barn on the yard

Attended Bard on the Beach yesterday with my mom and sister. We started going last year and enjoyed it so much that we're planning on making it a yearly tradition. Grace wanted to introduce her boyfriend to live theatre last year, so she took him to a performance as well. If it gives you any indication of how well that plan worked, to this day, he still has trouble getting the name of the festival right. "Have fun at Barn on the Yard!" He said to us as we were heading off today.

For those that have been to Bard on the Beach before, you know that it's general seating, so the only way to 'reserve' your seats is to write your name with crayon on a sheet of paper that they provide and tape it to your seat back. That way, once you get your seat, you can go pick up concession snacks, use the facilities, or wander around chatting with people until the play starts without fear of losing your seat. On the sheet of paper taped to the seat next to us were scrawled the words: 'some fool.' Genius!

This year, they put on one of my favorite Shakespeare plays, Much Ado About Nothing. Michael Shamata, the director, decided to set the play in 1945 at the end of WWII, with the images of 'boys coming home' and the womens lib. movement resonating as themes throughout. It reminded me of the similarities in which we staged Troilus & Cressida back in University.

I still remember some of my lines as Troilus:

This is the monstruosity in love, lady, that the will
is infinite and the execution confined, that the
desire is boundless and the act a slave to limit.

Makes me want to get into Shakespeare again...

Speaking of which, it's back! (With the same cast, even!) Serey took me when it was in town four or five years ago and I laughed my pants off. I don't usually watch plays twice, but for this one, I'll make an exception.