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So, I'm driving to work this morning, the usual route, down a road I've driven down countless times before. There's a house on the road...one of the very few...and I pass it every day. And when it's nice out, a man who I'm assuming is the owner stands out by his mailbox on the edge of the road and just...watches. At first, I thought it looked lonely. Sad. Maybe he didn't have any family left. And then the more I thought about it, the more envious I became. I've never been very good at that...just letting be. Oh, I can get wrapped up in my writing, or in reading. I have treasured memories of lying on grass with friends in high school watching the clouds. But in the hectic stress of my everyday life, it's becoming harder and harder to find a place where I can step back and watch. I think it's important to watch, to learn, to see everything that happens in the world. A story I recently worked on hit me hard in that aspect; two characters had a conversation about letting be that really got to me. I'm going to have to remember these feelings, and remind myself that there is more to life than what I live most of the time.
So. Midsummer's at the Arden. Ah...well. I thought the performances were excellent for the most part, especially the Hermia-Helena-Lysander-Demetrius actors. Puck was pretty annoying. The main problem I had with the show was the music they wrote for it. Several of the fairies' speeches (and they were cut from four to two) were sung, and I often lost the meaning of the text within the melody. Too often when Shakespeare is staged the director becomes wrapped up in the idea that he/she must make it "new" and "fresh". Usually this is accomplished by butchering the text and losing the meaning on the most important parts. I find it upsetting. When I direct Hamlet, I know I intend to make the text relevant. A living, viable work, as Shakespeare intended it. The problems and situations his plays portray are no less poignant and entertaining than they were hundreds of years ago. But it is the job of the actors and directing staff to allow the audience to "get it". I wish we could step away from glitz and freshness and get back to the important part of it all: the TEXT. I look forward to seeing Much Ado About Nothing at the Brooklyn Academy of Music this Saturday. It's a Cheek By Jowl production and I hear nothing but wonderful things about them.
I suppose these will get longer as I continue on. Maybe I'll add to this later today.
~*~Mel~*~
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