Shakespeare on Saturday
August 17th, 2008
As usual, Shakespeare on the Square nearly got away from me. This is typical. I hear the dates and the plays announced months in advance, think I have loads of time to see them, and then they’re nearly gone. This was the final weekend: I’m sorry to say I made it only to Love’s Labor’s Lost (last night), and will miss the final performance of Merchant of Venice, tonight. If you are a local reader of this blog and are unfamiliar with Tennessee Stage Company’s annual presentation of Shakespeare outdoors, then you live in a shoe box you must make it a point to go next summer; this is some of the best live entertainment Knoxville has to offer, and it’s free (although the company really appreciates a little snippet of something from your wallet when the basket is passed around, and I’m sure they don’t sniff at big, fat donations).
Last night’s jaunt to Market Square (our second of the day) was tricky. It involved a large number of friends who were to meet at an uncertain time in the general vicinity of the square, at an evolving location (what would we do without cell phones?); a teenager who insisted he should be allowed to go home if the girl he was desperate to see could not get a ride there (I could not go get her), as her mother was not feeling well; still more complicated travel arrangements; a crowded table at a favorite eatery whose service was, er, laboring to keep up (but whose patrons on this occasion arrived admittedly Really Late); instructions to place metal folding chairs and thus save spots for friends, only to discover there were no folding chairs (then they just haven’t put them out yet, said the friends, after I called to announce this crisis); plenty of irreverent behavior to go around; a service dog-in-training; mid-play libations at a nearby pub; and Second Dinner for the teenager afterwards at yet another eatery. (Note to my dear, sweet, best-friend-in-the-world Betsy: you know that (first) I am a princess, and (second) I deal poorly with any kind of change in plans, so, in the words of Eloise, and in regards to my general demeanor last night, You can imagine….) In spite of all that, I enjoyed what I was able to see and hear of the play.
Tom Parkhill (right, as Berowne), Tennessee Stage Company’s founding artistic director, is friend to both the Young family and Knoxville Ballet School.
By the way: many of Shakespeare’s plays have been made into ballets. Romeo and Juliet is counted among the repertoire of most major ballet companies (I have yet to find a really good version on video); Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s choreography is hands-down my favorite. Also, Balanchine made A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Sir Frederick Ashton choreographed a delightful, hour-long ballet version of the play, entitled The Dream. In 1980 Michael Smuin made a beautiful version of The Tempest for San Francisco Ballet; that production aired on PBS in the same year but regrettably is not available on video.
And finally, here is Frankie the Malte-Poo (and project of my friend’s oldest daughter), who just seemed happy to be outside:
I am sir Oracle, and when I ope my lips, let no dog bark.
—The Merchant of Venice
Got that, Frankie?
















































