Seeing it Live

Weekend Assignment #319: The Play's The Thing.
 
Nowadays we get most of our comedy and drama from television, from movies and even from internet downloads. Perhaps we sometimes forget that all of these evolved from a much older art form, the stage play. Do you ever attend plays, musicals or operas? Why or why not?


Extra Credit: Have you ever seen anything by Shakespeare performed live?
 
I do, and I am weird about it.  In a "I don't know anything about art, but I know what I like" way.  I subscribe with The Writers' Theatre, which is a small group in suburban Chicago.  I love them because they have this great mix of presenting classics and totally new shows.  I don't love every show (in fact, don't click on my last couple of reviews, because I didn't enjoy them.  They weren't bad.  I'm just cranky.  And I don't like Streetcar.) but even when that happens, I appreciate their ingenuity.
 
I don't go to any other theatres.  I can't think of the last...Shakespeare on the Green?  Steppenwolf?  I seriously don't remember.  It might have been when my grandfather took me to the opera.  That was awesome.  I don't go more often partly because I would have to schlep into the city.  Partly because it is expensive.  Mostly I am just satisfied with The Writers' Theatre.
 
I have seen more Shakespeare on stage than any other genre.  (Is Shakespeare a genre?)  The most recent was As You Like It and before that was Othello.  Both at Writers' Theatre.  In fact, I first discovered the place when my then-boyfriend and I were trying to find something to do for Valentine's Day.  We were looking in the paper and one or the other of us spotted Richard II.  That was not a typo.  Richard 2.  Whotheheckever heard of that being produced?  We were there.