All the world's a stage!

Three views of the stage at the Festival Theatre.

At the top, the stage for Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.
The play started with a rowboat (on wheels) moving through the fog delivering Viola from a violent storm at sea to the fantasical land of Illyria. Lots of props came and went, and great use of the trap door in this production always makes for theatrical magic!

Ah, the set for Moliere's The Misenthrope.

Except for a few upholstered stools, not much changed on stage in terms of props and scenery. The costumes were magnificent, as was the acting, and the translation from the original French into English verse was superb! If only we all had the ability to throw insults with such wit and rhyme.

Widely hailed as Moliere's masterpiece, the play opened in Paris in 1666, with the author playing the lead role of Alceste. His wife played Celimene, the female lead.

And finally, the set for Lerner and Loewe's Camelot.

The tree sat on a rotating piece of the stage. Other props came and went, usually as actors came and went, but the tree was onstage for throughout most of the play. Near the beginning, a live hawk swooped down and across the audience to sit on Merlin's hand who stood at the middle of the stage. The audience loved it!

In 1967, my parents took myself and my best friend to see Camelot, the movie, starring Richard Harris as King Arthur. In the mid-80's, I had the pleasure to see the play, starring Harris, live in Washington D.C. I sat in the front row, Harris appeared out of a tent, in tights, walked to the front of the stage and sat on the edge, right in front of me. A strong memory!

Yesterday, we returned to Columbus after 7 hours in the car. We drove straight to the Drexel Theatre to see The First Grader. A must see movie, based on a true story of a man in Kenya who goes to school at the age of 84. He died in 2009 at the age of 89.

Today, the gym crept back into our lives, and errands, before attending the final performance of Follies at The Garden Theatre in the Short North of Columbus. What a magnificent job the actors did! And a super ending to Martin's vacation.