Bringing Shakespeare to Life

Check out the front page of this week's edition of the PCC Courier (Thursday, September 24, 2009) for the "Shakespeare in the street" article. Currently, this article is not online so you'll have to pick up an actual copy of the Courier to read it. I'm still including a link in case it is put online at a later date. While it may not be library related, I was told it is literary and PCC related. And as a current student at PCC and participant in this performance, I should share my experience.

While my main focus of study is library science at the moment, I've been indulging in my love of theatre arts since last spring. It was hard to pass up the chance to be involved in this unique performance of Shakespeare short scenes done in the intersection of Raymond Avenue and Colorado Boulevard in Old Town Pasadena last Saturday evening. (This was in conjunction with the Armory Center for the Arts' 20th Anniversary Celebration-Installations Inside/Out (Jane Mulfinger: Autonomony is No Longer Possible or Interesting.) In the middle of the street, I'm sure you asking yourself. Yes, in the middle of the street! Though we rehearsed for a few weeks at PCC in the Little Theater and the parking structures, nothing could really prepare us for performing in the crosswalk as we never rehearsed there. I was nervous and excited all at the same time. One of the reasons I was excited about doing this is I was able to incorporate American Sign Language while saying my lines as well most of the time. Being a part of an innovative theater performance doing Shakespeare was definitely a chance of a lifetime. Originally, I figured it was great that it was just a one time deal since it wouldn't take up a lot of time but after our performance was done, I was saddened that we probably wouldn't be doing it again. Keeping fingers crossed since there may be a chance that we do it again in the future as our main organizer is hoping we will.

We did two runs (a full one and a shortened version) of our program which consisted of 21 shorts from short scenes of Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet and A Midsummer's Night Dream along with sililoquies and phone monologues. It was fun getting to play different parts from Adriana of The Comedy of Errors, a witch from Macbeth, Gwendolyn from Hamlet and more all in one evening.

Any chance to bring literature to life is wonderful. I think that may be why I'm so drawn to the possibility of becoming a children's librarian. One has a perfect excuse to read or quote outloud and bring wonderful stories to life however you can.