I started the day with an aimless walk around Boulder from my motel. There was a path then led down to Boulder Creek, and across a bridge, then eventually to the Pearl Street mall. I had an unusually good breakfaast at a local restaurant, The Kitchen, that seemed to specialize in fresh ingredients (incuding the best glass of orange juice I can remember having) and unique recipes from scratch. After breakfast I perused the mall. It had much the feel of downtown Livermore on one of the event days, but here there are artists and such all the time. It was nice to see, at least once.
I eventually made my way back down to the park by Boulder Creek, and watched folks who were having fun in the water, including folks riding inner tubes, and folks swinging off ropes into the water. It appears to be a very popular place for people to come in the summer. The day was very warm, and walking got a little wearisome, so I can understand the appeal of the cool water. After coming back and resting briefly, I went out and got some lunch, then went up Table Mesa to NCAR to take some pictures. Unfortunately the sky was kind of hazy all day, and the light when I was up there wasn’t great. I then returned to the motel to rest up a bit for the evening’s festivities.
I saw my second play from the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, and my first in the outdoor Mary Rippon Theatre on campus. I was surprised at the outdoor theater. It is actually contained in the courtyard surrounded by four class buildings. It’s a very nice theater with stone benches, sort of like a Greek theater. There’s plenty of room, and they give you padded seats with backs to make it comfortable. The odd thing is that there are only two entrances at the back corners of the theater, which means exiting at the end is very slow. My only minor gripe with the staging there is that the actors are mic’d for amplified sound which is a little unpleasing (particularly as I was sitting close, and the speakers were away from the actors).
I saw The Tempest. It was a good projection, with many of the same actors from the previous night’s play. A very interesting set with a shipwrecked ship motif. It contained a couple of unique elements, Ariel did a lot of fabric work hanging in the air, and some of the spirits were introduced with large puppets later in the play. While I wasn’t completely blown away, it was a very good production. The actors in this company are clearly very good.