Coyote Cinema: Oregon Shakespeare Festival Day Three

[cyrano]

Matinee: The Tenth Muse
I admit that the first act was not inspiring--it was good, but not great. There were candles, and big heavy convent doors, and girls misbehaving, so I was satisfied. But the second act picked things up and turned on the gas and I was kind of a mess by the end.
This is a play of history, of ignorance threatening knowledge, and, as I stated earlier, girls breaking rules. So I'm exactly the target audience. There are subtle suggestions of a woman's love for another woman, but only suggestions. And that was, I think, far more effective.
There are no cheap villains with no motives, and no heroes with no flaws, everyone acts for their own gain.
Sofia Jean Gomez was Cordelia in Lear, and I got a huge crush on her there. This afternoon, seeing her dance around in a pair of breeches, I fell in love. She is a good actor who is surrounded by very good actors, and I hope they ask her back next year.

Evening: Midsummer Night's Dream
They did this show five years ago, but it seems much sooner. It is not my most favorite play, mostly because it kind of bores me. Especially the mechanicals. Amanda repaired to the hotel to do laundry, and I went to check it out. This one was set as a 1964 Athens High School graduation class, and I was hoping they'd do something interesting with it. They didn't, really, and I departed at intermission.

Comments

[missroserose]

Just looked up the description for "The Tenth Muse". Between that and your description, I'm very sorry I missed it.

I'm also sorry that you can't find it in your heart to enjoy the lighthearted antics of Midsummer. But then, given that it's one of the most commonly produced Shakespeare works, I suppose by now it's old hat to you.

[cyrano]

And if I could drag you up to see it, I would. When CVP performs it, I'll make sure you have tickets even if I won't be in it.

And perhaps with MSND therein lies the problem--in a lot of the productions I've seen, the antics aren't that light hearted. Maybe they've been infected with the weight of "WE ARE DOING SHAKESPEARE", or maybe it's just that I'm not a fan of humor like the mechanicals, or Dogberry, or Dumb and Dumber.

But yeah, I've seen a lot of mediocre performances (like Romeo and Juliet) and I did enjoy it when I first read it. I like to think that when somebody does something transformative or gives an exceptional production I still like it.

[missroserose]

Ahh, all right then. I can definitely see how that would weigh things down. It sometimes amazes me how people don't realize that several of Shakespeare's plays are, effectively, romantic comedies, and should be treated as such - lighthearted and fun. It's a silly, low-stakes story about silly, low-stakes things happening that are (thanks to human foibles) Extremely Important only to the people involved in them.

Back when PJ was in charge of Perseverance Theatre in Juneau, he staged the most wonderful version of Twelfth Night, and I remember reading in one of the news items how the first thing he did was sit down with the cast and work over the script and make sure that they all knew what they were saying, since (especially with actors unused to doing Shakespeare) it's so easy to get bogged down in the language. I don't know if it was that or his directatorial skills or the cast's skills or all of the above, but the show worked fantastically.

[cyrano]

I loves me some Twelfth Night.
And not just because it's the only one with an alternate title.