Interesting week, this… Which is why I haven’t posted on Thursday, by the way. Things have happened – mostly good, but time-consuming, and I never know when all the time goes.
One of the things, though, is this: we have found a home for Il Palcoscenico di Carta. At long last. One wouldn’t believe how difficult it was, but really, we’ve tried all sort of places: from cafés to small museums, from bookshops to military clubs – with everything in between… some were so blatantly unenthusiastic that we walked away, some loved the idea but had no room, some were willing but not right now, some asked an extortionate fee…
Then a week ago or so – and with the Shakespeare Year drawing to an end – my friend Fulvia pointed me to this particular bookshop. I must confess we hadn’t even really considered it, because it is part of an especially commercial-minded big chain. Still, we were quite desperate by then, so I wrote an email, telling about the project, and asking to talk to someone in person.
And lo and behold! Within a few hours, I’d had an eager answering mail, a conversation with the enthusiastic young manager, and an appointment for next Thursday – the day before yesterday. I went, and found the commercial-minded bookshop fascinated by the notion and ready to welcome us with open arms. Goes to show that preconceived notions are truly bad.
So now we are frantically working to have everything ready for November 22, when we’ll begin our three-parted reading of Pene d’Amor Perdute – that is Love’s Labour Lost. We still have to see how it will really work out, because the bookshop is of the open-space variety, and we’ll be in the middle of it, and whatever custom there is at the time. On the one hand, we’ve always wondered whether we could attract viewers and potential readers this way; on the other, let us hope it won’t be too noisy.
But we are quite happy and grateful: Il Palcoscenico di Carta is no more a homeless orphan thing. Here we go again!
Scribblings 