We're about half-way through our last week of first session and it is starting to get a little crazy in these here parts! Every day is crammed full of rehearsals and last-minute preparations for the productions occurring each night of the upcoming week. We kicked off the last-week shows with the Shakespeare production last night, "Two Gentlemen of Verona," and tonight will be the Ballibay Follies. All of the last-week shows are shaping up to be fabulous productions, and I'll keep you as updated as possible, beginning with a little review of last night's Shakespeare!
As a precursor, you should know that I was in a few Shakespeare productions during my time at
Ballibay -- I think I played some sort of servant in "Macbeth," and I played Thisbe in scenes from "A Midsummer Night's Dream," but never had to memorize more than a page or two at most. Works of the Bard -- which I love to read and study in class -- has never been my forte. Last night, sitting in the audience of the show at the Outdoor Platform (which, just so you know, is my absolute favorite performance space on campus...something about open-air theater just strikes a chord in me!), I tried to remember any of the lines I'd said in Shakespeare plays I'd been in ...and I couldn't. It's so challenging! The show started, and five minutes in I was completely enthralled. One of the girls in my cabin, Maya P., was playing Julia, one of the gentlemen's love affairs. She was a main character, knew all of her lines in Shakespearean English, which might as well be Greek, and she's only 13 years old! Two of my other girls were in the show, as well, and their parts went on without a hitch. As I watched the show, I couldn't believe how well the actors knew their lines, or -- if they flubbed -- how smoothly they could save the moment. Sometimes I feel like I miss the jokes in Shakespearean comedies because I don't understand what's going on, but the actors understood the script so well, that they were able to fully communicate it to the audience and not a joke was missed!
Completely unrelated: one of the best things about Ballibay kids is that they're just so darn cute! See picture below!
More soon,
Elizabeth C.
Ballibay Blogger
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