Monday, August 1, 2011

Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival


The Merchant of Venice

On Sunday night, Laurie and I loaded up her PT Cruiser and drove up to Thousand Oaks to experience California Lutheran University's "Kingsmen Shakespeare Company Festival."

This was CLU's 15th season of hosting the Bard's plays al fresco on warm Summer nights. As with many things near us, we had just never bothered to drive the 20 minutes to witness one of these fun evenings.

Until last night.

Again, thanks to Jason Johnson's mantra, we were "tourists in our own town" yet again and loved it.

The Stage at Kingsmen Park

Kingsmen Park is right-smack-dab in the middle of the CLU campus, the shade provided by these trees was welcomed.

We got there early, set up our lawn chairs and proceeded to enjoy ourselves.

The sounds of the frogs croaking as the play unfolded just added to the night's charm.

Background Information

I'm not sure who these two people are, but they were giving a small group of interested spectators good information about tonight's play.

The Green Show

About an hour before the 8:00 p.m. curtain, the cast spent about 30 minutes entertaining us with their improvisational skills including some swordplay.

We all were having a good time

You HAD to be there

Junior Apprentices

One of the Kingsmen Shakespeare Company's aims is to make the Bard's plays accessible to people of all ages. These young people will be performing their version of Romeo and Juliet two more times this week.

Santa Claus was in the house!

It's Summer, he was on vacation, why not!

We were asked not to take pictures during the play and I respected their wishes for some unknown reason.

Two well performed Acts, a great cup of hot chocolate at intermission, a night under the stars with my sweetheart . . . IT WAS AWESOME!!!

That being said, I must point out that this play probably never did much for Judeo-Christian relations over the centuries.

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