Saturday, August 7, 2010

This morning we fixed breakfast at the condo and then went to the farmer's market. It was a real variety of items that were being sold...jewelry, baked goods, flowers, canned foods, as well as fresh fruits and vegetables. We bought some things to eat now and to use later for meals. As we were walking around, we saw 2 of the singers from last night! Most of these booths are manned by Mormons and they are very industrious. It was so precious to see young girls who had made various things to sell along side their mothers who were also selling things. We saw this firetruck and had to jump on for a quick picture!

We went to Cosco and got some things to have in the condo to cook. J prepared us a wonderful lunch of salad, asparagus and pulled pork.

Mike and I took our dirty clothes to the laundry room to wash.

We had a couple of good showers this afternoon and during the time between showers, we took a walk in the adjoining neighborhood. Unknown to us, after the first turn, the road starting going straight up the side of a mountain! When we reached the top, about a mile later, we realized that we had climbed over 500 feet. The view of St. George was spectacular...

On the way down, it started to rain again and we got to see this gorgeous rainbow.

Friday, August 6, 2010

This morning we ate breakfast at the hotel and then took a walking tour of St. George. Among the historic, pioneer sites that we saw were Brigham Young's winter house, the first school in St. George and a number of 19th century pioneer homes and businesses. The tour of Young's house was very interesting. Holes in the ceilings provided a means for the hot air to escape. There was a number of fruit and nut trees on the property, including an original mulberry tree that they used to make silk.

Here are pictures of the house, a Brigham Young interpreter, and some of the house furnishings.

For lunch we stopped at a unique cafe that was formally a gas station and grocery store that was built in 1879.

Our next stop was the home of Jacob Hamblin who was an early pioneer who was a missionary to the Indians. He has the distinction of being in the Cowboy Hall of Fame for having the most documented miles riding a horse.

After checking into the condo, where we will be for the next few days, we unpacked, rested and went to the Golden Arches for a hamburger.

We then went to the Tabernacle to see a musical program. These are presented each Friday night and tonight was the group, Grace Notes. They are 6 women who sang for an hour a variety of patriotic and religious songs. A wonderful way to end the evening.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

This morning was a repeat of our past mornings...breakfast and then seminars. Today was a little different in that we had to pack the car so we could leave after the last one. The seminar about MacBeth had a guest today...Ken Adelman who is a long-time supporter of the festival and has taught and written about Shakespeare. He also served on the Reagan administration as Assistant Ambassador to the UN and during the Bush administration, he was a contributor on Fox News. Also is attendence today was Mike Peters , who is a Pulitzer Prize winner and is a political cartonnist. He also publishes the award winning comic strip "Mother Goose and Grimm."

We then went to the Props Seminar that was very interesting. It's amazing what can be made out of some plastic flower pots and other "treasures".

Then we ate at Subway and drove south to St. George where we will be staying for the next week. The condo isn't available until tomorrow, so we are staying in a motel tonight. We went to the Chamber of Commerce and got some good information from the volunteers on things to see and do in the area.

Then it was time for dinner! Great meals were enjoyed by everyone. J and D had the same meal to eat, but we only took one picture of their prime rib.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

We enjoyed another great breakfast...

and then it was time to go back to the Festival where we joined many other patrons for the morning seminars.

This morning we also had the Actors Seminar where these 2 wonderful actors came and shared with us. This is another of the many reasons that this festival is so unique...it really is one big happy family.

We had a quick snack before it was time for the afternoon orientation. On Wednesdays, it is held in the outdoor Adams Theater and it was already set up for tonight's performance of MacBeth.

This afternoon we saw the world wide premiere of the musical Great Expectations. It is based on the book of the same name by Charles Dickens. It is a musical that deals with a young man's return home to England after he has spent 11 years in Cairo. The young man, named Pip, was flooded with memories in the form of voices and scenes from the past. The first memory is helping an escaped convict when he visited his parents grave. Next Pip becomes a companion to the wealthy Miss Havisham. When Pip is introduced to Miss Havisham, he finds her dressed in an ancient yellowed wedding dress; a dress she has worn since being jilted and left at the alter on her wedding day years ago. Pip quickly falls in love with Estella, Miss Havisham's adopted daughter. Unfortunately, Estella has been raised to hate men so he gets nowhere with her. After a few years, his life suddenly changes when he learns that he has a secret benefactor and that he is going to be educated as a gentlemen with "great expectations." He soon becomes embarrassed of his past, overspends his allowance, and participates in the social circles of the upper class. He, For all practical purposes, bombs out of his training and returns home and the play returns to the current time. He sees his former flame Estella, who has lost all her fortune. They speak and and look longingly at each other but seem to go their separate ways as the play ends.

Of course, it was time to eat again! Today we decided on Mexican food which was good.

Back to the hotel to "freshen up" which really means...brush your teeth. And then back to the evening orientation .

The evening play was MacBeth, or as actors call it, The Scottish Play. It starts as Macbeth and Banquio are returning from a very successful military campaign where MacBeth fought with great valor. On the way to see the King of Scotland, he encounters three witches who tell him three prophesies about his future. One, that the king will bestow on him a higher ranking in the king’s court. Two, that he will become the King of Scotland, and three, that Banquio’s heirs would be the future kings. MacBeth does not believe them, but Sure enough, upon arriving at the king’s palace, the king gives him the higher rank. This causes him to wonder about the other predictions about him becoming the King of Scotland but the succession to the throne would not come from his family, but instead the family of Banquio, another high ranking officer of the court
Once he arrives home, his wife, Lady Macbeth, has already set her sights on becoming the queen and develops a plot to kill the king when he visits their castle a little later. On the night of his arrival to Macbeth’s castle, Macbeth kills the king while he is sleeping. The king’s sons, the rightful heirs flee the castle and MacBeth is crowned king as predicted by the witches. Soon after ,he orders the death of Banquio and his heirs.

Macbeth soon gives a great dinner for his court and just as he sits down at the table, he alone sees the ghost of Banquio, who disrupts the banquet an makes the members of the king’s court wonder about the death of the original king and MacBeth’s fast rise to be king. One valued supporter of MacBeth, Macduff flees to England.

MacBeth is insecure in his power so he consults the witches again about his future. Much to his pleasure, they tell him he cannot be killed by someone born of a woman nor will he die until the Birnam Wood, a medieval forest, comes to his castle. He now sees himself as invincible even though he is haunted more and more by the ghosts of those he has ordered killed. In a fit of rage he orders the family of Macduff to be killed.

While all this is happening, Lady MacBeth, becomes completely overcome with grief , remorse, and the enormity of what they had done. She dies, probably at the own hand. Macduff marshalls an army from England and marches on MacBeth’s castle. To hide the advance of the soldiers, Macduff orders his army to cut branches from the trees of Birnam Wood to camouflage their advance. MacBeth’s confidence is shaken when he remembers the prophesy of the woods advancing on his castle, but he knows he cannot be harmed by any man born of woman. During hand to hand combat between MacBeth’s forces and Macduff’s, Macbeth learns that Macduff was born by cesarean section, not a normal birth. MacBeth realizes that he is doomed, but fights to the death. Macduff kills him and announces that Scotland is free from Tyranny.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

This morning I walked at 6:30a.m. and it was 64 degrees. After a delicious breakfast of eggs, sausage, breads and fruit, we headed off to the Seminars in the Grove where at 9:00 we discussed Much Ado About Nothing. About 60 people joined us in an outdoor setting under a grove of spruce trees and we are lead by a Shakespeare scholar. Everyone agreed that it was a great production.

At 10:00, the discussion focused on Pride and Prejudice and several people had seen movies as well as plays. The character of Claudio was debated on as to his bad traits. The gentleman who had co-adapted the play joined in the discussion which added so much to the time there.

We then went to Lunch with the Actors that was sponsored by the Festival Guild. We had a wonderful buffet lunch of chicken, turkey, dressing, gravy, potatoes, vegetables, salad, roll and apple crisp. There were 3 of the actors who came and told us about various aspects of their career and answered questions from the diners.

Then it was time for the orientation for The 39 Steps by Alfred Hitchcock. The afternoon plays are in the Randell Theater and normally it is chilly in there and a jacket always feels good, but today...maybe since it was a sell out...the jackets were not needed. The 39 Steps is a play set in London in 1935. Although based on Alfred Hitchcock's thriller of the same name, this play is a farce. It had 4 actors, but they played some 140 characters. The plot deals with preventing spys from delivering state secrets to the Nazi's. The plot has a murder, police chases, a wild train ride, and many twists and turns, all done with the four actors changing characters and costumes almost instantaneously. The play ends with the spys being captured and the hero getting the heroine.

For supper, we went to Sweet Basil, which is a Thai restaurant. We were not sure what to order and the nice young waiter suggested the Thai noodle dish with various meats, so J and D had the seafood, Mike had the chicken and I had the shrimp. Our degree of "hotness" went from a 0 for J, a 1 for me and the guys chose a 3, but wished they had asked for a 2!! We also got a bowl of wonderful soup.

At one of the other tables were 3 of the actors from the Festival...one of which we have enjoyed seeing for the past 8 years. They were all 3 performing tonight... the girls in the play and the young man in the Green Show. Visiting with them was a real treat for all of us.

The gentleman doing the orientation this evening was Fred Adams, who was the founder of the Festival, 49 years ago.

The evening play was The Merchant of Venice It was written by Shakespeare during a time of discrimination against the Jews that lived in England. On the surface it is a play about Christians (the good guys) and Jews ( the bad guys). From the time it was written until the end of World War II, it was played as a comedy. Once the world learned about the Holocaust, the play has been presented almost as a tragedy. The orientation leader described the play as Shakespeare's most brutal play although no one is killed. It opens with a conversation between the Merchant of Venice named Antonio (a Christian) and Shylock ( a Jew). they are both wealthy citizens . Antonio makes his money by buying and selling merchandise around the world using his fleet of ships while Shylock is a moneylender. The two men dislike each other.

One of Antonio's friends asks him for a loan so he can go court a fair, virtuous, rich lady in a neighboring state. Unfortunately, Antonio does not have the cash because his ships are at sea. Antonio sends the friend to see Shylock to see if he will loan the money to his friend. Antonio pledges to be good for the loan if his young friend cannot repay it. Shylock loans the money only on the condition that if it is not paid back on time, he can slice a pound of flesh from Antonio's body.

As luck would have it, Antonio's friend wins the heart of the maiden he was courting, but Antonio gets word that his ships are lost and he cannot pay back the loan. Shylock calls for the loan to be paid by Antonio surrendering his pound of flesh. Just as the time for the loan to be repaid comes, the wife of Antonio's friend comes to the court disguised as a lawyer. Using Shylock's own words, she shows the court that Shylock can extract his pound of flesh, but cannot spill a drop of Antonio's blood. Outwitted, Shylock relents on getting his pound of flesh, but then finds himself charged with plotting the death of a Venetian citizen. The punishment for this crime is that he must forfeit half of his fortune. The court further decrees that he must become a Christian. So the play ends with everyone happy except Shylock the Jew.

Monday, August 2, 2010

Due to the time differences in our bodies, we were up and out walking this morning at 6:00 a.m. The sun was up...we missed the sunrise...and the temperature was about 80. We were not staying on the strip so we walked some of the back streets but never made it to the strip. After walking for an hour, it was time to get ready to clean up and get the car packed.

We stopped in Mesquite to eat breakfast at a casino buffet as we had done for several years and we found that the buffet was no closed for breakfast...a sign of the economy...but there was a nice restaurant where we all enjoyed a delicious breakfast.

Then it was on to Cedar City where we went to the orientation and then to see Pride and Prejudice. This play was an adaptation of the book of the same name written in the early 1800's by English author Jane Austen. It is the story of a family with 5 daughters and the need for them to get married to the "right" suitors. There were many twists and turns, but all ended well. The play was really enjoyable for all four of us.

After the play we went to another of our traditional restaurants for steaks and baked potatoes. The salad bar and the rolls are wonderful.

After checking into the hotel and unpacking, it was time for another orientation and then to see Much Ado About Nothing. This is a Shakespearean comedy that also dealt with love and marriage. It was the story of two friends on the way home from a successful military campaign. They stop for a while in a city to rest. Here they are welcomed as conquering heroes and
one falls in love while the other professes that he will remain a bachelor forever. The one in love loses his love thru a deceitful trick then gets her back when the trick is revealed. The other is also tricked, but this time tricked into falling in love with a girl who is tricked into loving him. In the end, the original lovers are happily married, and the other couple find out they were really in love also, despite the trick, and end up married also.

The Adventure Begins

We are off on our annual trip to the Utah Shakespearean Festival in Cedar City, Utah. After riding the shuttle from Chattanooga to the Atlanta airport, we were ready to board the train to the terminal.


Of course, we had to eat before we got on the plane!

A view of Lake Mead...

Waiting on our luggage...

Sorry about the picture...didn't realize what was being taken. (It is Las Vegas!)

We picked up our "traveling buddies", checked into the hotel and then went to dinner at the Hilton before driving around and seeing our old house. Of course we made the proverbial trip to Wal-Mart for water, etc. With the time difference...3 hours for us and 2 for them...we headed to bed a little earlier than usual.

Tomorrow begins our day of plays!