Ode to the Marys

"All the world's a stage and the men and 
women merely players" ....William Shakespeare

Tomorrow I am taking the stage for the first time in 13 years in a William Shakespeare production, this time as Olivia in Twelfth Night.

"Taste of Shakespeare" is an all day event with a series of vignettes from his plays among other things such as stage combat demonstrations, and "Shakesperaoke"...(yes, it is what it sounds like)!

Classical theater, but especially Shakespeare is something I loved learning and doing as part of the performing arts program at Stella Adler Academy. Embodying the roles of Ophelia in Hamlet and Regan in King Lear, I found them to be profoundly challenging and even more rewarding. Always meaning to get back to it, I had put it off as an indulgence of my creative side that I would eventually "fit" back into my life.

Tired but happy...36 hours to show time, Anna, Kristina, Peter

Well, finally, this summer I did. I brushed the dust off of my books of sonnets, plays, and my corset and long black skirt and went back to work re-learning Elizabethan prose and Iambic pentameter.

More importantly though, has been delving back into the humanity, tragedy, sensuality and comedy that make up Shakespeare's works....as well as being surrounded by the actors, writers, directors and everyone involved who love it as much as I do.

One of the main reasons for my return to the Bard, besides the fact I have wanted to join The Shakespeare Institute of Nevada for awhile now, is because of one of the last things my mother ever said to me..."You have been given certain gifts in life and if you do not use them you will never be happy"..... My mother Mary, whose birthday is today, Oct. 4, passed away last October.

Our parents teach us many things in life but the most important lesson may be in their final act here on Earth....their passing. This reminds us in a way we cannot deny that our lives here are finite, and in that knowing is a certain fearlessness and awareness that everything cannot be about logic, income and list making. Some things must be experienced simply for the love of it!

So, tomorrow is dedicated to my late mother Mary, my grandmother Mary, (who is still with us and continues to inspire me), and my Mother-In-Law Marilyn who is flying in for the festival. Ode to the Marys!...

Link:

A Taste of Shakespeare in Summerlin.....Oct 5...FB Page