Thursday, June 30, 2011

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.