Shakespeare in the Park

While most people were watching the Live Earth concerts on their big screen televisions or their computers last night, my husband and I spent the evening outdoors attending Olney Theatre Center's National Players production of Shakespeare's "The Tempest," held in the beautiful sylvan setting of Long Branch Park on the shore of Onondaga Lake.

While I'm not a huge Shakespeare fan, seeing "The Tempest" in a casual outdoor setting with a first-rate, high energy cast, brought the play alive for me. At some points in the production cast members raced off the stage and onto the grassy hill where the audience sat in their lawn chairs.

Several hundred people attended including many young people perhaps getting their first exposure to The Bard. I'm hoping that the experience was as positive for them as mine was. We had such a great time we're thinking of attending a production of "The Merry Wives of Windsor" in Thornden Park, near the Syracuse University campus, in August.