dispatches from the park - belated edition.

during the month of june i did quite a bit of shakespeare production-watching in parks. by 'quite a bit' i mean two separate performances, but really, how much shakespeare does one watch nowadays anyway? especially within a 10-day period.

first up was a local effort - a community college production of A Midsummer Night's Dream and Romeo + Juliet (double whammy) at our neighborhood beer garden. enjoying some beer and sausages while watching people in homemade fairy costumes flit about the trees around the garden was perhaps one of the most surrealistically entertaining things i've done in awhile.

we upgraded a bit for the next show, which was the city's 'official' shakespearean show of the season, Central Park's production, which this year was Twelfth Night. which was awesome, especially when night had just fallen, and a giant raccoon lumbered across the stage in the shadows. we love raccoons! (at safe distances)

for those of you not familiar with the procedure, there's a bit of an ado (teehee) about the whole SITP production every year since there are usually a few big names in the cast, the show only runs for a few weeks, and tickets are free. so basically it's like seeing a fancy limited-run broadway show for nothing. although, as i was reminded that day, nothing is ever truly free. instead of spending cash, one spends their time on a line in the park, waiting patiently and hopefully that they are close enough to the front of the line to snag a ticket. about 800 tickets are given out, but usually, especially for weekend productions, thousands of folks queue up. they will get there when the park opens at 5am and wait all day long. craziness.

i was one of those folks this year. being i had a bit of extra time on my hands this year, i told missy that part of her bday present would be seeing twelfth night, since we've always wanted to go see a SITP production, and our one other attempt a few summers back had us about 200 people beyond where they stopped handing out tickets. this time, we took it much more seriously, and so off i went, that wednesday morning, in the rain, at 8am, to hang out in line for 5 hours until they started giving out tickets at 1pm.

it wasn't as bad as it could have been - i parked myself on a blanket under a nice leafy tree, had some snacks, and completed a depressingly interesting book about heroin addiction. it was rather peaceful. at first.

my tree.


the puddle babbling brook next to my camp.

but the tranquility was short lived. moreso than the ants and the gnats that had taken a liking to me and my blanket, the human interruptions throughout my wait were the most interesting/annoying. it started off with the man on the bike peddling his diverse wares up and down the line: starbucks coffee, sandwiches, magazines, hats, menus from local delis and renting lawn chairs. ingenious! if i actually rode a bike i'd probably do that for a living as i'm sure that man makes more a day than i ever have. he was the most popular person in that section of the park, with line-goers around me calling him over every time he appeared near our section of the queue. i even contemplated renting a chair from him so i could switch off from blanket to chair, but then my bedbug worries got the best of me. i'd take my chances with the ants.

next to roll down the path was our 'guide' for the day, dan, a theater worker who strolled around making announcements, answering questions, and constantly reciting the SITP 'rules' of ticket-getting. to not sound too much like a drill sergeant barking orders at us, he also make lame jokes. emphasis on the 'lame' part. after dan appeared the "can i ask you a question" folks swooped in, wielding clipboards and pens and desperately wanting our signatures for whatever stupid issue they were attempting to get on a ballot. i usually run in the opposite direction from those guys, but here i was a sitting duck. blessfully, the stupid tourists on the blanket next to me chatted him up for 20 minutes so i had time to put my headphones on, roll over and pretend to take a nap.

finally, towards the last hour of my wait i started hearing some distant melodic sounds wafting through the park. how nice, i thought, the theater blasts shakespeare-appropriate instrumental tunes to get us in the spirit for the show this evening. as the music progressively became louder, and i realized i was listening to something from Cats, i looked up the path and spotted this guy:


i wasn't surprised to see the flute, but i was to see an entire music stand, although at this point i still assumed he was part of the theater's 'waiting in line entertainment'. but no, as he moved closer to my patch of parkland, mr. flutist did his spiel about it being a recession and he appreciated any donations. while my heart does go out to others affected by the economic downturn and i did marvel then at the fact that he lugged that stupid music stand through the park, he launched into the 'battle hymn of the republic' and i decided he was a pest. first show tunes and now historical american songs? i'm waiting in line to see shakespeare and you, sir, have a flute....play some lilting Elizabethan stuff!