The Book Of Will

Posted on September 19, 2018 by djnpub

Book of Will, OSFFor my last outdoor production in the Elizabethan Theatre this visit, I saw a new play The Book of Will. It told the story of how, a few years after William Shakespeare’s death, his friends got together and tried to assemble a complete, authoritative collection of his plays that ended up as the “First Folio”. It was fantastic. The actors were great, and the play ended up being a love letter to the art of acting, and theater, and the words and stories of Shakespeare. It told of their love of the man and the words and their effort to preserve them from quickly disappearing. In the finale the actors did a swirl of memorable lines from various plays, and it ended with a video collage of all sorts of people all over the world speaking the words of Shakespeare … as the words live on. As someone who has been attending Shakespeare plays for more than 30 years, I found it extremely moving. It’s one of those theatrical experiences where I just want to go back and see it again.
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Romeo and Juliet

Posted on September 18, 2018 by djnpub

Romeo and Juliet, OSFTonight I returned to the outdoor Elizabethan Theatre to see one of my favorite Shakespeare plays, Romeo and Juliet. I guess by categorizing it as a favorite, I set the bar higher for my expectations. This production had some weaknesses for me that kept me from fully engaging, particularly in the first half. In the second half, where the tragedy really starts to build it got better.

The two things that bothered me were 1) it seemed that a lot of the peripheral characters really had the comic aspects ramped-up, making them more silly than I remember the play being, and 2) I didn’t feel a lot of chemistry between the Romeo and Juliet actors. It also seemed the relationship between Romeo and Juliet developed with even less build up than usual (which is usually fast).  Interestingly, as I read some reviews after the fact, the reviewers had exactly the opposite reaction feeling the chemistry was great and the some of the other actors parts were unique stand-outs. So the first half failed to land for me. After the intermission it improved as the focus was on the R&J story line. I was, however, bugged by the portrail of Romeo as a blubbering baby after he learns of his banishment. I know a bit of this is part of the story, but this seemed extreme and wimpy … but maybe the point being made was that he was still immature, which leads to the finale. Despite my misgivings, the end still gets me and always chokes me up, even as I felt somewhat distanced from this production up to that point.
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Othello

Posted on September 16, 2018 by djnpub

Othello OSFThis evening I trekked back to the Angus Bowmer Theatre to see OSF’s production of Othello. As I’ve said before, among all Shakespeare’s tragedies, this one bothers me the most because ultimately a good guy is brought down by a bad guy through exploitation of his weaknesses. Nevertheless, this was a powerful production. The cast was stellar and it was great to see. The primary leads were particularly good. I’m glad I got to get this rescheduled because I would have hated to miss it. Interestingly, there were a significant number of empty seats, which I guess reinforces their exhortations about a number of cancellations due to the fires have caused them to lose a significant amount of money this summer.
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Snow in Midsummer

Posted on September 16, 2018 by djnpub

Snow in MidsummerThis afternoon I attended a matinee in the Bowmer Theatre of the next play in my OSF visit, Snow in Midsummer. This was a modern play, based on an old Chinese story, that dealt with injustice and vengeance, and it was a bit of a ghost story. It dealt with a woman who was unjustly executed for a murder that was caused by a family drama in a powerful family in the town. I brought in a lot of ideas and imagery from Buddhist spirituality and superstitions. The ending was quite powerful with the heart of the wronged woman being buried under a newly planted tree which would be the first to grow after the drought caused by her execution. Another interesting play from the Asian stream that’s been presented the last few years at OSF.
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Sense and Sensibility

Posted on September 15, 2018 by djnpub

Sense and Sensibility OSFToday I attended a matinee in the Bowmer Theatre of the next play in my OSF visit, Jane Austin’s Sense and Sensibility. I had seen this a year or so ago at the Livermore Shakespeare Festival, but I didn’t really have any remembrances as I watched this. This is basically a story about British manners and social structure as well as the big role that wealth and position played in identifying an appropriate mate. The staging was interesting as the set was basically a room with a curving staircase up to a second level, but they made it work for so many different scenes; different rooms, exteriors and people chasing other people around. Beyond the usual story, they brought out a very interesting aspect by showing cultural pressure on people by continually having the non-focus actors becoming part of a chorus of “Gossips” who swirled and twittered in the background of various scenes, really portraying this negative cultural feature. It was also interesting that with a relatively small cast the rotated actors between various roles, sometimes without changing costume, but it never seemed confusing as to who they were supposed to be. It was an enjoyable play and the cast was rock solid.
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Love’s Labor’s Lost Again

Posted on September 14, 2018 by djnpub

Love's Labor's Lost OSFPrior to my visit to CoSF in Boulder earlier this summer, it had been 18 years since I’d seen Love’s Labor’s Lost. Tonight I saw it again in the outdoor Elizabethan Theatre as my first play in my visit to OSF in Ashland. While CoSF’s production was quite good, this was simply fantastically entertaining, and a great way to start the visit (putting yesterday aside). It was a modernized/abstract setting, and it added some very modern/rock type music to the production. Love's Labor's Lost OSFThey made the humor very slapstick and often winked at the audience. The Shakespeare language may have suffered a little, but it was still very fun. The acting was great and many of the individual performances were stand outs. … And I think I finally figured out the meaning of the title in that after all their romancing, they don’t get the automatic happy ending, at least at the end of the play.
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Red Ball Sun … or the best-laid plans

Posted on September 13, 2018 by djnpub

sun through fireSo today was supposed to start my annual Shakespeare diet at Ashland. The drive normally takes between 5 1/2 and 6 hours depending on how many breaks I take. I had planned to get up to Ashland, get settled in, pick up my tickets, then attend a play in the evening. However, when I got within 100 miles of Ashland, they abruptly closed down I-5 due to a fire that was threatening to jump the highway. I was close to the front of the pack when they shut it down, so if I had skipped lunch, I probably would have made it through. When I was blocked, I was 30 to 40 miles north of Redding, and I had already navigated through a lot of construction so I felt like I was on the last leg of the trip. Then the Highway Patrol shunted the traffic off an exit, but no indication as to why. I followed some trucks, but the way we went just went to a cafe that was on a dead end. In talking to some people, we finally figured out that it was a fire, and after a while I went back and asked the CHP and he said the best way, rather than wait was to go back to Redding, across 299, and back on 89, which I finally figured out would take me back to I-5 north of the fire. Traffic was a mess because everyone seemed to be gong this way, and I didn’t get back onto I-5 till 5 hours later. Lots of stress and anxiety, but I finally became resolved to the situation and decided to try and enjoy the “scenic route”. As I was making my way back westward, the setting sun appeared very striking as a big round red ball. Once back on I-5 I pulled off on the first Rest Area (nearly 8:00), and called the OSF box office, and they were very understanding and helpful, and I managed to switch my ticket to another night so I didn’t have to lose it. I finally made it up to Ashland 11 hours after I left. I guess there are always new adventures even on well trod pathways.

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The War of the Roses

Posted on August 30, 2018 by djnpub

CalShakes 2018Tonight I saw an ambitious play as the last entry in this year’s CalShakes season. It was an adaptation by Eric Ting and Philippa Kelly merging Shakespeare’s 4 plays Henry VI (parts 1, 2, and 3) and Richard III into one massive play, The War of the Roses. This was the only Shakespearean offering in this year’s CalShakes season, which only featured 3 plays, so I’m glad it was something unique. I’ve seen these four plays in full over the last four years, and I saw a good version of Richard III earlier this summer in Boulder, but it was still a lot of historical details to follow in one play. Who is who, and who’s allied with whom is a challenge to follow, but the staging with a sort of over titles helped. This was a four hour production, but it came off well. The acting was very good, and even though the plays were somewhat abridged it was an interesting production. Richard III was played by familiar Danny Scheie who is usually more comic that fearful, but he brought an interesting take on the character.

The evening was cooler than usual despite the last play of the season taking place in August. Due to schedule conflicts of my usual group, I ended up attending alone. But as this was a bit of a marathon production, I’m glad I didn’t drag anybody along with only mild interest. My group seems to have dissolved, so I suspect my subscription will be different starting next year. Nonetheless, this was a good play for CalShakes, leaving a good feeling in my mind before I head off to Oregon for some more Shakespeare in a few weeks.
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Edward III OP

Posted on August 5, 2018 by djnpub

CoSF Edward IIITonight I saw the last play in this year’s Colorado Shakespeare Festival visit. It was a good way to end the run. It was an original practices production of Edward III, a play which is not in the Shakespeare Canon, but is attributed to William Shakespeare and Thomas Kyd. It is a history play that basically predates the stories contained in the Richard II — Richard III series of plays. It’s also rarely produced. It is always exciting to see the OP productions, and the cast did an amazing job, considering they only had 20 hours of rehearsal, seeing the scripts for the first time on the Tuesday before the Sunday performance.

While the audience is explicitly encouraged to engage and react, as always it seems like there are some jerks who use that as an excuse to talk or perhaps try to draw attention to themselves. There were a couple of buddies behind me who seemed to feel the need to continuously comment to each other in not so quiet voices. Nonetheless, it was a very enjoyable production to see. It was a nice warm evening, and I even ended up sitting next to a couple who had lived in Concord for 8 years, so we got a chance to chat about CSF and Livermore wine country. It was a great way to end my week of Colorado Shakespeare.

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Love’s Labour’s Lost

Posted on August 4, 2018 by djnpub

Love's Labour's LostI began the day with a drive down to south Denver where I had lunch with my old friend Kate. It was nice to catch up and hear how things have been going. Afterwards I made my way back up to Boulder, and after a little rest I headed back to CU to see the fourth play in the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Love’s Labour’s Lost. It was a nice production in the outdoor Mary Rippon Theatre on a very warm night. I hadn’t seen this play in quite a while. It seemed like a classic Shakespeare romantic comedy with lots of screwball dialog, people overcome by romance, and mistaken identities. There were lots of comedic elements that I don’t always love in some of the other plays, all jammed into one, but it was enjoyable. The only main difference from other comedies was that at the end everything wasn’t cleanly resolved, but rather pointed to a resolution a year after the end of the play. The cast did a very good job. The cast was much the same as in Cyrano de Bergerac. A very nice evening out.
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