05 Thursday Oct 2017
Posted in Theatre
I think I have hinted at the mask that, as the Chorus, I wear in Shakespeare in Words. Well, it’s a lovely copper-coloured thing that my friend Alchemilla made – and it had a stormy beginning. Continue reading
08 Tuesday Aug 2017
Posted in Theatre
How did Shakespeare in the Jungle go, after all?
The answer is: surprisingly well.
Well, the mosquitoes were many, Chinook-sized, and hungry, and the heat murderous – but, in spite of that – and of and the lack of advertising – the garden filled up to capacity… And let me tell you this: few things galvanize a performance like an unexpected audience. Continue reading
03 Thursday Aug 2017
Posted in Theatre
We’re playing Shakespeare in Words, tonight. A kind of anniversary performance, in the same lovely place where we debuted almost exactly one year ago – but with the new version, showcasing how the play has grown since.
Nice, isn’t it? Continue reading
22 Thursday Jun 2017
Posted in Lostintranslation, Theatre
I have, o Readers, a riddle for you: How is maize like an Ottoman Sultan?
Let me tell you a story. Do you remember Ugo Foscolo and his Salamini/Little Sausages? Do you remember as both I and my friend Dave in the comments wondered how on earth could he have made such a tragedy-killing blunder?
Well, it may be that I know just how… Continue reading
18 Thursday May 2017
Posted in Theatre
Caesar’s cloak is missing.
Not that it’s a real cloak, either – just a large square of thick, dark red fabric. In Shakespeare in Words it does double duty: it is the cloak – the one we all know, the one Caesar first put on one summer evening in his tent – and also stands for the body. And it’s perfectly sized, and doesn’t reflect light, and always falls in good-looking folds… And it is missing. Continue reading
15 Thursday Dec 2016
Posted in Theatre
Tags
Christmas play, glockenspiel, lighting design, Shakespeare in Words, technical rehearsals, theatre
One cold afternoon upon a time, we entered – the Squirrels, and Gemma, and I – a theatre in a small town around here, to settle in for a performance that night.
It was ten minutes to four, and I had arranged to meet the electrician to fix the lights, and we had a few pieces of scenery to mount. After which…
“We’re doing the lights first thing – but look, I want a tech rehearsal afterwards,” I warned. “If I can’t have one, there will be murder.”
Of course, they all said in round-eyed innocence. Of course I was going to have my rehearsal. Who did I take them for? And, after all these years, how naïve must I be? Gentle Reader, I believed them. There was plenty of time, I blithely thought – and cheerfully set to work with the electrician, while the men mounted our rostra. Continue reading
22 Saturday Oct 2016
Oh, I’m in a tetchy mood…
So last night we played Shakespeare in Words in a little town here around. I limped there in the wake of a minor but painful accident, and we had to readjust a few things around the Chorus’s impeded mobility, and we had no technical rehearsal at all – but still. Continue reading
06 Saturday Aug 2016
Posted in Theatre
A lovely garden in a lovely summer night, things going (nearly) smooth, not messing up one’s lines, finding again the golden thread with the (large) audience, applause, applause, applause…
Colour me very happy.
Antony and the Chorus
04 Thursday Aug 2016
Tonight.
Tonight is first night for Shakespeare in Words.
We’ll still squeeze in a scrap of tech rehearsal late this afternoon (or so I devoutly hope) and then… Continue reading
26 Tuesday Jul 2016
Last night, after rehearsals, it was far too hot to go home – and, the rehearsals having gone passably well, we weren’t in the mood to disperse yet anyway. So we sat, more or less in the dark, in the garden of our makeshift rehearsal room. We sat in a circle, and began to tell each other the combination of Sonnets 55 and 81 that ends the play.
We all said it in turn, the game being to do it as differently as we could from the person before us. Again and again we said it… Continue reading
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