Happy Birthday to the Bard! Let's Have Some Elizabethan Fun...

                                                   

     

Hi there, friends!

That cake above?

That's a "wedding cake" I made for my kids'

"Midsummer Night's Dream" cast party.

We'll get to that in just a bit!

So, April 23rd!!

WooHoo!

We're huge fans of the Bard around here!

I'm an English major, 

a former elementary teacher, 

and a current homeschooling Mom.

So, we live and breath Will's life and works!

Everyone knows a little about the Bard...

But I've kinda made it my life's mission 

( okay, one of my life's missions)

to drench the boys in his works,

read his original scripts and  sonnets,

dramatize his plays

and learn alllll about his life.

We haven't yet been to England to visit his home, but one of these years, 

we do hope to hop across the pond to

Stratford-on-Avon!

In fact, did you know........

~~~"Hamlet" is his longest play at 4, 042 lines? ~~~

~~~"Comedy of Errors" is his shortest play at  1,787 lines?~~~

~~~That these commonly used expressions are from his works?.........

"All the world's a stage,/ And all the men and women merely players."

From As You Like It, Act 2, scene 7, lines 145 ff.

"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers."

From Dick the butcher's speech in Henry VI, Part ii. Act 4, scene 2, line 77.

"A horse, a horse! My kingdom for a horse!"

From Richard III. Act 5, scene 4, line 7.

"Give me my Romeo, and when I shall die,/ Take him and cut him out in little stars,"

From Juliet’s speech in Romeo and Juliet. Act 3, scene 2, lines 23 ff.

"Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow"

From Juliet’s speech in Romeo and Juliet. Act 2, scene 2, lines 185 ff.

(By the way, "ff" refers to his first folio)

~~~That he died on his 52nd birthday?~~~

Here are some of the places we "met" Will and 

were lucky enough to be able to infuse his writings into our travels:

Below is a shot outside the theater of 

The Plimoth Players, 

in, you got it,

Plymouth, MA.!

Seriously, go check out their site.

We were camping nearby and touring Plimoth Plantation in July 2011.

 Of course, the Plimoth Players' staging by 6 actors ( SIX )

 rotating all   (yes, ALL ) 

the roles  in the original script of

"A Midsummer Night's Dream,"

was, high on our list of 17th century to-do's.

It may be some time since you've read the play.

Here's how they did it:

The siz actors were able to take roles in each of the three subplots,

 if you will, within the story...

Those three distinct "groups" are
"the workmen,"

"the fairies,"

and "the royals."

It may be a little disconcerting to see Hermia appearing as Francis Flute 

and then again as Puck...but that's how they did it! and they were MARVELOUS.

My kids were preparing to stage an unabridged production of a Midsummer Night's Dream just a few months after we saw the Plimoth Players 

and so they knew the play extremely well.

They truly got a kick out of how the men 

( yes, all men, true to Shakespeare's original troupe,

The Blackfriars of the Globe Theater)

 acted their hearts out in three, and sometimes a fourth smaller role, apiece.

What talent and dedication!

Here's the frieze outside of 

The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC

for A Midsummer Night;s Dream.

We took this shot also in the summer of 2011 during what we call our

"Once Upon America trip....."

Which included Boston/Plimoth, Philly, DC and Gettrysburg.

If you have never been to this library in DC, you are missing a truly grand, 

informative, unparalleled experience.

Even those who are not huge fans of the Bard can wander its halls

 and gaze at the exhibits, getting lost forever.

Outside the entry by the friezes for each of his works.

It was 100 degrees in DC that day!

Inside the library:

The boys by a first folio of "Hamlet," 

which they staged the month prior to our trip to DC!

K played the title role (  !! ) and 

T played three secondary roles.

Those were Osric, Francisco and the Player King,

They were 11 and 7, respectively.

Below is a sword used during a Folger production of the scene

in which  Demetrius  "hunts" for Puck 

in, what else?

"A Midsummer Night's Dream!"

Yes indeed, K was happy to see this, as he played 

Demetrius a few months later in our production of "Midsummer."

The remarkable thing about kids is that they 

always 

accomplish more than you'd expect of them, no?
Talk about rising to the occasion?

Give an 8 year old an unabridged Shakespearean script;

tell him he's got three weeks to get it  memorized

and voila!
They're unreal!

Our former home school group produced a few of the Bard's well known works.

My kids and I were instrumental in the behind-the-scenes

 necessities of the staging, 

PR, social media, and producing.
And I managed

the general backstage craziness during rehearsals and the shows

in all the youth productions, kids ages 6-12.

Yikes.

But... amazing.

Here are a few pictures of a few of our endeavors:

Hamlet 

June 2011

We used this script:

No Fear Shakespeare: Hamlet

K, (Hamlet) act 1

Ghost on right

Marcellus and Horation on left

"...whether tis nobler in the mind

to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune..."

Above, K's monolgue

Oops, Hamlet killed the wrong guy and now, 

has to dispose of Polonius's body!

Will Hamlet seize this opportunity to kill Claudius 

as the latter is confessing his murder of the king?

Here, K (Hamlet) tells the head of the troupe of actors that he'd 

like a play staged for the royals.

We know though, that he'd like to

"catch the conscience of the king."

T, as the player king, feigns dead in 

"the play within the play."

T, again...this time as Osric,

 bringing a message to Hamlet from Claudius about the ensuing sword fight.

"A hit, a palpable hit!"

Hamlet and Laertes fight to the death

October 2011 

~ A Midsummer Night's Dream~

Here's the script we used:

No Fear Shakespeare:

A Midsummer Night's Dream

T played the pompous Egeus, father of Hermia...

..who asks Theseus, Duke of Athens,

 to put his daughter to death

as she will not marry the man of HIS choice, Demetrius

(played by K, in green).

She insists on marrying Lysander (in purple.white)

Above, the workmen.

Here's T, again....also playing Francis Flute, the bellows mender 

and begging of Quince, 

who is trying to organize a skit for the Duke's wedding show:

"Nay, faith, let me not play a woman.

I have a beard coming!"

Above, K "hunts" for the elusive Puck in the dark woods.

"Oh wall, full often hast thou heard my moans

 for parting my fair Pyramus and me..."

The shots above and below were of the workmen's 

"play within the play."

Lemme tell ya,
it brought down the house.

The inhibition with which Flute ( T) 
who plays Thisbe before the Duke and the "lovers"
for their wedding party

was astounding.

Pyramus ( on the floor below)

and Thisbe (T in drag)

were jaw dropping, I have to gush.

Go check out act 5, scene 1 of Midsummer

for the Bard's hilarity in this scene.

T hams it up and is thrilled to be onstage;
 yet he worked very hard to  memorize
 three roles for this classic and well loved Shakespearean comedy.

K ( in green in the background, at the wedding)

There's the "man" of the hour.

Legend has it that Will would scribble

DRaG to describe "dressed as girl,"
in the plays in which a man would play a woman in plays within his plays.

Hence the term "dressed in drag."

Now, if you're still here, God bless you!

Discussing the Bard, well, you can tell it's one of my passions!

Now, for the cake!

Here it is, again:

And it's  SO simple....

Cake:

Betty Crocker or Duncan Hines white cake mix.

<gasp>

I know, I know.

But I made this for the cast party, as you know,

 and who had time with all the staging details, photographing 

and creating the cast photo board, making the program, 

running lines with Demetrius, Flute, Thisbe AND Egeus,

 to concoct a completely homemade cake?

Here's what I did:

Make the batter and pour into two heart shaped pans,

One larger than the other.

Stacking

Cake Stand:

I went to Michael's and bought this tiered stacker as well as the "columns"

But you can get them here too.

The Wilton tiered stacking stands are so much cheaper at Michael's!

Columns:

Here are the Grecian columns I used.

Perfect for the setting of Midsummer, right?

I also used this cake stand for my son's 10th birthday party.

Here are the pictures, 

in Panem et Circenses

Icing:

Check out my cream cheese frosting here

Decorations:

I wrote a classic line from Midsummer on the cake

"Lord what fools these mortals be,"

using Wilton's cookie icing and a scattered a few of the Wilton rosettes around too,

to give it a wedding-y effect.
Oh, I also used some edible silver glitter to give
 the cake a pretty, wedding-ish look.

That's it! Easy!

I placed this picture of Will in a gold frame nearby too...

I got it at the Folger Library site.

And here's the version of the cake that we made for 
our birthday party for the Bard tonight:

By the way, do you know this book, 
The Quest for Shakespeare?
If not, what ARE you waiting for?
Go read it and gain some insight into 
Catholicism in the Shakespeare family in 17th century England, 
 as well as elements of the Faith that are obviously 
(and not so obviously) infused within his works.

Now, if you've not seen this episode of Doctor Who, 

The Shakespeare Code,

 go here and watch it now.

Seriously, now.

Or pick up  season 3 at your library.

 from BBC's site


And for some more  Whovian-Bard fun, click my post right here

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Until next time,

~Chris

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