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| A midsummer night's dream, or [message #15719] |
Mon, 04 May 2009 21:10  |
 b_twin_1
Messages: 2596
Registered: September 2008
Location: Victoria, Australia |
Senior Member
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A midsummer night's dream, or
I've got a plan so cunning you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel ~ Blackadder
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| Re: A midsummer night's dream, or [message #15724 is a reply to message #15719 ] |
Mon, 04 May 2009 21:58  |
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as determined as robin is, i am surprised her hands are the only things that got gooped.lol i am glad the hell hounds are better and that you had a lovely evening.
Bonnie Holmes the faster ahead I go, the more behind I get
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| Re: A midsummer night's dream, or [message #15727 is a reply to message #15719 ] |
Mon, 04 May 2009 22:23 |
skating librarian
Messages: 571
Registered: October 2008
Location: Vermont |
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My thoughts exactly.
It was probably more than five years ago when Shakespeare and CO. had their last season at Edith Wharton's estate, The Mount. They did a fantastic Midsummers Night Dream. The theater was outdoors, behind a quasi-chateau ... a lawn sloping down to a a grove of huge white pines. Flickering lights far off in the forest announced the approach of the fairies, while the rude mechanicals were a bunch of guys in a red pick up truck. And at the end, with the lines about "blessings on the house", Puck was climbing up the side of the mansion.
They are now in an indoors theater ... air conditioned, bug free, seats, and no watching in a drizzle threatening to turn to down pour. Lord, they even have proper rest rooms these days. But I so miss the actors swinging out of trees and rushing with my friends for the front row so that we felt truly part of the play.
Shakespeare is not meant to be read, but acted, and productions of "Dream" have been some of the best and some of the worst I've ever seen. A high school production where the mechanicals were played by the wrestling team ... and the scenery was painted to look like a Maxfield Parrish illustration of a local mountain of mythic proportions. A dance teacher played Oberon with a huge (real) green constrictor looped over his shoulders. I was such a surprise that it was so very good.
Stratford Festival in Canada is usually great, but the year that "scenery" was a red inflated "flower" with a ten foot tall p**** ( edit out if you must) in the center was a little too weird for me. I doubt the actors enjoyed it very much either ... it seemed it would be hard to give acting the attention it deserved when the surface upon which you were expected to "walk" reacted like a gigantic waterbed. Life is interesting.
"Winning a war is like winning an earthquake" Jeanette Rankin
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| Re: A midsummer night's dream, or [message #15731 is a reply to message #15719 ] |
Tue, 05 May 2009 01:52 |
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Creek
Messages: 44
Registered: October 2008
Location: Valencia, CA |
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I also agree with the phrase "shake it up".
I am also very jealous. Midsummer is my favorite Shakespeare for many reasons (the story itself, the fairies, it was the show I was working on when I discovered my career was in stage managing). I don't think I could ever tire of working on productions of Midsummer.
"remember, it's called a play... that means you should PLAY"
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| Re: A midsummer night's dream, or [message #15736 is a reply to message #15719 ] |
Tue, 05 May 2009 07:15 |
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They also haven’t been out now in eleven hours and they’re still fast asleep and utterly relaxed. I’m impressed.
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Well of course. Dogs!
The play sounds lovely, but the Alien Goop? Ew. I will share my non-perfumed and non-comedogenic and non-greasy lotion with you. (My dermatologist, she is very specific. First ingredient: water.) That will help the red in your hands!
I hope you got plenty of sleep last night and are feeling restored! My mom sent fiber for my birthday (I'm so predictable), and if necessary, I will send Calming Wool Photos.
Smooshes!
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| Re: A midsummer night's dream, or [message #15738 is a reply to message #15719 ] |
Tue, 05 May 2009 08:06 |
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Sounds like you had a good time, despite the alien goop (and I agree it sounds like a glow stick - and if it helps I know someone else who managed to break one and get covered and she's had no ill effects)
And I'm so glad the Hellhounds seem to have been chilled out while you were gone.
Don't worry about the dust bunnies, they're just here to guard the treasure.....
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| Re: A midsummer night's dream, or [message #15762 is a reply to message #15719 ] |
Wed, 06 May 2009 06:18 |
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I agree: shake it up.
Are you still alive?
Scar
"People think that stories are shaped by people. In fact, it's the other way around."
T.P.
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| Re: A midsummer night's dream, or [message #15766 is a reply to message #15719 ] |
Wed, 06 May 2009 07:56 |
kfoster2047
Messages: 138
Registered: January 2009
Location: Charlotte, NC |
Senior Member |
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I had a similar experience with an unknown substance on the New York subway - it was thick, blue, glittery, greasy, and sickly sweet smelling. I still have no idea what it was. I managed to wash it off my hands (although it took several tries) but never did get it out of the pair of pants I had been wearing.
AND we were just stopping in NY on the way to a trip to Morocco and it was the only pair of pants I had with me and do you know how hard it is to find a regular store with a regular pair of grey pants in NY when you don't usually shop there???!!!
Karen
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| Re: A midsummer night's dream, or [message #15792 is a reply to message #15733 ] |
Wed, 06 May 2009 23:34 |
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L.R.K.
Messages: 1081
Registered: October 2008
Location: Sweden |
Senior Member |
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| Diane in MN wrote on Tue, 05 May 2009 08:21 |
| skating librarian wrote on Mon, 04 May 2009 21:23 |
Shakespeare is not meant to be read, but acted
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This is so true, and the Dream really illustrates the point. The Guthrie Theater has done it twice in the last ten years, and both productions had me laughing until I cried, which for sure was never my reaction when I read the play.
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I'd agree with that too - of course the only play I read was for literature class and was in Swedish...
And actually I did laugh - unfortunately, though, what I laughed at wasn't meant to be humourous... The play was Hamlet and people dying in parenthesis just struck me as extremely funny... (Yes, I'm sick.)
(I'm quite fond of Hamlet - especially the BBC one with Derek Jacobi as Hamlet.)
Why, I feel all thin, sort of stretched, if you know what I mean, like butter that has been scraped over too much bread.
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| Re: A midsummer night's dream, or [message #15805 is a reply to message #15792 ] |
Thu, 07 May 2009 09:51 |
ravenclawgirl
Messages: 75
Registered: February 2009
Location: Ohio |
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| L.R.K. wrote on Wed, 06 May 2009 23:34 |
And actually I did laugh - unfortunately, though, what I laughed at wasn't meant to be humourous... The play was Hamlet and people dying in parenthesis just struck me as extremely funny... (Yes, I'm sick.)
(I'm quite fond of Hamlet - especially the BBC one with Derek Jacobi as Hamlet.)
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Don't worry, my entire AP Literature class laughed all through the end at the people dying in parenthesis... We thought the line "O, I am slain!" was particularly funny. The thought that someone would announce that they are dead... Though, come to think of it, we all have a rather strange sense of humor.
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| Re: A midsummer night's dream, or [message #15808 is a reply to message #15805 ] |
Thu, 07 May 2009 10:57 |
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| ravenclawgirl wrote on Thu, 07 May 2009 09:51 |
| L.R.K. wrote on Wed, 06 May 2009 23:34 |
And actually I did laugh - unfortunately, though, what I laughed at wasn't meant to be humourous... The play was Hamlet and people dying in parenthesis just struck me as extremely funny... (Yes, I'm sick.)
(I'm quite fond of Hamlet - especially the BBC one with Derek Jacobi as Hamlet.)
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Don't worry, my entire AP Literature class laughed all through the end at the people dying in parenthesis... We thought the line "O, I am slain!" was particularly funny. The thought that someone would announce that they are dead... Though, come to think of it, we all have a rather strange sense of humor.
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Given the fact that my AP literature class did the same thing, I think that it may be safe to say that it is really funny to kill off almost all of your characters in parentheses and then add insult to injury by forcing them to announce their own demises. We didn't laugh in college, though. We had to hand in papers that day which sucked all the fun right out of it.
My favorite stage direction of all time-any play, any playwright- is from A Winter's Tale. The famous: (Exit, pursued by a bear). The fact that there is hardly any reference to the bear in the actual dialogue only makes it better. I think that it is quite probable that Shakespeare had a wacky sense of humor.
[Updated on: Thu, 07 May 2009 11:08] by Moderator
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| Re: A midsummer night's dream, or [message #15843 is a reply to message #15719 ] |
Fri, 08 May 2009 03:00 |
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L.R.K.
Messages: 1081
Registered: October 2008
Location: Sweden |
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I really don't mind the dithering (especially when done by Derek Jacobi - I liked him in the BBCs Richard II as well)  I don't quite know why - either it is my inordinate love of "words, words, words" - or else that I know what's going to happen, and I always keep hoping that this time things will be different - and yet they never are... Sigh...
Perhaps, though, you might find this soothing - (although you probably have seen it already) - the time-travelling Blackadder's run-in with Shakespeare (it occurs at 3,07):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHwT070saUM&feature=relat ed
[Updated on: Fri, 08 May 2009 03:04]
Why, I feel all thin, sort of stretched, if you know what I mean, like butter that has been scraped over too much bread.
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| Re: A midsummer night's dream, or [message #15858 is a reply to message #15822 ] |
Fri, 08 May 2009 15:25 |
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Julia
Messages: 531
Registered: October 2008
Location: Library School |
Senior Member |
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Click!
(It is "Hamlet for First Graders" in true Dick and Jane style!).
There's another brilliant one floating around somewhere, which is another Hamlet in Short[er/est] Form [according to my English teacher senior year of high school, when I showed him the one above]: *ahem* "Whine, whine, whine. I die."
Edit1: ... and I KNOW that I've posted a link to the RSC version [Reduced, not Royal Shakespeare] of Hamlet. Right?
Oh. Wait. Maybe it was the Romeo and Juliet. Hmm. Worth linking it again. And I just finished my French final... I deserve a laugh. (not that I think it went badly, I am just exhausted and my hand feels like it is going to fall off, I wrote so much-- and then it wasn't neat enough, and I had to take another hour or two and TYPE everything I had just written. Yarg.)
Edit2: forgot to copy in the links.
Part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvPdWcCHkxM
Part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoM8bHQtSEU&feature=relat ed
Part 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ofKJ6UFv60&feature=relat ed
Part 4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2Jzkop04P4&feature=relat ed
Yaay.
Edit3: this is getting ridiculous. But I found that other version, that my teacher told me about. It is super short, I promise.
http://rinkworks.com/bookaminute/b/shakespeare.hamlet.shtml
Okay, I'll stop. I'm done now. I'll post and that'll be it. Really. I should work on my next paper anyway, and I just remembered that I have another concert tonight. *grumbles but not really. After all, the thunderstorms have passed, and the sun is shining and it is quite warm again! Huzzah.*
[Updated on: Fri, 08 May 2009 16:10]
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I'm glad things seem to have gone well otherwise!
Re: A midsummer night's dream, or
