Creating, collecting, and sharing thoughts and ideas. And learning along the way.
This is the wreath that adorns my front door. I made it the Summer of 2005 with crafts and supplies from Michael’s, our local crafts store. That glue-gun came in very handy, as you can see!
How beautiful it is to let the seasons dictate your decor! The show does go on!
Yes! You can count me in– I’ll be there!
“We rehearse outside 3 days a week, and we have had to have over half, even three-quarters, of them inside the Reader Center, which is challenging,” said Mendeloff. “It is a big play—lots of characters, and a pastoral section that is very dependent on being in the actual setting. We are doing three dances, two courtly ones and one peasant dance, and these are not easy to fit into our rehearsal room, which is also our costume and prop storage area. But I have a good group of actors and we are moving along.”
Plus, it’s a big group, since Mendeloff double-cast nearly all the roles (“I had a lot of good actors come out for auditions,” said Mendeloff); and because the show (and the audience) traditionally “travels” on foot to different areas of Nichols Arboretum throughout the show, to witness different scenes in different settings, it’s been particularly challenging to experiment with this year’s chosen sites.
But all this hasn’t dampened Mendeloff’s affection for the play, which tells the story of a king who sends his pregnant wife to persuade a visiting king (and close friend) to extend his visit. When the queen succeeds, her husband irrationally grows convinced that his wife and his friend are having an affair. Consequently, the visiting king flees into hiding; the wife is imprisoned, and reportedly dies after hearing news of her son’s death; and the baby she bears is “delegitimized” and banished. 16 years later, the surviving characters’ paths cross again, and past injustices are finally addressed.
“It is one of Shakespeare’s late romances, and it is really a complete three-act tragedy, a pastoral comedy, and a romance all in one,” said Mendeloff, who also noted the appeal of the play’s 3 compelling female leads (Queen Hermione, her lady-in-waiting Paulina, and her daughter Perdita) as well as jealous king Leontes, whom she compares to other towering Shakespeare figures (Lear, MacBeth, and Othello). “ … But (Leontes) plays his own Iago, … and that struggle within his mind is fascinating. I love that the play deals with the reviving benefits of nature; that it has magical elements … and that it really is a ‘tale’ – like a fairy tale, full of heroes, and villains, and something like a happy ending. … It’s a very Christian play in many ways. The dead can come back, wounds can be healed, and losses can be overcome.”
One of the first things that inspired Mendeloff’s deep affection for “Tale” was a Margaret Jowett novel that Mendeloff read at age 8, called “Candidate for Fame,” which focuses on a young actress who plays Perdita at the Drury Lane Theatre during the Restoration.
But also, while a grad student at Yale Drama School, Mendeloff directed a production of “Tale” that she never got to see, due to health issues. “So it felt like a piece of unfinished business to me,” said Mendeloff.
While doing research for her current production, Mendeloff learned that the main story seems to have been inspired by the relationship between Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn (whose daughter, Elizabeth, was “delegitimized” following her mother’s death); and the character of Leontes appears to be a critique of the autocratic style of King James.
And while you might think that “Tale” marks a turn away from the bard’s lighter comedies—Shakespeare in the Arb has previously presented “Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “As You Like It,” and “Love’s Labors Lost,” among others—Mendeloff is quick to point out that even Shakespeare’s silliest fare is haunted by violence and dark undertones.
“The balance (in ‘Tale’) is a little different, in that all of the heavy stuff happens in the first 3 acts,” Mendeloff said. “But every Shakespeare play has a level of injustice in it, and tyrants who overstep their bounds.”
Jenn McKee is the entertainment digital journalist for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at jennmckee@annarbor.com or 734-623-2546, and follow her on Twitter @jennmckee.
That’s right– ask me, and I’ll have to say it is the King of the Fruits– the Mango, that is. Granted, we don’t get a huge variety of mangoes here in these great United States, but the ones that come in from Mexico aren’t too bad. Here’s some that I sliced up for lunch. Juicy, super-sweet, and ripe and golden as the sun, one bite into these, and you’re transported back to the land of your birth!
Want to see the exuberance of youth in how it defies convention when it comes to portion-size and measured servings? Take a look at this bowl of Carrot Cake and several scoops of Vanilla Ice Cream that my second-born fixed for herself. Which she duly inhaled!
What’s a few hundred calories when you’ve got so much to do– you’ll burn half of them off just writing up a To-Do list!
What’s a Pita-Omelette? Well, it’s just that: an omelette with the works stuffed inside the pocket of a pita. But first, toast the pita, halve it, butter the soft insides of both sides with the best non-buttery spread called Olivio, then pile large pieces of the omelette into the pita, place carefully onto plate, and take to the one you love!
Which is what my firstborn did this morning– for me! (and for others she shares a roof with!) Check out what it’s supposed to look like!
I recently bought a juicer: an electronic appliance that can crush any fruit and vegetable with such electronic ferocity that it will render all and any juice out of it. The acquisition was not a premeditated one. I mean, of course, there have been times when I’ve gotten sucked into an infomercial on TV and thought I desperately needed to get one of those incredible machines, but I never really did act upon the impluse.
Until a trip to the mall some weeks back. Where we were lured into sampling fresh fruit-juices being offered by a specialty juice shop that evidently made every kind and combination of fresh juice that you could imagine. They were all so fresh and invigorating, what could you do but buy a full glass of the sample, of course. Which we did, but given that each glass was priced at a whopping $5, I thought no matter how fresh and tasty, that was an awful lot of dough for some juice!
Three summers ago, I was in Bangalore, India, and made a stop at the famed Cauvery Emporium, the Karnataka state government emporium that has all kinds of handicraft items from pottery, ceramics, metalware, fabrics, etc.
