Once again my search for sun and heat could have been accomplished in my own backyard. Maybe I should have paid more attention to the "Wizard of Oz". However, home doesn't have a Shakespeare festival or my father, daughter or brother, so it was time for a visit to Oregon.
We managed to squeeze in four plays in a three day visit to Ashland. I had seen all but one of the plays as least once before, but as each staging is different, that was just fine. Lots of plaid and music that was reminiscent of a jug band in "As you like it" (set in the 1930’s), more plaid, but with traditional costumes in "Taming of the Shrew" and an interesting costume style split between modern for the younger characters and renaissance for the older generation (Juliet's Mom most be at least 32) in “Romeo and Juliet”. Tartuffe was very funny, slapstick at times and ended with such a hard poke at Louis XIV that I'm amazed that Moliere wasn't jailed. The play was banned from public performances, but was performed at court regularly (although perhaps not in its entirety).
The saddest part of "Romeo and Juliet" (never mind the body count or lost love) for me it's still the exchange between Mercutio and Romeo on their way to the Capulet's party.
Romeo. Peace, peace, Mercutio, peace! Thou talk'st of nothing.
Mercutio. True, I talk of dreams, Which are the children of an idle brain, Begot of nothing but vain fantasy, Which is as thin of substance as the air And more inconstant than the wind...
We managed to squeeze in four plays in a three day visit to Ashland. I had seen all but one of the plays as least once before, but as each staging is different, that was just fine. Lots of plaid and music that was reminiscent of a jug band in "As you like it" (set in the 1930’s), more plaid, but with traditional costumes in "Taming of the Shrew" and an interesting costume style split between modern for the younger characters and renaissance for the older generation (Juliet's Mom most be at least 32) in “Romeo and Juliet”. Tartuffe was very funny, slapstick at times and ended with such a hard poke at Louis XIV that I'm amazed that Moliere wasn't jailed. The play was banned from public performances, but was performed at court regularly (although perhaps not in its entirety).
The saddest part of "Romeo and Juliet" (never mind the body count or lost love) for me it's still the exchange between Mercutio and Romeo on their way to the Capulet's party.
Romeo. Peace, peace, Mercutio, peace! Thou talk'st of nothing.
Mercutio. True, I talk of dreams, Which are the children of an idle brain, Begot of nothing but vain fantasy, Which is as thin of substance as the air And more inconstant than the wind...
Dreams are such nice things though...
I admit to being occasionally distracted watching the two outdoor plays. The first balcony seats have a great view of the big dipper and of bats browsing for moths. I might be the only person that associates Shakespeare with bats, they are an integral part of the experience for me.
I selected the following quotes from "As you like it" as they seem to sum up the action of the play.Two of them are probably familiar to everyone who has been tortured in an english class, one will probably never make it as a refrigerator magnet?
Duke senior: And this our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones and good in everything
ROSALIND: Love is merely madness; and, I tell you, deserves as well a dark house and a whip as madmen do: and the reason why they are not so punished and cured is, that the lunacy is so ordinary that the whippers are in love too.
Audrey: I am not a slut, though I thank the gods I am foul.
Touchstone: Well, praised be the gods for thy foulness; sluttishness may come hereafter...
The best and only from Tartuffe since we couldn’t find a copy of the play (even in French) was "Why is matricide a crime?" Again probably won't make a magnet or greeting card, but made a lot of people laugh, including my children.
Besides the plays and heat, I soaked up some of the flora. I had forgotten or never noticed that there are two common species of Quercus in southern Oregon, Quercus kellogii (California black oak) and Quercus garryana (Oregon white oak). The white oak is more familiar to me since it’s the one species that occurs in the Willamette Valley. It has smooth rounded lobes on the leaves. Q. kellogii has 3 toothed; bristle tipped or pointed lobes on the leaves. Most of the oak in Lithia Park were the black oak. The most abundant cedar in the park was Libocedrus decurrens (incense cedar). It’s the easiest of the common northwest species to recognize from the needle pattern. No subtlety in the elongate appearance of the side needles. I brought back a small branch to show students in the spring since Pojar includes it in the conifer key. I also collected a few of the rather ovoid shaped cones. Most were split in two, not sure if the Steller’s jays or the grey squirrels are responsible.
Besides Steller’s jays there was an abundance of Brewer’s blackbirds, mallards, a few Wood ducks and one flicker in the park. I didn’t get up early enough to catch any other birds. I did see an amazing number of Turkey Vultures along I-5, none of the harriers that my Mom and I used to count along the fences (we called them marsh hawks) between Eugene and Salem. Saw one juvenile Red –tail with very dark patches (in what would be the collar bone area). It looked a lot more like the hawks of my Oregon years than those I’ve seen in Sitka. Found a used copy of “Hawks in Flight” that I hope will clear up some of my hawk issues.
I admit to being occasionally distracted watching the two outdoor plays. The first balcony seats have a great view of the big dipper and of bats browsing for moths. I might be the only person that associates Shakespeare with bats, they are an integral part of the experience for me.
I selected the following quotes from "As you like it" as they seem to sum up the action of the play.Two of them are probably familiar to everyone who has been tortured in an english class, one will probably never make it as a refrigerator magnet?
Duke senior: And this our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones and good in everything
ROSALIND: Love is merely madness; and, I tell you, deserves as well a dark house and a whip as madmen do: and the reason why they are not so punished and cured is, that the lunacy is so ordinary that the whippers are in love too.
Audrey: I am not a slut, though I thank the gods I am foul.
Touchstone: Well, praised be the gods for thy foulness; sluttishness may come hereafter...
The best and only from Tartuffe since we couldn’t find a copy of the play (even in French) was "Why is matricide a crime?" Again probably won't make a magnet or greeting card, but made a lot of people laugh, including my children.
Besides the plays and heat, I soaked up some of the flora. I had forgotten or never noticed that there are two common species of Quercus in southern Oregon, Quercus kellogii (California black oak) and Quercus garryana (Oregon white oak). The white oak is more familiar to me since it’s the one species that occurs in the Willamette Valley. It has smooth rounded lobes on the leaves. Q. kellogii has 3 toothed; bristle tipped or pointed lobes on the leaves. Most of the oak in Lithia Park were the black oak. The most abundant cedar in the park was Libocedrus decurrens (incense cedar). It’s the easiest of the common northwest species to recognize from the needle pattern. No subtlety in the elongate appearance of the side needles. I brought back a small branch to show students in the spring since Pojar includes it in the conifer key. I also collected a few of the rather ovoid shaped cones. Most were split in two, not sure if the Steller’s jays or the grey squirrels are responsible.
Besides Steller’s jays there was an abundance of Brewer’s blackbirds, mallards, a few Wood ducks and one flicker in the park. I didn’t get up early enough to catch any other birds. I did see an amazing number of Turkey Vultures along I-5, none of the harriers that my Mom and I used to count along the fences (we called them marsh hawks) between Eugene and Salem. Saw one juvenile Red –tail with very dark patches (in what would be the collar bone area). It looked a lot more like the hawks of my Oregon years than those I’ve seen in Sitka. Found a used copy of “Hawks in Flight” that I hope will clear up some of my hawk issues.
One last rhyme in honor of air travel courtesy of the Oregonian
What killed Amelia?
We can’t tell.
Her carry-on contained some gel?
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