theatre performance

 morgana and i bought flowers from our favorite florist for a friend's shakespeare performance this afternoon.

 

 she played the countess olivia in twelfth night, and she did a great job and looked like she was having such a good time.

i was sitting in the back row and so i felt hidden enough to sneak a video.

another grey day . .

final theatre forays, the roman market and the german deli

chanda and morgana were up early friday morning to wait for tickets to see ian mckellen in king lear at the duke of york's theatre (!).

they were first in line and received front row seats.

the rumor is that she is knitting gloves.

chanda had never seen king lear performed before. she said the performance was incredibly moving and she cried at the end. i saw david ogden stiers as king lear in 1981 at the outdoor globe theatre in balboa park in san diego.

today chanda saw two shows at the (real?!) globe: hamlet and then othello.

yes, she stood for a total of six hours, but she said it was all worth it.

the leather shop where morgana and she bought belts for themselves and korrina.

matcha tea and cake afterwards . .

and this is tuesday afternoon at the roman market on the old roman road in hackney.

 it's an open market that has been operating for 150  years and sells clothing and housewares, but also plants and flowers, fresh produce and prepared food. it has a website here.

and last, but not least, morgana visited a german deli in hackney, which i first thought was the same company from which eva and i order christmas chocolates, but i see now that it's different:

(i thought at first that it was a brick and mortar store of the online store.) she said it was very nice and a woman and her daughter cooked their wurst for them on a grill. it's in a quiet neighborhood by the canal. they have a website here, and the online company eva and i use is here.

shakespeare on the run

 we met our friends ron and andy, along with clyde and korrina, at castle clinton for a shakespeare on the run performance (the tempest) with the classic stage company.

 you follow the actors from scene to scene throughout battery park . . 

 sometimes you do have to run to keep up with them . . 

 afterwards, we walked to the shake shack at the new fulton subway station for a late night snack . . 

 french fries, turkey hot dogs, mushroom burgers and regular burgers . . and milk shakes for some of the folks . . 

 it's so wonderful to be home again and doing things with friends and with korrina . . 

 after we said good night to everyone, we went on a hunt for special eclipse glasses . . 

but there were no longer any available!

snow and shakespeare

 it was a beautiful snowy late afternoon and we took the bus uptown to meet our friends at a diner, before heading over to the pearl theatre for a production of the winter's tale. there's more to say . . but it's sunday and i need to get ready to see nycb's romeo and juliet . . ! i'll write more later.

the bus got stuck in tunnel traffic at 29th street. it took us 30 minutes to get through. thankfully, everyone was in a good humor and a woman sitting in front with her five or six year old kept us posted on the movement of the trucks and cars. the bus driver finally got pushy and just kept nosing his way across thirtieth street . . and then it was smooth sailing and we were at 42nd in less than 2 minutes. 

our friends had already ordered for us since we had texted them what we wanted from the bus . . ahh . . . cell phones . . 

i love days and nights like this with snow falling and everything all grey and white and quiet.

the theatre was just across the street and around the corner . .

it's a funny diner with a parking lot . . very unusual for manhattan.

at the pearl . . a theatre built into one of the current skyscraper apartment buildings. the pearl theatre has been around since the mid '80's when they used to be located on 22nd street in chelsea. we saw henry iv, part i, here two years ago.

we had a great time seeing the show together, and a fun time critiquing it afterwards! some of the actors we just loved and thought they were fabulous, and a few were caught up in being very dramatic. our biggest obstacle was the set: a present day dining room scene. it never changed from it's  three green walls, even when the play's scenes changed from indoors to outdoors and to another country altogether. it felt stifling, especially when the one of the main characters was opening up and undergoing changes himself. having the set stay the same felt constrictive. though we were unhappy with this aspect, we all loved hearing the words come alive with the actors. dialogue that didn't make sense in the book, set us laughing in the theatre. it was a fun night.

poems and macbeth

our sunday poems reflected the warmer weather . .

a little bit of blowing
a little bit of snow
a little bit of growing
and crocuses will show.
on every twig that's lonely
a new green leaf will spring
on every patient tree-top
a thrush will stop and sing.
 by anonymous

 pippa's song
by robert browning
the year's at the spring,
the day's at the morn;
the morning's at seven;
the hillside's dew-pearled:
the lark's on the wing;
the snail's on the thorn;
God's in his heaven --
all's right with the world!

 chanda's early morning sewing school: here she is finishing up her collar.

it was a hectic morning as the girls were still finishing up their costumes for macbeth, and they needed to be at the theatre at noon. we managed to have a short breakfast together before they ran off and i finished pinning and sewing and ironing morgana's collar. then i needed to get her lunch together (we've been doing the gaps diet and i can't just slap some goat cheese on bread for her these days) and take the food and the collar to the theatre. i got to enter via the backstage door on theatre row on 41st street, which was fun. then i sat for about 45 minutes in the dressing room gathering the tunic into the collar piece. it came out pretty good. you can see it in the pictures:

 rehearsing the cue to cue . . (isabella is ten . . she was very clear in her reading and had good projection . . she was so fun to watch).

 the banquet scene where macbeth sees the ghosts . .

let's see if i can remember morgana and chanda's parts. they played several characters each, which is always a fun challenge. morgana: third witch, macduff, third murderer, gentlewoman, seyton. chanda: first witch, angus, first murderer. (i checked the program . . )

the sword fight . . between morgana and deychen, macduff and macbeth.

practicing the sword fight and checking to see if their props are set . .

 they had some help from a few professional directors. above is gabriel, and he was very supportive, just giving a suggestion here and there and applauding many of the decisions they had made.

 they did a great job. the scene transistions were smooth and quick and the costume changes were clever, with one actor helping another into a simple skirt or cloak.

an after the show picture . . our friend camille did the lighting. she ran a perfect board and this was her only rehearsal, and her first time ever running a lightboard.

 greg and i walked home while the girls went out with our friends. we were tired and wanted to take care of the animals and move the car.

it was a nice studio theatre to work in and they had a full and enthusiastic audience.

the cold arrives

we woke to 27 degrees this morning. it's finally cold and we're consistently turning the heat on. late this afternoon i met janet for a hot chocolate at chocolate bar and the moon was rising.

we finished reading julius caesar and really enjoyed reading it aloud. it makes such a difference to take turns and find the motivation in the words.