeare's work is some of the most copied or used works ever. His plays define the most common plot styles. More words and common phrases have come out of Shakespeare's work than any other writer in history. Yet we know almost nothing about him. I certainly didn't learn anything about his life in high school or college.

So this past week I picked up Bill Bryson's Shakespeare: The World as Stage with the desire to learn a little bit more about his history. I was in for a rude awakening. We don't really know that much about him in general. There are large periods of time in his history that we have no idea what city he was even in. We can't say for certain what day he was born. We know a little bit about his father who was not the provincial that every claims he was. We know some of the plays that he wrote but we are missing a few. We know he acted in all the plays he wrote, although we will probably never know the order in which he wrote them. We don't even really know what he looked like.

The sonnets, some of Shakespeare's most romantic poems, were written for a young man although we don't know his relationship to that young man. We know he was married and that he had two daughters but we have no idea what sort of relationship he had with any of them. For a while I guess there was a claim going around that Shakespeare didn't own any books. The sad fact is that other than two houses, a couple beds, a sword, and a silver bowl, we have no idea what sort of things he owned. We aren't even sure if the will he left is his own. Or really how to spell his name. (He himself spelled it six or seven different ways).

Bryson of course does touch on the statements that have been made that Shakespeare didn't write the works that are attributed to him. I waited for most of the book to hear his take on the controversy. And Bryson delivered. It was interesting to learn the history of where these accusations have come from. Most of the people who came up with these theories were either completely loony (actually the last name of one of the accusers) or basing the accusation on no actual evidence. For most of the people doubting, it is based entirely on an idea that Shakespeare wasn't smart enough to write the plays. And my favorite point was that no one, for the first 100 years after Shakespeare's death, questioned his authorship. Many praised his work during his own time. I would think that would be proof enough.

I've read a lot of Shakespeare's work, some in classes, some on my own. I've marveled at his turn of phrase and fantastic flair for the dramatic. The soliloquies in Hamlet, the staging of Macbeth, the humor of Much Ado About Nothing. The man was an amazing writer. I bet he was a good actor as well. Sadly, the world will never know.

OOOOklahoma

As I mentioned earlier we went up to the cities to see a play. We have two friends doing community theater and the play was Oklahoma. Now I haven't seen this play in years, since high school and now I realize that my high school may have tamed down their version. It was a classic Rogers and Hammerstein but I forgot how dark the play was in parts. And how sexy. Naked pictures and about 12 on-stage kisses. Any play that can mix old french pornography with gunfire is an interesting thing. This was Jeff's first time seeing it...like most plays. (not much a theater guy)

First and foremost I have to say that it is a totally different experience seeing a play where you know people acting. You pay far more attention to minor characters and catch lines that may have passed you by before. If you're like me you spend a good chunk of time trying to grab semi-decent photos (at which I failed. Sorry guys only a couple came out). There was no flash photography and we didn't have the tripod out there. Most everything was blurry. 

Both of our friends did fabulously. Our friend Josh told us he had a couple lines, leading me to believe two or three. Not true, he had many lines and a singing line as well. All of them went great. He looked like he was having a lot of fun out there and even impressed me with his dancing. There were a ton of moves they had to learn. Our other friend Megan had only one spoken line and one singing line but she was dancing up a storm...on her torn ACL. Give the girl credit for getting her steps perfectly (and smiling the whole time) with an injury that would have sidelined most athletes. 

Here they are below. Josh is in orange and Megan is in purple. In the first shot Josh is a little tough to see. He's all the way in the back. 

Again most of my photos didn't turn out. Stupid no flash rule!! :-( But it was a ton of fun to see them out there dancing and acting. Makes me think that I should tryout for a show. Not likely but at least something to think about. There was only one equipment issue but I have to give the actors credit, they ad-libbed beautifully and the crowd found it funny instead of distressing. The theater group is Off Broadway Musical Theater for anyone who is interested. www.obmt.org. They put on a fun show with rather elaborate (and homemade) sets and every does a fantastic job of acting and singing. 

All in all it was a fantastic weekend. We had shopping at the Mall of America, Dave and Busters for games with some good friends, Dave and Busters again for drinks with more friends, swimming, visiting, dinner, and a show. A perfect weekend.