SO Hamlet dies, does he?

Today we burst in classrooms all over the campus to perform five minutes of Hamlet. Seniors have been HAMBURGERING ( Hamlet Burst In Guerilla Theatre) for so many years now I have lost count. They split into groups, don costumes and themes and pop in everywhere from kindergarten -- where amazement truly sits on the faces of the five year old set-- to BC Calculus -- where other seniors enjoy seeing their classmates in action. Today was a good day. A few tricky moments popped out but overall no blood ( well real at least) and only one slight concussion, sustained by a wild thrashing actor who made brief contact with the window. After decades of seniors marauding as characters in this great play, I wonder if I am tired of seeing Hamlet. Have I watched one duel too many, one "good night sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest"? I guess the answer is no. Each year, the play opens fresh for me since a whole new group goes to Elsinore with me, wades through seven soliloquies, giggles at the innuendos and finishes it off with this day of sharing the Bard with all who come near. That is why Hamlet can work for me; unlike the melancholy Dane who waffles his way through five acts and more than a month of my life, I am steadfast. I love this play.

Welcome 2011

Having been on hiatus from school for the last two weeks, I was able to read several fabulous books that I want to write about over the next few weeks. I read the amazing new novel, Room, as well as A Short History of Women, and Pat Conroy's latest, My Reading Life. I am halfway through Freedom, a massive and excellent novel by Jonathan Franzen. The seniors are reading some wonderful plays this quarter including Death of a Salesman,Streetcar Named Desire, Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, and Waiting for Godot. It should be a whirlwind quarter. My plan is to write weekly, so new posts should abound. As my hero Kurt Vonnegut would say, "And so it goes...."