September 16, 2011
Dear Everyone:
Returned from Oregon last Friday.
The
Wedding (“Caroline” and “Gustav”) was wonderful.
The bride and groom were beautiful and handsome, respectively.
The wedding itself was lovely, taking place in an exquisite
garden setting. The minister
exhibited his multilingual skills, performing the ceremony in both
English and Spanish. And the
reception that followed took place under the stars.
What could be more romantic?
We
got to see “Richard”, “Marshall” and “Alice”, however briefly.
Then it was off to
Ashland, a “little hamlet in Southern Oregon,”
home of the internationally renowned
Shakespeare Festival.
We saw five plays, including one musical.
Julius Caesar was
played by a woman, not the completely “gender-blind” casting that they
used some years ago with
The
Tempest. This time, they
just changed “him” to “her”.
Back in June, they had a problem with the
main indoor theater, causing
all kinds of uproar, (“the show must go on!”), finding enough folding
chairs to fill up the local armory and a tent erected in the nearby
park. They had it all fixed
about a month before our arrival, but it gave rise to new T-Shirts.
And a new standard announcement before each performance about
emergency exits.
The
newest Artistic Director broke with “tradition” that said only
Shakespeare and contemporaries could be performed on the outdoor stage
by producing Gilbert and Sullivan’s
Pirates of Penzance.
It was loads of fun, as was
Love’s Labours Lost with its 1950’s motif.
I
even ran into some friends, quite unexpectedly, on the street.
That’s one of Ashland’s charms.
It really is a small town.
All things considered, everyone had a good time.
Then it was time to go home.
Everything was as it should be.
No floods or tornadoes carried anything away in our absence.
Various people caught various planes to various locations.
Summer is over.
Next up: Autumn.
Love, as always,
Pete
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