Watching the play from up there gave me a new perspective on Shakespeare (I know, I know - Beylster, cut it out with the cruel and unusual PUNishment). After the play was over, we attended the "Talk Back" session, where we got to interact with some of the players. One of them asked how our experience was watching the play from the balcony, since they are the touring company and rarely get to have the audience sit on such a balcony. My response included the sentiments that sitting on the balcony really did make you feel like royalty. It made the production even more intimate. During the play, the players would look at and address us. During the curtain call, the players would turn around and bow to just us. It was a lot of fun.
Monday, April 9, 2007
The Blackfriars Playhouse - Staunton, Virginia
I'll bet you didn't know that the little town of Staunton, VA is the home of the Blackfriars Playhouse, the world's only recreation of an indoor Elizabethan theatre (notice the English spelling of theatre - 'just comes out when I'm in a Shakespearean mood). I took a date there last Thursday. We saw A Midsummer Night's Dream. Before the production began, the players asked if anyone would like to sit not in the audience, but on the stage. A few people volunteered. Then they asked if anyone would want to occupy the balcony on the stage, the place where Royalty would have sat. My date and I volunteered. It was AMAZING!!!
Watching the play from up there gave me a new perspective on Shakespeare (I know, I know - Beylster, cut it out with the cruel and unusual PUNishment). After the play was over, we attended the "Talk Back" session, where we got to interact with some of the players. One of them asked how our experience was watching the play from the balcony, since they are the touring company and rarely get to have the audience sit on such a balcony. My response included the sentiments that sitting on the balcony really did make you feel like royalty. It made the production even more intimate. During the play, the players would look at and address us. During the curtain call, the players would turn around and bow to just us. It was a lot of fun.
Watching the play from up there gave me a new perspective on Shakespeare (I know, I know - Beylster, cut it out with the cruel and unusual PUNishment). After the play was over, we attended the "Talk Back" session, where we got to interact with some of the players. One of them asked how our experience was watching the play from the balcony, since they are the touring company and rarely get to have the audience sit on such a balcony. My response included the sentiments that sitting on the balcony really did make you feel like royalty. It made the production even more intimate. During the play, the players would look at and address us. During the curtain call, the players would turn around and bow to just us. It was a lot of fun.
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3 comments:
Wow!! How much were the tickets? Maybe we can go there when we're out this summer...
Those are gorgeous pictures. No wonder you felt like royalty! What a fantastic opportunity and a wonderful memory.
That's really amazing. I need to spend more time back east where you can find cool stuff like that. Oh, by the way, what is "Beylster". I mean, I am assuming it refers to you...but where did it come from?
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