See Me in Love's Labour's Lost!
Details:
Love’s Labour’s Lost by William Shakespeare
A Shakespeare By the Sea production
Performing at Point Fermin Park in San Pedro, CA
Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays – Aug 13, 14, 15, 20, 21, 22
Friday and Saturday performances at 8pm
Sunday performances at 7pm
Tickets are FREE!
You can also stream it for free starting Aug 28! (Reservations required)
What’s It About? A princess and her three besties go to visit a neighboring king and his court on official business, only to discover that they’ve made it a “boys only” zone. But as the king and his pals begin to fall for the princess and her gals (respectively), a battle of wits and wordplay ensues—complete with mistaken loveletters, silly pranks, and (in this production) quite a lot of catchy ukelele covers!
The Me Blogging About It Part: WOW! Here I am posting about it for the first time on my website the very day we open like the procrastinator I am, but hey, I’ve been pretty busy!
Busy with what, you might ask? (In case maybe you missed the title of this post or something.) WELL, I’m pleased as drinkable, decadent punch to tell you that I, Mig Windows, am playing ROSALINE in William Shakespeare’s timeless comedy “Love’s Labour’s Lost.”
Not familiar with that one? Yeah, you might not be. While it has its fans for sure, LLL isn’t as commonly performed as, say, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. And hey, not everybody grew up in Shakespeareville USA (a.k.a. Ashland, Oregon) like yours truly, where I got to see three different productions of this play over the years. All three were in the Elizabethan theatre and I remember them all fondly. (Though admittedly, I was very young when I saw the first one and didn’t understand 90% of the jokes.)
I’m now happy to say that, as a grown adult who has spent time reading and rehearsing this play, that I understand about 75% of it.
And you know what, that’s saying something, because this play is DENSE! Originally composed for the court of Queen Elizabeth I, good ole’ Billy Shakes really pulled out all the stops with this one. It’s heavy on the wordplay, puns, rhymes, and words that would definitely impress (but maybe not win) during Scrabble.
Anyway, I’m stoked to be playing Rosaline, lady in waiting and galpal extraordinaire to the Princess of France. In this production, Rosaline has green hair, loves her knives, wears some pretty zany outfits, and has probably killed or at least beaten up a few would-be assassins to keep the Princess safe. (Little bit of my character backstory there for you.) She’s the object of affection for Berowne, the King’s extremely talkative and witty friend, but while she likes clowns well enough, she’d prefer a guy who can walk the walk, not just talk the talk.
Sure, you can read the public domain script or the wikepedia page to find out how it all ends, but where’s the fun in that? Come see it in the park, or watch online, to see the play in all its glorious and outrageous action!