Surviving (Shakespeare) Winedale
Tips, two tips, simple, two easy guidelines to see, enjoy and thrive at the UT Winedale Shakespeare thing. Event. Performance. Classroom. Whatever it is.
Except for the first pandemic summer, I think I’ve been regularly attending every year for a decade — or more. First went back in the naughty nineties. The plays themselves? Sometimes good, occasionally pedantic, but mostly spirited with some standout performances. What they lack in stature? The students tend to make up for in effort.
It’s a credited class from University of Texas (Austin), either English or Theatre, I’m not sure, and they put on three plays. Seemed like a handful of student actors, and that was splitting up the minor roles, not unlike the original King’s Men, or Lord Chamberlain’s Men. Out-of-doors, under an alfresco barn setting.
Saw the inaugural 55th Anniversary show; cool that. Got lucky the last two years with weather, and having rain cool off the ambient temperature. Still, it’s always good to get out of the heat sink of the city, halfway from Houston to Austin, or thereabouts.
One of the great secrets, learned this years back, “frozen water bottles.” A single frozen bottle of water, the usual half-liter, 500 ml, 16.9 fl oz? Freeze it at home, and then, store it in the cooler at the motel. Rental. Wherever. Before the show? Stick it in my pocket. Drips, cools, and gives enough cold water to make it through the night. Can be used in number of ways, but the secret? Frozen water bottle. Simple trick. Hat tip to the old girlfriend for that one.
The second? A flashlight. Can be a large one, a small one, a pocket-sized, or the typical EDC, I tend to carry with everything, a penlight. Single double-A or triple-A cell flashlight. Pocket-sized penlight.
The shows tend to start at 7 or 7:30, sometimes twilights, sometimes right at the sunset, depends on the dates. I’ve sweltered in near hundred-degree heat and other evenings, gentle zephyrs make for cool evenings.
Still, the first secret to success? Frozen water bottle. The second? A flashlight to see the way back out to the parking lot, after the show.
Surviving (Shakespeare) Winedale
Simple, two simple, every-day, household items can make seeing UT Winedale’s Shakespeare so much more enjoyable.
Surviving (Shakespeare) Winedale
Two tips to insure comfort: a frozen water bottle and a flashlight. Every year, the language. Outstanding.
It’s like an actor’s laboratory: myth, meaning, production, performance. Shakespeare is best in performance.
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#Shakespeare
