Weekend Recap: Visitors from the East

We had some lovely guests over the weekend...Danny's sister, Mel, and her husband, Arthur! We were worried about the weather going in as they were predicting rain, but the universe listened to my request and actually gave us really nice weather overall.

Friday started with a trip to the Denver Biscuit Co. I had a terrible time deciding what to get...really wanted to try the Strawberry Shortcake, but ended up going with the Schooner. Delicious! A warning: breakfast here might require a nap following your meal.

That night we went to see In the Heights. Loved it! The energy in this musical is phenomenal. The music is great. It's just so much fun. Highly, highly recommend it! Mel gave me the original cast recording, and I plan on listening to it all afternoon. Here's a taste...



Saturday was full of cocktails, yummy food, great friends, a punching bag machine, and late night pizza. A really good day and a great night.

We had so much fun with Mel and Arthur and really wish they lived closer to us. Come back soon!

Weekend Recap: Not too much

We had a relatively lazy weekend. We had a decent amount of stuff go on during the week and have company coming next, so we decided to take the opportunity to get plenty of couch time.

Friday night, we went to the Denver Theatre Company's production of Othello. It was performed in the Space Theatre of the Denver Performing Arts Center, and it was a perfect setting for this play. It's a small theater in the round with raised seating all the way around, so the stage itself is in the center. Instead of looking up at a stage from an auditorium, you are watching from above and get the feeling that you eavesdropping on the characters, not watching a play. The performance was excellent (much better than my last Shakespeare experience). John Hutton who played Iago was wonderful, as was everyone else down to the actor who only had a few lines. This is a long video, but here is a collection of clips from the play to give you a taste, and if you're in Denver and have a chance before it closes on Saturday, go see Friday night, we went to the Denver Theatre Company's production of . It was performed in the Space Theatre of the Denver Performing Arts Center, and it was a perfect setting for this play. It's a small theater in the round with raised seating all the way around, so the stage itself is in the center. Instead of looking up at a stage from an auditorium, you are watching from above and get the feeling that you're eavesdropping on the characters, not watching a play. The performance was excellent (much better than my last Shakespeare experience). John Hutton who played Iago was wonderful, as was everyone else down to the actor who only had a few lines. This is a long video, but here is a collection of clips from the play to give you a taste, and if you're in Denver and have a chance before it closes on Saturday, go see Othello.

Also well-worth mentioning is the costuming. This production was set at the turn of the century instead of the typical Shakespeare time period, and all the costumes are made specifically for the play. The costumes of the female characters were beautiful, and as a lover of clothing, I was always excited for a costume change so I could examine detailing of the new piece. I'd go see it for the clothing alone. It makes it that much more that the performance was so good.



And, a hilarious video of how the story would have been different if Desdemona had had a sassy, gay friend...

Saturday started with some coffee and cheesy potato goodness (mmm....) and was followed by some movie and tv watching which lasted for about 6 hours. Saturday night we headed to Sobo 151 to watch the Avs playoff game...and that's all we'll say about that except that Sobo 151 had great food and was a lot of fun.

Sunday, we made it out of the house by 2 to catch a showing of Waking Sleeping Beauty which was about how basically every one of my favorite childhood movies came into existence. I came home and told Danny that we would have to have a Disney movie marathon. He wasn't as excited about the idea as I was...

And, that was our weekend. Not too much although we did actually leave the indoors at least once a day which is pretty good for a lazy weekend.

Easter Weekend: Art & Theatrics

What a wonderfully wonderful Easter weekend we had! We actually did nothing Easter related except for having Good Friday off and wearing springy clothes, but anyway...

Friday started with dropping the kid - I mean, pup - off at daycare. Then the husband and I walked over to Tattered Cover for breakfast & coffee and a few hours of peaceful reading in big wingback chairs surrounded by thousands of books. After we got our morning fill of reading, we grabbed our bikes, and rode over to the Denver Museum of Art. We randomly stopped for lunch along the way at Pints Pub which we learned has the largest selection of Scotch outside of Britain; they, also, brew their own beer and have good food - all in all, a great find!

I had never been to the DAM, so I was really surprised to see the entire Civic Center Cultural Complex. There's crazy architecture, old architecture, and large art installations. Loved it!


(photo via Tufts)

Although we didn't get to see everything, what we did see at the DAM was wonderful. It was the final weekend of a an exhibit called Embrace! which involved different artists transforming the unique spaces of the building into works of art, so I was really glad we made it in time to see it.

After the museum, we rode home to pick up the pup. I have to share the adorable report card that she got from daycare. Too much cuteness!



We dropped her off at home where she immediately passed out on the floor (didn't even make it to somewhere soft), and then head to a dinner party which involved wine, red snapper, homemade mac and cheese, carrots, and banana pudding. Mmmm....

Saturday was pretty lazy, so we'll skip to Sunday. Accompanied by Knox and Rachel, we went to see the Easter matinee of Cirque Dreams: Illumination which was craaaazzzyyy!



After the show, we went to Sushi Sasa for an early dinner. If you don't know this yet, I LOVE sushi! It was the perfect end to a seriously fabulous weekend.

something is rotten in the state of denmark

last week, huntsville was lucky enough to be one of the stops of the american shakespeare center's stark raving sane tour. they did 3 performances: comedy of errors on wednesday, hamlet on thursday, and rosencrantz and guildenstern are dead on friday. stef and i went to hamlet thursday night, and gosh, do i wish i had gone to all 3 nights. it was amazing!

a couple of notes about how american shakespeare center (asc) plays are performed...they try to make the experience as accurate as possible. first, the lights remain on through the entire performance which means the actors can see the audience and interact with them (there wasn't any electricity when shakespeare was alive...duh). also, they utilize doubling. a shakespeare play could as many as 40 characters, but the traveling troupe of the period wouldn't have had more than 15 actors. so, the actors of the asc play multiple roles.

the performance thursday night began with a funny song involving all the cast members that recapped the story of hamlet,the prince of denmark, so the audience would know the basic story of the play. then they began the play, and simply put, it was excellent. it was so well acted. i put myself in the mindset of someone in the audience of the globe theater when the play was performed for the first time.. watching hamlet try to uncover the source of the stench in his country of denmark while contemplating life's big questions. i was carried away by the terrible feeling of loss and betrayel, the hilarity of the jokes and jabs, the fear caused by ghostly visitors, the intrigue, and the end-of-your-seat suspense of the last scene.

now, i'm obsessed. i'm dying to read hamlet & i want to watch all of kenneth branagh's shakespeare movies. i'm making plans to visit the alabama shakespeare festival in mobile to try to satisfy my shakespeare craving, and i hope that the performances live up to the standards set by the asc. if you hear that the asc is coming to a city near you, make the time to go out and see at least one of their performances. you won't regret it.


(did i mention that hamlet was super cute? that was an added benefit :)