I now have a new favourite scene of that play. It is the one where Touchstone (the court jester who fled with Celia and Rosalind) and Corin (I’ll call him Sheppard Dude) are talking to each other (Act 3 Scene 2). Ben Carlson, who was playing Touchstone, and Randy Hughson, who was playing Sheppard Dude, stood still, in the middle of the stage, looking out at the audience as if watching the sheep in a landscape. I don’t know how he did it, but there was something in Touchstone’s expression and posture that just said “I can’t believe I’m here looking at sheep. I now have a job that’s about as exciting as watching paint dry, except that it’s greasier and smellier and sweatier.” It wasn’t an angry bitter thing. More like incredulous and amusedly resigned. I couldn’t see the Sheppard Dude’s expression as well as Touchstone’s, because of where I was sitting, but he looked happier, content with the world, grinning widely. The two of them just stood there in silence for about a minute, not saying anything, holding their forked (sheep-driving?) walking sticks, and it was the funniest scene in the play. I was already laughing and laughing, and so was a lot of the rest of the audience, and then the sheep bleeting sounds started, from the speakers hidden at the edges of the stage and that made it even funnier. I’m still laughing as I think about it to write this. I’m not sure I can convey how funny it was with words. You might just have to see it to appreciate it. Then, when the Sheppard Dude’s line is something like “So, how do you like the shepparding business?” you just know how Touchstone feels about it. You know already how unimpressed he is with the whole thing. So that one line is made from a bland conversation opener into something that escalates the joke that’s already happening. Then when Touchstone dryly asks Sheppard Dude about his philosophy, you can see how he’s making jokes and banter to amuse himself while out in the sheep field. There’s a motivation in there, and some empathy for the characters, not just a bunch of jokes that seem to come out of nowhere to liven up the play.

Randy Hughson (left) as Corin and Ben Carlson as Touchstone in As You Like It. Photography by David Hou. Image property of Stratford Shakespeare Festival

Ben Carlson is absolutely amazing as Touchstone. He stole every scene he was in. I don’t think I’ve seen one of Shakespeare’s clowns played to be so funny. I usually appreciate the jokes in a Shakespeare play, but feel like some of them are lame, and even the funny ones don’t usually have me doubling over in laughter for minutes at a time. I often get the feeling that we’re supposed to be partly laughing at the clowns, instead of laughing with them. Carlson’s Touchstone came off as intelligent, aware, and made even the jokes that I’d usually think were a bit lame hilariously funny. According to my friends, who know less Elizabethan innuendo than I do, he made the innuendo clear too. For example, Touchstone’s speech about whether it’s better to be single or to be married and “wear the horns” (which is slang for being cuckolded) came through clearly to them, whereas I think I was the only one laughing when Rosalind made her speech about how a snail is considerate to women’s honor because it always wears horns, or when the guy was lifted up on the lords’ shoulders during one of the songs, wearing antlers because supposedly his father and his grandfather had worn horns, so now it was a family tradition.

The naughtiest, funniest piece of innuendo, to me, was when Touchstone was making fun of Orlando’s poetry to Rosalind and making up his own rhymes. His own rhymes were so much better, and wittier, and I think that came across because of the way he said them. When he said “Winter garments must be lined, so must slender Rosalind,” my friend and I looked at each other like “Did he just say that? Did that mean what I think it meant?” and cracked up. His hand gesture for that one was something like, with his fingertips and thumb tip pressed together pointing in the same direction he sort of moved his arm, twisting upward, like the tips of his fingers were burrowing upward into something. At least that’s the mental image I have of it; it happened so fast, I might be wrong. His patter for the rhymes was so quick that you didn’t finish laughing from one when boom, you were hit with the next one, and yet each one was clear and understandable.

Another thing I liked about the production was the way that they made all of the songs modern jazz-like pieces, with some of the techniques that make watching a musical interesting. A lot of the time when a song comes up in a Shakespeare play, they have some guy with a guitar or lute droning on in an Elizabethan sort of way, and I often don’t hear what the words are, and I think to myself “Why are we even doing this? Why is it here?” In this production, even the hey nonny nonnies made some sense because they treated them almost like jazz scat. I liked the song segments in this show, which I’m usually at best ambivalent toward in a Shakespeare play. Good thing too, since music seems to be a significant part of the play.

Another thing I noticed was how many of the characters silently reacted to what another character was saying, and so totally changed the context of the scene. I hadn’t seen a stage production of As You Like It before. I had only listened to the Librivox recording of it. Librivox is a volunteer-run project to make public-domain audiobooks. They have a full cast recording of it, downloadable as MP3 files. I liked it more than I have liked a lot of professional full cast recording of Shakespeare plays. I’m not sure why, but I felt more engaged by it. The women who read the parts of Rosalind and Celia were especially good. The guy with an Indian accent, who I couldn’t understand, was memorable in his own way. It was more amusing than annoying, since he didn’t have many lines. From listening to this version of the play, I had imagined that Celia was more or less cheering Rosalind on for the entire play. She makes a speech at the beginning about how they are like sisters to one another and love one another, and she seems supportive and pleased when Rosalind comes up with the cross-dressing plan, so I just sort of assumed that she felt more or less the same way while Rosalind was getting Orlando to pretend to court her.

In the Stratford production I just saw, however, Celia’s facial expressions and posture during pretty much any of Rosalind’s conversations with Orlando register shock, exasperation, disapproval, and amusement. She rolls her eyes, or goes to sit and wait it out. By the time she says basically “stop trash talking women” to Rosalind in Act 4, Scene 1, you already know how she feels about the whole charade, and you can almost feel the exasperation oozing out of her.

Cara Ricketts, who played Celia, was excellent. I’d seen her last year in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I really liked what she did on stage. Celia’s relationship with Rosalind is arguably the centre of the play, and it was clear that Ricketts, and Andrea Runge, who played Rosalind, are strong actors who can carry it off, even in unexpected (at least to me) directions.

It wasn’t just the actor who played Celia who did the silent reaction or commentary sort of thing, though. Most of the actors silently reacted to what the person who was speaking said, in one way or another. Another memorable moment came when the woman Touchstone was courting, Audrey, played by the excellent Lucy Peacock, saw Touchstone go over to play the double bass during one of the songs, and her mouth fell open as she leaned forward. She managed to convey “I had no idea he could do this! I can’t believe I am marrying such an amazing man!”

I liked the set design too. There was a giant green apple that came down and hovered in the air. I’m not quite sure what that was about, but it seemed cool. There was a tree behind the stage to indicate the forest, in the forest scenes, that got flowers and leaves on it as time progressed in the play. At intermission, we saw a stage hand picking up white specks from the stage and putting them into a cardboard box that said “Used Snow”. The stage at the start was presumably the reigning Duke’s room, and had four globes in it. Why four? My friend quipped that it must be that when you rule the world you have to be able to see it at all angles from a single spot.

It wasn’t exactly set design, but there were people dressed up as trees and sinuously swaying, with flowers covering their heads including their faces. And there was a lioness who sort of stood around during the lioness story, and had a sexy walk when she left.

All in all, I had a great time, and would recommend going to see the play. This production runs April 30, 2010, to October 31, 2010, at the Festival Theatre at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, in Stratford, Ontario, Canada. They have a bunch of other plays running too, including The Tempest, with Christopher Plummer, that promises to be spectacular.

The Stratford Festival website has a lot of supplemental information about the play, which can often be interesting. For example, they have Youtube videos of the director, Des McAnuff, talking about the play, an interview with the scene designer, and a production clip that shows the music. They have a study guide for As You Like It, study guides for other plays, and other materials for teachers, including a Shakespearean Insult game, with a list of insults in As You Like It. There is a blog by their archivist, and various other info including schedules for garden tours, backstage tours, chats with cast members, lectures, and concerts.

© Ellen Kaye-Cheveldayoff, 2010. | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Canada License. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
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I live in the neighbourhood the article mentions, and I think it is a great place to live. I cannot think of another neighbourhood I would want to live in more, in Waterloo. I take issue with the image of this neighbourhood as an ugly student ghetto. I think it is exaggerated and sensationalistic, and it is not at all how I feel about living here.

The Record article, like many of the newspaper articles I’ve seen about this neighbourhood, seems high on sensationalism and low on fact checking. For example, the photo in the article is of the house next door to me. It was recently bought by a young professional couple, the very people that supposedly are not being attracted to the neighbourhood. They are living in the house, and renting the basement to students.

I would also like to note that while there are sometimes loud noises at night, I have never seen anyone having sex on the sidewalk in several years of living near students. Nor do I think that having big backyards detracts from the quality of the neighbourhood. In fact, along with the mature trees, it is one of its charms.

Also, most students are quiet and studious. It is only a small minority that are bad neighbours.

I was disappointed to see the comments made by my city councillor Jan d’Ailly, as quoted in the Record article. For example, this one “I think it’s pretty clear that what’s there now is not working.” Also his plans to “file a motion next Monday that calls for changes to the area.” I’ve written him a letter to tell him my opinion.

Whatever the city does, there will be a lot of students in this neighbourhood, because of the location. I have reviewed the 20 year plans that the city has for the neighbourhood, and I think they are well thought out and sensible. I think it may be possible to improve the plan, but not on the basis of sensationalistic claims, and not with the unrealistic expectation that changing zoning will stop students from living here or attract more high tech workers to the area.

© Ellen Kaye-Cheveldayoff, 2010. | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Canada License. | Permalink | 12 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: ontario, urban-planning, waterloo

After intermission, Ms. Montero asked for members of the audience to sing to her a theme, one that other members of the audience would recognize. Then, she played the theme on the piano, and improvised using it as a starting point. Some of the tunes the audience requested were “America” from West Side Story, Happy Birthday, Summertime from Porgy and Bess by Gershwin, the entrance of Papageno in Mozart’s Magic Flute, the Theme from The Simpsons, and Somewhere Over the Rainbow. She said that classical music has a history of improvisation, and that it’s too bad that modern day classical performances so seldom include it. The improvised pieces she played used patterns of music similar to those found in classical pieces. I definitely felt like I was listening to a world-class classical musician improvise in the style of classical music, not jazz or another style of music, although there were small sectionss of the music here and there that were reminiscent of jazz.

After the concert, as she was signing CDs, I asked her how she learned to improvise. She said it is something that she has always done, and that she wouldn’t know how to analyze or teach it. It is instinctive and mystical, mysterious even to her. She said she plays from a mindset of no judgment and that she feels very relaxed and at home when improvising.

Gabriela Montero has been taking requests for improvisations over the internet, and releasing the results as MP3 files, since December 2007. I think that’s a fantastic idea, and I’m looking forward to listening to the results, if I figure out how to, since the website says the MP3s are available only for 3 days after the performance, and the link to subscribe to her email list appears to go to a domain squatter. She did appear on NPR’s Sing It and Wing It, and you can hear some of those segments, including an improvisation based on the song “You Are My Sunshine.” There are also some clips of her on Youtube, improvising various songs in various venues, including at President Barack Obama’s Inauguration.

All in all, I’m delighted that I’ve been introduced to her music. Thank you Perimeter Institute.

© Ellen Kaye-Cheveldayoff, 2009. | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Canada License. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: classical, music, ontario, perimeter-institute, piano, waterloo

So get yourself to the Stratford Shakespeare Festival and see A Midsummer Night’s Dream before it closes on October 30, 2009. Not only is it an opportunity to see the magnificent Geraint Wyn Davies, it is an opportunity to make jokes about his Bottom.

© Ellen Kaye-Cheveldayoff, 2009. | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Canada License. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: ontario, puns, shakespeare, stratford, theatre

One thing that I find a bit frustrating is navigating the City’s webpage and making sense of the information I find. I’m not sure what would change at the park if the plan is approved. I would like to see a summary of that. Perhaps one already exists, but I didn’t find it. If nothing else, the projected increase in population living near the park, and the introduction of Light Rail Transit along the railway tracks that go through the park will have an impact. Presumably this is accounted for in the plan.

Waterloo Park is one of my favourite parts of the city. I like to hang out there, sit at the picnic tables, walk by the water, admire the flowers and shrubs in the Victorian Garden, watch the wildlife, and sit on the rocks by the zoo. I hope that the park will continue to be as awesome in the future as it is now.

If you’d like to see what the park looks like, there are photos of Waterloo Park on Flickr, including some of my own.

Kudos to the City of Waterloo for involving the public in urban planning, and recognizing the importance of public spaces. Perhaps we can also get a blogging conversation going on about it. Anyone?

© Ellen Kaye-Cheveldayoff, 2009. | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Canada License. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: canada, ontario, park, urban-planning, waterloo, waterloo-park

And that is how I came to listen to Beethoven’s Contradanse No. 1. On the Naxos recording, it is 36 seconds long, and it doesn’t loop. This, er, threw me for a loop. I didn’t realize how much I was expecting it to repeat over and over until it didn’t. At first, I chastized myself for expecting the original piece of music to loop like it does in the video game, but then I realized that it probably was intended to loop like it does in a computer game. It is a dance after all. I imagine that in Beethoven’s time, if the music was actually used for dancing, then it would have been repeated. Certainly, when I’ve played fiddle at country dances, we repeated each tune several times before going onto the next one. You could probably observe this phenomenon for yourself if you went to a square dance, or ceili, or old-time fiddle dancing event.

So playing the computer game and listening to the looping midi version has given me a rendition that is in some ways more faithful to the original than the modern recording. How strange.

The other implication, which had not occurred to me until I listened to the unrepeated version, is that writing music for computer and video games might present the same types of challenges for a composer as writing for the dance floor. I had experienced both types of music before, but for some reason had not put the ideas together. I had thought of video game music as very much a modern phenomenon with unique challenges, and it is, but maybe those challenges are not so unique or unprecedented as I’d thought. I wonder what I could learn from the techniques that classical composers used on dance music, and just how similar Beethoven’s challenges and techniques were to those of, say, Yoko Kanno, when they worked on dance music and video game music, respectively. Yoko Kanno’s music for Uncharted Waters is also quite catchy, and loops in my head in a similar way, especially the waltz.

© Ellen Kaye-Cheveldayoff, 2009. | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Canada License. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Beethoven, composing, dance, fiddle, games, music, Yoko-Kanno

For a while, I was mystified that the search box title became serif when I changed the stylesheet for the main text, even though the rest of the side bar items remained sans-serif.  I eventually tracked down the problem to the functions.php file.  I mention it here in case anyone else is having similar problems.

Here is the section of code that was changed, after my changes.

// custom widgets
 
function widget_yes_search($args) {
extract($args);
?>
 
 <?php echo $before_widget; ?>
 <?php echo $before_title ?>
 <?php _e('Search'); ?>
 <?php echo $after_title; ?>
  <form id="searchform" method="get" action="<?php 
  echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']; ?>">
    <div>
     <input type="text" name="s" id="s" size="15" /><br />
     <?php /*<input type="submit" 
     value="<?php _e('Search'); ?>" />*/?>
    </div>
  </form>
 <?php echo $after_widget; ?>
 
<?php
}

If you’d like to know more technical details about any of the modifications I’ve made to the Barecity theme, feel free to ask me.

© Ellen Kaye-Cheveldayoff, 2009. | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Canada License. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: meta

© Ellen Kaye-Cheveldayoff, 2009. | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Canada License. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: meta