There was more great news this week. My littlest sister Juliet (also the tallest sister) became engaged to Harry Alabaster! When my kids found out they screamed (well, George did), "Aunt Juliet is going to marry Harry Potter!" To which Harry replied, "I am never going to live up to their expectations."
Over the weekend, we produced a Shakescene. Shakescene is the first known reference to Shakespeare... a critic made fun and ridiculed the man by calling him "this shakescene." Back in the days of Transparent Theater (pre-children), we took our actors up to Mendocino County and produced a staged reading in the woods and rocks and waters of Covelo. This year we did it in Berkleley in the park behind our house.
It was a fundraiser for our children's school Ecole Bilingue de Berkeley and had about 200 guests. We feasted on wild-fennel and lavender-marinated 125 lb pig, herbed potatoes, local wine, and every kind of decadent dessert known to French cuisine (or so it seemed). Families placed themselves on the lawn after a swim and watched a shortened version of A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM as the sun set behind them.
Some Ecole Bilingue 6th and 7th graders and English and drama teachers joined the assembled cast and crew. Tom directed and acted. I did costumes and produced (oh, yes, and marinated the pig to whom we gave thanks before we did so). Friends made dessert, gave clothes off their back, wired bottles, cleaned platters, carried watermelon, carried trash cans, built a roasting space for a large beast and roasted it, you get the picture. The result was, I think, what happens when a village comes together with all of its talents. It was beautiful. A magical evening.
The scene:
The play:
And Puck ends the play!
You and your endless talents never cease to amaze me! I am sharing these photos with my 8th graders that have just performed scenes from "Midsummer Night's Dream" in class. What a wonderful example of using a little to create a lot of magic!
Posted by: Nicki | June 09, 2010 at 07:30 AM
Wishing madly I could live somewhere close to Berkeley CA
Posted by: Ellen | June 10, 2010 at 01:46 PM
I knew "A Midsummer Night's Dream" would work well in that park. It looks like you all had a wonderful time.
Posted by: George Shuput | June 16, 2010 at 12:04 AM