The 50th Anniversary of the Shakespeare Festival

This year my husband got us tickets to the Shakespeare Festival. We got to go to 5 plays, 1 dinner, a backstage tour, and an ice cream social. It was so awesome. We got to talk with people involved in the festival as well as members of the casts. Since it was the 50th anniversary of the festival they had 7 exhibits about how it started and grew. They also had the first folio of the works of Shakespeare. It was cool. You could pick up a free passport and at each of the exhibits they stamp your passport. If you fill your passport they gave you a treat. So Abe and I had fun running around and doing that as well.

The first play we went to go see was probably my favorite out of all of them. It was A Midsummers Night Dream. They did such a good job with it. Especially the end when they have a play in the play. It made me laugh so hard. I would definitely recommend it.

The second play we watched was called Noises Off. This one is hard to describe because each act changes. This was my second favorite play. The actors are putting on a play so the first act is the dress rehearsal. So you get to see the play they are performing as well as all the problems that happen during rehearsal. The second act they flip the stage around and you get to see all the stuff that goes on behind the play. Then the third act they flip the stage around again and you see the play for a third time but this time it falls apart. It is a great play and I would also suggest people to go see it if they ever get a chance.

The third play we saw was Richard III. We had two comedies so it was a different feeling for this History. We went to an orientation about it before the play and found out that this play is the fourth in a series. They did a really good job with it and I wanted to see the other three plays that came before it.

The fourth play we saw was The Music Man. This was fun to watch. They had some great dance numbers, and did a great job with it.

The last play we went to was Romeo and Juliet. I kind of wish this one would have been the first one we watched because we were worn out a little by this time and since we already don't really like the story of Romeo and Juliet, we were glad when it was over. The nurse in this was really fun to watch. They also put some really cute things in it as well. But I'm really not a fan of the story. This time I just kept thinking of them as children. Anytime something went wrong they would immediately say they were going to kill themselves instead of trying to work out the problem. It's no surprise that the one time they don't have an adult around to stop them that they do end up killing themselves. But they did a good job.

They last thing we did was an ice cream social with the casts and staff of the festival. It was fun to see all the cast out of costume. We were used to seeing the same people in the different plays and they did such a good job that you almost forgot that these were real people.

This was so much fun that I'm sad that it is over.

Ceramics

So here are some pictures of the things I made in my ceramics class. I am going to be giving most of the stuff away for Christmas presents so if you see anything that you might like let me know and I'll see what I can do.

Oak Ridge Boys

At SUU they had a Holiday Gala for all the people who have donated money to SUU. Abe's grandma was invited and we went with her. The dinner was very fancy. The salad had pomegranates, apples, candied walnuts, goat cheese with a raspberry vinaigrette. The main course was turkey with green bean almondine, baked sweet dumpling squash with currant orange stuffing, truffle scented smashed potatoes, sage gravy, and fresh cranberry salsa. So pretty much it was a glorified turkey dinner. Most of it was delicious except the vegetables were not cooked enough for me. Finally the dessert was pumpkin mousse filled chocolate cups, gingerbread cookie, garnished with candied orange peels and cranberry coulis.

I had to write down all the menu because it sounds so delicious and fancy. During the dinner they had the Oak Ridge Boys come in and sing us a song. They were doing a concert that night that we were all going to after dinner. In case anyone doesn't know who the Oak Ridge Boys are, they song they are most famous for is Elvira.

The concert was a lot of fun too. I usually don't like concerts but I think it's because they are usually filled with raving teenagers. The concert was part of their Christmas tour so they had santa come out and he handed out santa hats to the kids in the audience. There were a lot of kids, they just kept coming we all had a good laugh, and they were saying that they might not have enough hats for Idaho which was the next tour stop. Also during intermission they were having a drawing for free stuff and they asked a kid or two to come help on stage and about 15 kids ran up there. One of them was a little girl about two years old I'd say, when he thanked the kids they all left except her. It was cute. The kids were funny. It was a good night.

Flopification

While Gwen was playing with play-doh, she says to me "I'm making flopification." At first I thought did she just say flopification. And then I remembered she had been watching Curious George that morning. For those who haven't seen that show, George thought a pot of boiling water was magic because it made hard spaghetti into floppy spaghetti, so he was trying to flopify other things as well. Thus flopification. Gwen was so cute she used that word for the rest of the day and every time she said it, it made me laugh.

Tarzan

I told you all that I would be posting about the next play and it was Disney's Tarzan at Tuacahn. This was the coolest thing I've ever seen. They started out by flooding the stage. Then they had the gorillas flying through the trees on ropes and pulleys. They even did it over the audience. It was awesome. The costumes were way cool too. They way they did the makeup with the costumes and the way the actors acted, it was easy to imagine them as gorillas. I especially liked Kerchak's costume. When they first introduced Jane they had a whole bunch of bug like costumes and they turned on a black light that made parts of the costumes glow as well as part of my shirt. Then the music was awesome. It was a musical and since the movie doesn't have tons of music they had a lot more in the play. The guy who played Terk was very energetic. He was lot of fun to watch. The boy who played the young Tarzan was also fun to watch. He also had a really great voice. I was really glad we got to go to this play. It was awesome. They did such a good job with this that Disney is letting them do The Little Mermaid next year.

Hair Cut

There is Gwen and I. You can't really tell but it's a A line in the back. And for those who don't know what an A line is, it's shorter in the back than in the front. I'm really liking this haircut.

Spoiled Spoiled

I have been so spoiled lately. My husband and I recently went to another play. It was called Crazy For You. It pretty much was a bunch of Gershwin songs turned into a musical. So I was familiar with some of them. And it very much reminded me of an old movie. The costumes were great and very elaborate in some instances. It was at the Tuacahn, which is an outdoor theater. They even had fireworks at the end. We quite enjoyed it. All except one song that is but I won't go into detail. It was a fun date that we had together. I really love going to plays. There is just something about them that is magical to me. Besides it all reminds me of the plays I used to be in. I am glad Abe has the job he does because it allows us to get tickets really cheap. We are going to another one this month so I'll be posting another blog soon. Also for all you out there that haven't seen me in awhile, I got my hair cut short. I will try and post a picture of it so you can see what it looks like. But until then try and be patient.