Saturday, June 7, 2008

Something's sinking in!

Thursday night, we attended a FREE production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. A couple of months ago, we touched on Shakespeare and watched Julius Caesar on video. All three kids were spellbound by it although they didn't understand it all or catch the innuendos. I had to stop the tape several times to pull it together for them, explain the foreshadowing and thinking/speeches that were made.

All in all, they enjoyed the video production.

So when we had the chance to go to A Midsummer's Night's Dream, produced by the Skinny Improv, I snatched at it. Hubby thought I was nuts to take the kids with us, but I insisted.

There was a "stream" near the stage that is a popular place for kids to play in the water so we had them bring their swimsuits. J-Dawg felt too old to play in the water, I think, so he sat by us and watched the people (and the kids playing in the water.) S-man and dd had no such inhibitions and had a ball splashing and "swimming".


They did take time out to enjoy the pre-show antics of some of the fairies though:



Amazingly, all 3 children took the opportunity to sit down to watch the show once it began. Even more amazingly, they went up to the front of the lawn where they could see and hear it better. They enjoyed it and were a little distressed when it seemed to end and very relieved to realize that was only the intermission.


For some reason, this picture isn't resolving very well. Click here to see the original.

On our way home, the boys started talking about Julius Caesar and comparing this one to that. Dd chimed in as well. Hubby raised his eyebrows at me, and I filled him in on their prior exposure to Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. At that he quoted his favorite part: "Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears I've come to bury Caesar, not to praise him." S-man called out, "That was Mark Antony!"

It's nice to see evidence that some of what they learn sticks!

2 comments:

Kelli said...

What a fun event and it looks like a lovely evening, too!
Kelli
P.s. Thank you for the great puppy tips. :0)

Mrs. Darling said...

Loved this post. Im afraid my kids have no exposure to Shakespear! sigh