Monday, November 30, 2009

The bear is back.

I am back in semi-sunny California.

Part of me is compelled to write about the past 2.5 months. I feel that I owe many of you an explanation, of sorts. What the hell have I been doing? Where have I been? Who have I been with?

The other part of me is loathed to, for the simple fact that much of my experience is completely indescribable. I could answer the questions above, but would so completely fail in my retelling that the attempt hardly seems worth it.

So what do I do?

I give you answers in the form of pictures.


Meet Julius Caesar....


...and part of his senate....


Uh Oh. Cassius is upset about something. Brutus listens...


Now they're laughing at Casca.


Cassius and Casca talk about the portentous storm...that they're in.


Conspirators in cloaks...like Death Eaters. Oooooooo....


Brutus & Portia ...


Caesar & Calpurnia


The conspirators get nervous....


But they kill him anyway.


Ouch.


Cassius hands Brutus the sword...



Et tu, Brute?


Enter Mark Antony.



Cassius wishes they had killed Mark Antony, too...



Mark Antony mourns Caesar's murder, and vows revenge!
"...Shall in these confines, with a monarch's voice, cry, 'Havoc,' and let slip the dogs of war! That this foul deed shall smell above the earth, with carrion men groaning for burial."



...and reads the will of Caesar to the Roman People...



...who go crazy and arrest and hurt Cinna the Poet. Because her name is Cinna.


The forming of the second Triumvirate: Mark Antony, Octavius, Lepidus



Trouble in Liberator Paradise...



and four pages later, they make up...



Octavius and Mark Antony: pre-battle bad asses!



Cassius & Brutus say goodbye: "Forever, and forever, farewell."



BATTLE!



MORE BATTLE!



In an act of desperation and defeat, Cassius commits suicide with the help of Pindarus.



Brutus finds Cassius dead, and in an act of honor, commits suicide as well.



The Triumvirate is victorious, order returns to Rome.

Images from the Fall Festival of Shakespeare:


Audience from the floor to the rafters...for all 10 shows.


My boss, the Director of Education at Shakespeare & Co., Kevin Coleman.


We stop at nothing to raise money. Yes, he's dressed as a Mountie.


The closing of the Festival, a dance called The Reverance.


Sunset before our last school performance.

This is the culmination of 10 weeks of work. This is what I've been doing, where I've been, and who I've been spending my time with; proudly.

The honest answer, in as brief as I can provide, is that this project is the best thing I do. Bar none. It's the best use of my creativity, my intelligence, my stamina, my patience, and my self. I am infinitely lucky.

I was on a research binge last night on wikipedia, and I was reading about Dante's Inferno, from The Divine Comedy. Having only read selections in college, I had completely forgotten that Brutus & Cassius are two of the three traitors chewed in the three mouths of Satan. The ninth and deepest level of hell is reserved for Traitors, says good ol' Dante. In case any of you forgot, or did not know, the third traitor occupying Satan's middle mouth, is Judas Iscariot.

As I was reading about this, I thought about Shakespeare, and how he probably read Dante's Divine Comedy in school, or at the very least had a working knowledge of the content. Then I thought about Shakespeare's play, and how brilliantly Shakespeare avoids having an opinion as to which side, the conspirators or the Triumvirs, were "right," and how humanly he writes Brutus and Cassius.

Then I pictured Shakespeare giving the middle finger to Dante, and I smiled.

More to come...on other things.
-----------------------------
This blog post is brought to you by:

Planet Earth on the Discovery Chanel
Dying Polar Bears in the Arctic
Sigourney Weaver
Air Canada
Ice Water

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hat's off to you!
What you do is noble work indeed!
You are giving a great gift to future generations.

You are sharing your love of Shakespeare...
And your passion for theatre...

You are teaching them how *wonderful* it feels when you work together to create something INCREDIBLE and to understand what "the arts" are all about...

You are sharing your knowledge/talents and giving these young students a chance to explore their *own* talents...and to stretch their limits, so that they go to levels beyond their wildest dreams...and create magic on the stage.

These are truly gifts to their spirits and your students are fortunate to have such a passionate (and talented)teacher/director!

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Phoenix said...

Loved these pictures...glad to see the audience responded so well to Caesar.

Thanks for attempting to share just a tiny bit of your 2 1/2 months away...pictures always explain it in a way that sometimes words can't.

The fact that this blog was brought to me by dying polar bears made me sad.

Also, are we doing the Paypal thing or what? I told you I'd stay on you about that...

jennifer from pittsburgh said...

Kudos and accolades! Good job! Well done!
And, I too was watching Planet Earth last night on Discovery. Sigourney Weaver's voice is very soothing when the world is scaring me :)