Category Archives: Theater

As You Like It

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As You Like It – STL Shakespeare Festival

Last night, we and Joanie went to Shakespeare Glen in Forest Park, to see As You Like It. We have seen this play performed there before, twenty years ago. I still have the t-shirt. Then it was only the fourth season of Shakespeare in the park. Twenty years later the festival is still going, albeit maybe not as strongly as in the past. To claim a good spot, we got there at six, even if the show did not start until eight. In the past there were many preshow divertissements. Minstrels would wander through the audience, juggling, performing slapstick and making music. Not this year. In the past a mini version of the night’s main performance would present a tongue-in-cheek synopsis. They called this the Green Room Show, but not this year. Fortunately, the cartoon storyboard was still available this year.  I view these degradations as another case of how Covid ruined everything. It almost killed the Rep. It is good to see that the Shakespeare Festival is still alive.

As You Like It Storyboard

Pre-Travel Frenzy

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As You Like It. 2004

We have not hit the road just yet, but we definitely have all of our wheels spinning. We are in the runup to high travel season. In a matter of days, we will leave the confines of home and become seasonal nomads once again. Before we go though, there is just one more thing, or two, three more.

Over the years, I have noticed this thing about my spovely louse. She views every departure as a deadline. A deadline that must be crammed with more tasks than can possibly be completed. I do not mean to criticize, except this frenetic activity leads to fatigue or worse illness. She tends to work herself to death. Out of the blue, she accepted two new commissions. They are not large ones. She punched one out yesterday and should finish the other today. This is in addition to all of her regularly scheduled artwork.

That is what daygirl is up to. Not to be outdone, on the other burning end of the candle, night-girl has her own itinerary. Last night, we had dinner with some of our Team Kaldi’s bike buddies. Next week, we will rendezvous out-of-town with old friends. Last night, was all about older friends. Tonight is Shakespeare night. Joanie will accompany us to Forest Park for As You Like It.

Shakespeare only wrote about twenty plays that are deemed worth performing. The Saint Louis Shakespeare Festival has been recycling his oldie but goodie ones for a few years now. In all of the hubbub of packing for travel, I came across the pictured t-shirt from twenty years ago. I think that I’ll wear it tonight.

Stormy Weather

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Riders Across the Rain Swept Plains

Thursday night, we attended the theater and saw August: Osage County at the Rep. This play portrays the Weston family of Pawhuska, OK, who collectively totally take the fun out of dysfunctional. Presented in three acts, after the first one, I seriously considered asking Anne if we could leave, but I knew that she would say no. On my way out to the lobby, I noticed another couple who were already acting on my wishes. After the second act, again during intermission, I was in the men’s room where I let out a heavy sigh. Another guy there offered his hope that maybe there would be some redemption in the third act. I told him that I was just hoping for a Hamlet ending, where everyone dies at the end.

In the play, this family seemingly committed every sin imaginable. Enumerating them, you have infidelity, drug addiction, alcoholism, child molestation, incest, suicide, bigotry and just plain meanness. I realize that some of these sins are forms of mental illness, but when you smuggle pills into rehab using your cooch, you have a problem. There was no redemptive moment at the end and only one person died. Everything just collapsed in upon itself with a whimper.

 

Malden

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The McKittrick Hotel

We left NYC this morning and drove north out of the city, then east into Connecticut. To start, the driving was on parkways, which are an older iteration of an interstate. The roads had low overpasses that were too low for semis. Their absence and the greenery that surrounds the road made for a relaxing way to travel. Eventually, we transitioned to interstates, swung around Boston and made it to Malden, Maren and David. Declan was at daycare, but we will see him.

He has arrived and he is a person now. He can sit up, hold his head up and move. He is almost crawling; he just cannot make his legs work right or that. We held him and played with him. Then we watched him play by himself. We fed him and then it was time or his bath and then off to bed he went. He went to sleep without a fuss. I hope that he sleeps through night.

The City that Sleeps No More

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Room View

Our play tonight was cancelled. It was a last-minute thing, with only an hour before curtain. No explanation was given, but I did get a full refund. We were all bummed. Afterwards, we took Dan and Brit out to dinner. Anne and I did a lot of walking today, from 42nd to Wall Street. I am bushed tonight and maybe a little bit glad that I did not have to stay up as late as originally planned. 

You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown

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Last night, we went to the high school, to see the opening of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown. Of particular interest was the performance of our next-door neighbor, Grace, who played Snoopy. This musical is a series of vignettes strung together from reoccurring tropes in the Peanuts comic strip. Charlie Brown is accompanied by Lucy, Linus, Sally, Schroeder and of course Snoopy. Other familiar Peanuts characters like Pig Pen, Peppermint Patty, Marcie, Frieda and Woodstock join the cast as a chorus. IMHO, Grace stole the show. Having raised our kids in this school district, it was very, very, very funny watching David’s former English teacher laugh during the Book Report song. Not that anything like that ever happened in his class. Snoopy/Grace had two big moments. The first one was when Snoopy dog-fought the Red Baron. Opening night microphone problems somewhat marred this scene, making it hard to hear. Her second moment came near the end of the show, with the song, Suppertime. She really belted it out. I understand that she rehearsed on a treadmill, to get her breathing right. Her enthusiasm and timing drew the evenings loudest applauds.