All the World's a Stage!

It's almost been a week since I left from the Utah Shakespearean Festival, but it was so fun I must share. I went earlier than usual to spend the 4th of July with Julie so as to cut travel time. It's one of the rare times that I haven't spent that holiday with my mom. So a little bittersweet. I arrived in Cedar City a little after five and after hauling all my stuff up three flights of stairs to Julie's condo, she told me that we were heading to her mom's for dinner and games with her, Jason, Rachel and Kevin. Oh and little Robbie. No time to relax with this crowd. I had a lot of fun and the food was really good. After dinner Julie and I met up with one of her friends to play croquet at the park. It was pretty fun and I won one of the games. Woohoo! Back to Susan's (Julie's mom) for more games which I won a couple. Nice! There was talk of an early game of croquet the next morning, but I was hoping not too early. The boys joked that they would come over and haul me out of bed if they had too. What kind of vacation is that?

Awake early, I was. Okay I realize 9:30 isn't that early to most people, but on a Saturday it is for me. But croquet was really fun and I did really good, but did not win. Next we grabbed a quick lunch and then headed to my cousin Corey's son's baptism. I'm so glad I got to be there. I really felt the spirit and it really moved me to tears to see it. Then we spent the rest of the day at Corey's for dinner and games. There were so many people so it got tiring. Back to Susan's for fireworks and sparklers. Julie and I are so silly when we are together. Our favorite part was the sparklers and we did this thing where we dosiedoe until our sparklers went out. We did it over and over and we laughed the whole time.

The next morning while Julie went to church, I slept in. Finally! I had stayed up late editing so I needed the sleep. When she got back we just had a very relaxing and lazy Sunday. Watched a couple of movies and depressed ourselves by watching good kissing scenes over and over. Just kidding, of course we wouldn't do that. (; We really needed this day because it was packed schedule for the next few days.

Monday was our first day of plays. We met up with the rest of our group, our family from northern Utah that we see shows with every year, at the first play venue. We saw Foxfire. Never heard of, didn't know anything about it. It was a little slow at first and some of us did nod off a time or two. But on the whole it was a very touching and well performed play. Off to dinner at Applebees, a usual haunt for us during this time. Then straight back to kill a half hour or so before the next show which was the Shakespeare play Comedy of Errors. Super funny and a new actor to the festival had the best comedic timing and not bad to look at either and there was even some audience interaction which was new. Afterwards we headed back home to bed after some chatting. Julie and I were bound and determined to attend all the seminars which meant getting up early each day. I'm really glad we did because we got to listen to the directors (who usually are gone when we go, but it was opening week) and some interesting discussion. Well, not all the time. I'm so surprise at the things people get hung up on in these plays, the tiniest little thing that doesn't matter can be discussed for ten minutes.

Tuesday (to be more brief, I'll put into schedule terms since pretty much the same thing happened each day.
-9:00 am attended seminar for Comedy of Errors
-10:00 am remained for seminar for Foxfire with the director and she was really great to listen to.
-11:30 am went to lunch at the Pizza Factory (another usual haunt). Julie and I did make a quick jaunt to Walmart so I could buy a camping chair which are very handy for the seminars.
-1:00 Went to orientation for the next play we were about to see Private Lives
-2:00 Saw Private Lives. Very enjoyable. Lots of British wit and physical comedy takes place in 1930's France.
-4:30-5:30 Hang out in Tracey's (the northern cousin who arranges this for us every year) rental apartment. Find out that Pastry Pubb has reopened and joyous ruckus ensues because it would not have been the same without eating there. So the dinner decision is made. Some of the Webers and Grandma came down today and met up with us for dinner.
-6:45 Orientation for Henry V. Really excited for this play because the lead is played by Brian Vaugn, an amazing actor and Julie and I's favorite.
-8:00 See Henry V and blown away. So good. After Julie and I hung around where the actors come out so we could see Brian. He took a really long time and soon it was just me and Julie and all the actors from the play milling around so I felt a little uncomfortable, but finally we saw, we gazed in admiration and then we left.
12:00 am Home to bed

Wednesday
-9:00 am Seminar for Henry V with the director, super interesting.
-10:00 am Seminar for Private Lives with director
-11:00 am Actor Seminar with the funny actor from Comedy of Errors and his costar. Very cute guys and so funny. Loved it.
-11:45 Left seminar early and walked to the Pastry Pub for lunch. Had the yummiest chicken quesadilla.
-1:00 Orientation for Secret Garden. Weren't sure we needed to go for this but checked it out and so glad we did because the person giving the lecture was so animated and so funny.
-2:00 See Secret Garden the musical. Had a very very minimalist set which was interesting but a little disappointing. Dicken's singing was horrible but everyone else was fabulous and it had Brian Vaugn as well.
-5:30 Head to Lefty's for dinner.
-7:30 Watch the Greenshow
-8:00 see As You Like It. This might have been one of my favorites. So funny and again with the cute, funny guy and another one of my favorite actors, David Ivers. It's a really fun show and some really great lines. The last show.

Thursday
-Julie goes to work in the morning while I'm sleeping and I get up later and pack up and head home. This was such a good year for the Festival and Tracey has already bought our tickets for next year at a really great price. I can hardly wait. This is one of my favorite things to happen all year and I'm so glad I joined the regular group four years ago.