grace grits and gardening

ramblings from an arkansas farm girl

  • Home
  • Biography
  • Media
  • Privacy Policy
  • My Thoughts on Publishing
  • SHOP!
  • Garden
  • Food
  • Crafts
  • Farm
  • Reading & Books
  • Sunday Letter

A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the Ozarks

September 12, 2015 By Talya Tate Boerner 6 Comments

A Midsummer Night's Dream in the Ozarks

Confession: I was never a fan of Shakespeare. My introduction began in ninth grade with Romeo & Juliet followed by Julius Caesar followed by Macbeth. The door slammed shut senior year with Hamlet, and that was it. I don’t remember ever studying any other Shakespearean play or poem even during college. And shouldn’t a bit of the bard have been included within a Bachelor of Arts degree program? Alas, his absence was no great tragedy to me.

One of my clearest high school memories involved acting out the Macbeth witch scene with two of my best friends. Mrs. Key, our English teacher, was two-thirds drama teacher, so improv was always part of our curriculum.

Imagine if you will…
a dark, dank cavern (which was really a classroom in the Delta),
and in the center, a boiling cauldron (which was really a garbage can),
and around it, we girls with naturally stringy (midnight hag) hair
delivered our lines with much giggling (instead of cackling).

Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.

Yeah, no. I stayed confused amongst all of Shakespeare’s methinks and hithers and hences.

Shakespeare
Fast forward to Tuesday.

Thirty-five-some-odd-years later, I had a literary “aha” moment while taking a Shakespeare class at Olli at U of A. (I’ve talked about Olli before, which you can should read about HERE.) What perfect timing since my #NWArkCares blogger group is focusing on literacy in September. I’m not really sure why I signed up for this particular class other than the class description sounded interesting, plus if I’m being honest (and I am), A Midsummer Night’s Dream has always sounded a bit, well, dreamy to me.

So I did and I went and it was an entertaining and educational experience. Eye-opening, even.

Instructor David Jolliffe (whose impressive biography I didn’t know until know until now) brought Shakespeare to life in a classroom not unlike mine from the Delta. In addition to holding the Brown Chair in Literacy at the University of Arkansas and working as an English professor, he is active in the Classical Edge Theatre in Bentonville.

The Classical Edge

And my aha moment? It wasn’t that I enjoyed my Shakespeare class, although that was a bonus. It was that Classical Edge provides edge-ucation, student education and teacher workshops in area schools. Students have fun with Shakespeare, acting out the mob scenes of Julius Caesar, learning how playwrights and actors create comic plots and scenes. Classical Edge is getting kids excited about reading and learning and literacy.

That is huge.

No kidding, if I could feel warm and fuzzy about Shakespeare within the span of a two hour Olli class, I can only imagine the success this program is having within a school setting.

Now, it’s your turn to take action for arts and literacy and the good of all mankind.☺

A Midsummer Night's Dream in the Ozarks
a) Plan to see A MidSummer Night’s Dream to be performed in Bentonville at Lawrence Plaza (next to 21c Museum Hotel). Admission is Free. Take a lawn chair, food, drinks, blanket, etc. More info HERE.

b) Support Classical Edge Theatre by attending events. (Maybe even become a donor.) This group is doing good things in the area.

c) Become an Olli member by visiting the website HERE. Benefits extend well beyond classes.

Go get your Shakespeare on.

Grace Grits and Gardening
Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

[tweetthis]Get your #Shakespeare on! @theedgetheatre @learningisbliss #NWArkCares #NWArk [/tweetthis]

Musical Pairing:

Mendelssohn A Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture Op.21 by Masur, LGO (1997)

Filed Under: Arkansas, Reading & Books Tagged With: Ozarks, Shakespeare

Wanna receive posts via email? Sign up here!

Comments

  1. Sarah Shotts says

    September 12, 2015 at 11:12 am

    Yes! Yes! Yes! I’m in crunch time for Project STIR so I don’t know if I can make this show, but I love learning about new theatre groups here and will definitely be watching for upcoming performances. I love getting kids excited about Shakespeare.

    Reply
    • Talya Tate Boerner says

      September 13, 2015 at 7:06 am

      Thanks Sarah!

      Reply
  2. Tanya Coffman says

    September 13, 2015 at 5:53 am

    Good for you going back to school for some literacy fun! I I’ll try to make it to this production for my son 🙂 it sounds great!

    Reply
    • Talya Tate Boerner says

      September 13, 2015 at 7:06 am

      Thanks, Tanya. I’m going to try to go Friday.

      Reply
  3. Dorothy Johnson says

    September 14, 2015 at 9:11 am

    If I lived in your neck of the woods, I’d go. Sounds like you are already a homebody. Glad you’re taking advantage of all those opportunities.

    Reply
    • Talya Tate Boerner says

      September 15, 2015 at 6:56 am

      I wish we did live closer!

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


Hi! I'm Talya Tate Boerner. Writer, Reader, Arkansas Master Naturalist / Master Gardener, Author of

THE ACCIDENTAL SALVATION OF GRACIE LEE (2016)

GENE, EVERYWHERE: a life-changing visit from my father-in-law (2020)

BERNICE RUNS AWAY (Now Available!)

Never miss a blog post! Subscribe via email:

Prior Posts

Tags

A to Z April Blog Challenge Autumn BAT Book Reviews childhood Christmas creative writing prompt Dallas Desserts Eureka Springs Fall Fayetteville Food Gracie Lee Halloween Hemingway-Pfeiffer home humor Johnson Family Keiser Lake Norfork Lucy and Annabelle Mississippi County Mississippi Delta moving Munger Place Nana nature Northeast Arkansas Northwest Arkansas Osceola poem Reading Schnauzer simple living simple things spring spring gardening Summer sunday letter Talya Tate Boerner novel The Accidental Salvation of Gracie Lee Thomas Tate Winter Wordless Wednesday

Books by Talya Boerner / Purchase in Grace Grits SHOP

Talya Tate Boerner books
Gene, Everywhere

Food. Farm. Garden. Life.

THANKS FOR READING!

All content and photos Copyright Grace, Grits and Gardening © 2023 · Web Hosting By StrataByte