The Tempest

Over the past few months, Marina has shown an interest in William Shakespeare. I'm not sure where it started. We read a book called A Lion to Guard Us which is based on the story of a group of English colonists who were shipwrecked on Barbados. The afterward said that Shakespeare based his play The Tempest on the same story. Marina thought that was really cool. She also was excited to recognize the Shakespeare toy in The Lego Movie.

So, because of this interest, I looked into the Shakespeare Festival schedule this year. The Tempest was on the schedule. It seemed like the perfect play to introduce Marina to Shakespeare, so I got us tickets to the preview performance. Marina has been looking forward to it.

The Shakespeare Festival is held on the campus of the university I graduated from, but it's not close to home. So we were prepared for a long night. The campus has changed considerably since I went there, so I had trouble finding the right place to park. Finally we got there.

We had seats in the front row, so we got to see the set and the actors up close. Marina had a bit of trouble following the dialogue, especially when the characters discussed the background of the story. But she loved the comedic parts, special effects and the acrobatic choreography of Ariel, the sprite. She also liked the ice cream we got at intermission!

Once the show was over, she said she liked it. A film crew was asking people to give their thoughts of the show. Marina was happy to volunteer. She told them she liked the show but didn't really understand what happened. She also explained why Ariel was her favorite character.

As we walked across campus to the car, Marina told me she'd probably fall asleep on the way home. I told her that was fine. And she was right, she fell asleep a short while into our trip.