The Pells take the Shakespeare Challenge

So, Shakespeare Dallas is collaborating with the AT&T Performing Arts Center to perform all of William Shakespeare’s work, including every one of the plays and sonnets, over the next 5 years.  They will be presenting staged readings (actors acting the parts with few props, or costumes) at a rate of approximately 8 per year.   Hunter and I are both Shakespeare fans, so we have decided to attend as many of these as possible.  To date I have seen about 10 or so of Shakespeare’s plays performed, including (but not limited to) Julius Caesar, Othello, Hamlet, Richard III, Twelfth Night, Coriolanus, Macbeth, The Tempest and, today, their first reading in this series, Much Ado About Nothing.  I may have seen others, that’s just what I remember at the moment.

I wasn’t sure what to expect going in, never having seen a ‘staged reading.’  I was pleasantly surprised to have enjoyed it so thoroughly.  Yes, many of the actors read directly from their scripts and there were a couple of missed cues or line flubs, but it was much less distracting then you might think.  In fact, by the second or third act, I hardly noticed it.  The charismatic actor who played Beatrice, Allison Pistorius, was nothing short of brilliant and the chemistry between her and the gentleman who portrayed Benedict, Jeffrey Schmidt, was simply magnetic.  I could scarce believe that they only had 40 hours of practice!  Speaking of scarce believing, I was left wondering how the hell I’d missed this play!?!  I think that by dismissing Shakepeare’s comedies in favor of the tragedies I’ve done myself a great disservice.  I can’t remember when I’ve laughed so much!    Here is a picture of Hunter and I during intermission enjoying the beautiful afternoon.  As you can see, we were enjoying ourselves immensely.

The prior evening’s viewing of Macbeth was unfortunately overshadowed by the tragic accident that occurred on our way home.  I did want to take a few moments to comment on it as well while I am on topic.  I will say that I enjoyed the Scottish Play much, much more than I had anticipated.  A previous reading and audio-performance left me unsure that I would find the play to my liking.   I am pleased to report that I was very, very wrong.  I really did find the play fascinating.  Though the actor playing Macbeth was nowhere near the powerhouse of Alex Organ’s Coriolanus, he was quiet good (and, per Tim, yummy.)  Lady Macbeth, equally, gave a fine performance.  Banquo, one of the most likable characters of the play,  tended toward overacting his part, which was unfortunate.  My favorite character, however, was Macbeth’s porter.  I could happily watch him play the “Knock, knock, knock…” scene a dozen times and never tire of it!

For future performances we’ll be attending soon,  I am excited to say that the Dallas Theater Center is performing the phenomenal King Lear early next year.  In addition, the reset of the lineup for the first round of readings in the “Complete Shakespeare Series” is as follows:

September 23-24: Much Ado about Nothing 
October 14-15: Othello 
November 25-26: The Taming of the Shrew
January 13-14: The Winter’s Tale 
February 17-18: Henry VI Part 1
March 10-11: Henry VI Part 2
April 14-15: Henry VI Part 3
May 19-20: Richard III

Mortality and morality

I saw a stranger die tonight in a horrific car accident while on the way home from seeing Macbeth. We stopped to render aid, and as Hunter was parking on the side of the road and calling 911, I ran to the scene of the accident found the body. It was about 30-40 feet from where the truck finally stopped. There was no pulse, no breath, and his clothes were torn half off his body. It was bad. For the rest of my life, I will regret that I didn’t have the presence of mind to administer CPR. It’s true, and I feel terrible. All of the blood, the horror of it all, it got to me and I blanked out. I thought I was stronger than that. I will be next time. I was told by several people that it wouldn’t have done any good, but that still doesn’t alleviate me from that guilt.

It was so surreal. We saw the truck flip about 4 times, coming down the hill straight at our truck. We pulled over immediately to assist, but there was nothing to be done. I make no judgements, but there were full bottles of cold Corona lying all around him (I had to move his hand off a full, capped bottle to get to his wrist to try to find a pulse when I couldn’t get one from his neck) and I can’t imagine how a man of his considerable size could have been thrown from the vehicle if he was wearing a seat belt. ::sigh:: I just keep thinking about the frailty of human life and how he’s never going to show up wherever he was going. HIs family has lost him, his friends have lost him, all in the space of a few seconds. Damn.

I was surprised when on of the Sheriffs that showed up said that most people don’t stop to render aid. How could you NOT? It was obvious that anyone in that truck was going to be in bad shape. The accident was like a movie, it flipped over several times, how could you NOT stop to assist? What the hell, people? Really? So you have to fill out an incident report. So you might have to be inconvenienced for an hour or so. It’s a damn person! UGH

So anyway. That’s my day. I come home from seeing Macbeth and witness this. Then I go all Lady Macbeth, washing my hands to get the dead man’s blood off and just not feeling like they’ll ever come clean. The irony is not lost on me. I don’t believe I’ll be watching the Scottish Play again. Bad memories.

As for me, it’s an Ambien and a prayer that I can sleep tonight.