Shakespeare on the farm

On Saturday, Sam and I went to check out Shakespeare on the Farm's production of The Tempest. Shakespeare on the Farm is the work of a nonprofit theater company (The Present Company) that puts on donation-based shows on a small farm in Austin. Since it combines three of my favorite things: outdoor theater, Shakespeare, and free (well okay, I donated, but it was potentially free)...I couldn't resist checking it out.

We took a few pictures of the farm ambience. This looks like something out of the new season of American Horror Story.

 As expected, it was a lovely setting. The set designs were particularly fun, although I think this play lends itself to that. We got there an hour or so early to picnic and enjoy some of the theme cocktails (I think I had Prospero's punch?). They had cranked up some opera tunes out of an air stream trailer and you could watch the chickens run around. You know, you're basic Saturday night farm/theater experience. We were also really lucky weather wise, as it's finally getting some fall crispness in the air.

The sets were quite possibly the coolest part. They built castles out of wood pallets!

The play itself made good use of children running around as fairies (another reason this play lends itself well to community theater); however, overall I think my expectations were a little too high for the acting. I may have gotten a bit spoiled by the million dollar productions over in Central Park and come to expect that all free outdoor theater should have huge Shakespearean talents in it. It also doesn't help that the last time I saw The Tempest performed was one of the single coolest productions I've ever seen. Now that was a phenomenal use of community talent.  This is not to say that the Shakespeare on the Farm production was bad, just that there were neither professional actors in it nor a troop of hip hop artists and taiko drummers, which again, is probably asking too much.

This was part of a huge display maybe out of 20-30 bicycle wheels. 

 Still, it's always fun to spend a night under the stars (and that's one way that outdoor theater on an Austin farm has Central Park really beat) and see a little Shakespeare. I'm actually taking a Shakespeare class (for free as part of FutureLearn) right now to brush up a bit and feel like less of an impostor when interacting with Shakespeare bloggers. Seeing a production after spending the morning reading a different play really reminded me of how preferable the former is. The language is just so much easier to follow when read allowed and with its proper scansion and intonation.

The cast and crew.

Anyway, thanks to the lurkers for your comments and emails last week :). I do appreciate knowing you're out there. Gives me more of a reason to remember to take photos of things and (crucially) to actually download them from my phone.