Waiting for Shakespeare

We sat on a beach blanket on a concrete path for four hours on Wednesday. My daughter and I arrived at Central Park at 9 o'clock in the morning and left at 1:30 in the afternoon with two free tickets for the 8 o'clock show that evening. We saw the Shakespeare in the Park performance of Measure for Measure.

Okay, I admit I didn't know the story of Measure for Measure before heading to the park. I brought along Lambs' Tales from Shakespeare to read while I waited for tickets. And, my 12yo daughter brought along the actual play and read the original. Hmmm.......the adult is reading Lambs' Tales and the child is reading original Shakespeare. One of us is homeschooled. (Not to be out-smarted by my kid, I had time while we waited to read the actual play too.)

I also admit that if I knew the nature of the play before heading to the park, I might not have gone. The issues are quite mature considering I was bringing my daughter to the show, but as my friend said, "What did you expect? It's Shakespeare." After seeing the production, I can say it was fine to see with my tween. In fact, it was great.

We're planning to have a summer of Shakespeare, and our first day of it was heavenly.

A quote from the show:
 They say, best men are moulded out of faults,
And, for the most, become much more the better
For being a little bad.

And perhaps something a bit more on the honorable side: 
Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful. 

I'm grateful to Ambleside Online for the encouragement to read Lambs' Tales with my kids when they were young and then graduate to original Shakespeare later. I recall thinking when we started that the language of Lambs' Tales was difficult, but it doesn't seem that way to me or my kids any more. I'm sure I'll write more about our early experiences later, but for now, my son tells me he wants to watch a movie on the laptop. When I wasn't enthusiastic about that idea, he said, "But Mom, the movie is the Japanese version of MacBeth!" He thought that would sway me, and he thought right.

Top photo: People lined up in Central Park for free tickets to Shakespeare in the Park on a beautiful day in June.
Middle photo: We brought along picnic food, books, games. Oh, and coffee.
Bottom photo: When we came back to the park in the evening to see the show, we had another - and unexpected - wait. We had to cross a street in the park, but we arrived in the midst of some sort of race. There was no way to get across the crowd! We had plenty of time to wait, but some people got impatient and locked arms with strangers to barge their way across. Other people squealed and laughed as they tried to part the sea of people to get to the other side. I have no idea what the race was about, but there were thousands  of people running.