puppets. and shakepeare.

last night i had a fun little adventure. i went to the california shakespeare festival in orinda, ca - just over the hills from sf bay. the landscape over there is so different - it gets much, much hotter in the summer and the hills remind me alot of the south of france - dry, brown slopes with green spots of leafy bushes or trees here and there. it's very impressionistique, s'il vous plait.

ANYWAY, there's a cozy round outdoor theater in the wilds of orinda (right near the freeway, but you feel like you're in the middle of a forest!), and every summer they do a series of shakespeare productions. last night, i saw "the merry wives of windsor", featuring actors and...puppets.

yes, puppets. which i was initially really skeptical about. but to be honest, it was pretty funny. very, very cartoonish - with sound effects (like "boingggggg" and "splat"). and i didn't think it would work. but it did, due in large part to the actors dressed in black voicing the puppets and moving their little cloth limbs around. and i can honestly say that the actors and puppets (some characters were played by actors not in puppet costume) interacted together really well on stage. i can't pick my favorite, really - master ford was hilarious (nonpuppet), but the french doctor (actor+puppet), fenton (actor+puppet), and falstaff (also actor+puppet) were brilliant too.

the night was also gorgeous. clear as can be with an open sky of stars above us. no clouds to be seen. and we brought our own picnic to munch and there was a wine tasting (for free! free!) in the open picnic area outside the theater. i expected a huge ampitheater, but this was actually really comfortable and close - not a bad seat in the house, but still with the benefits of an outdoor theater (casual, comfy - you can bring beer, wine, food into the theater and gnosh while you watch). all in all, i'd highly recommend it. and they have a GREAT deal for the under 30 crowd. Check it out - http://www.calshakes.org.

MOM - if you're reading this and planning a trip to CA anytime soon, i'd love to take you!

ps. one thing i do love about living here - there's a wine tasting just about everywhere you go! reminds me of europe. yum.