Sunday, May 15, 2011

Kate encounters the Bard.

Some friends of ours were in a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream over at the Stadium Ward church building, so I took Kate to see it.  Her first Shakespeare play!



They used the arch backdrops from Mod Prom.  I thought it was fun that they got used again so quickly. 




This is the way Shakespeare is meant to be experienced. I've never had any personal affection for this particular play, but I think it was a great choice for an introduction. It's visually interesting, and also one of the shortest of Shakespeare's plays. (This wasn't quite the whole text--edited for length, I guess.) I don't think Kate followed the language that well, but she enjoyed the costumes and the emoting, and I filled her in on what was going on.

Though perhaps I should have a personal affection for it, since it has not only a Helena but also the word Jole. ("I'll go with thee, cheek by jole.") You have to admit that's pretty cool.





When I asked Kate what she liked about the play, she said "The girl in the blue dress." That's our friend Marley, as Hermia.




The player presenting Wall.



"I can hear my Thisby's face!"




The Players were hilarious, and the girl playing Puck was excellent.  All the kids did a great job of projecting. I was impressed!  

With a couple of language geeks for parents, I'm sure our kids will have plenty of exposure to Shakespeare. Daddy can tell them all about Chaucer and Beowulf.

7 comments:

Kathey said...

This looks SOOOOOOOO cool. I would have like to see that also. And it's neat that your arches got used as well.

Chris and Mandy said...

Midsummer is my favorite :)

Bronwyn said...

Thanks for posting all these wonderful pics, and for coming! I'm really proud of all these kids and what a great job they did.

Marley Mae said...

Well I'm glad you liked our play. We all had a fun time putting it on.

Helen in Australia said...

How excellent is that? I wonder if our Stake could tackle something like that?

(PS I vaguely recall sitting next to you guys at some dinner in Newfoundland (probably at Sister-I-can't-remember-her-name-with-the-hostel-with-the-elaborately-charitable-title's) and making some comment about being seated Chick by Jole)

Helena said...

Ha! I love it. I don't think I was familiar with the line at that time, so it probably didn't register.

(That would be Sister Pilar Riego Hickey at the Lord God Father Almighty Creator and King of Heaven and Earth International Guest House and Hospitality Inn, Ltd.)

Mimi said...

I agree, it's not my favorite play, but I like to see it produced for and by kids, because it helps the "light go on" for them.

When my youngest put it on with his class (he was in 6th grade, IIRC) the dad of one of his classmates, who I know, said, "I never knew Shakespeare was funny" after seeing it.