Bit of Ivory

Tickets for Two Plays and a Backstage Tour:  $88

Hotel room:  $65

Gas to and from Cedar City and Assorted Food: $60

Seeing Brian Vaughn Play Hamlet on Closing Night: Priceless.

(Oh, and BYU lost their season opener. Bah.)

Jen decided to come with me. So, Shakefest 3: The Undiscovered Country, here we come!

Take a look at this article about Brian Vaughn’s Hamlet, which I discovered by doing a Google News search for “Brian Vaughn.” Luckily, I’m not alone in thinking he’s one of the best Hamlets ever.

Hoping to go back for one last performance on Labor Day weekend. Even if I have to go alone.

Guess where I’m posting from? A hotel room in Cedar City, of course! My intimidation/brainwashing campaign against my family worked, and we’re taking a short trip to Cedar City to enjoy Shakefest 2006 before the summer season ends.

Today, we saw a matinee of HMS Pinafore (which was just as entertaining as last time) and an evening performance of Room Service. (Video montage, large and small).

Oh my heck, you guys. I laughed myself sick. And Brian Vaughn is now my official Theatre Boyfriend. He joins Orlando Bloom as my Movie Boyfriend and Henry Tilney as my Fiction Boyfriend. Anyway, this is the first time I’ve seen him in a non-Shakespeare role, and I was just as impressed as I have been previously. The guy can do comedy. Really do comedy. The plot for Room Service is rather thin, but Brian (as my Theatre Boyfriend, I get to call him by his first name ) and the rest of the cast squeeze every little bit out of it they can. The physical comedy is just as fun as the verbal stuff, if not more so. And really, the whole play’s worth it for the curtain call. Did you ever see an entire stage of mostly-middle-aged men do the time step? If you haven’t, you’re missing out.

My family is still chuckling about it.

Hamlet tomorrow night. Can’t. Wait. I hope we figure out something to do tomorrow to keep me occupied, or I’m going to be jumping out of my skin.

I apologize for the lateness of this, and I’m only half done. Unfortunately, writing up my vacation meant uploading pictures, and uploading pictures meant attempting to get my gallery issues straightened out, which meant lots of updating to my website. And then I had to actually write it. And in between, I got to hold the baby. And go to the BYU Women’s Football Clinic. So, it took a while.

Anyway. If Lumos is the Party, and the Shakefest is the Pre-Party Party, then Saturday was:

The Pre-Pre-Party Party: Pam’s Arrival

After spending Saturday morning finishing the housecleaning, I picked Pam up at about 3:45. We came back home to find my sister still at work and my parents running errands, so we broke out the laptops and surfed the ‘net until dinner time. After demolishing a fair number of mom’s tacos, we went up to the hospital for another visit to my niece (well, and my brother and sister-in-law as well, but let’s face it, the baby’s the most important thing). My Grandma By happened to be coming to visit at the same time, so that was nice. Anna was still just as adorable as she was the night before. I got to hold her. Pam did too. But we eventually had to leave. Sigh.

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I’m way too tired to write anything up tonight about the fabulous trip I’ve just had, but I will say two things:

I’m trying to convince my parents that we DO have time to take a couple of days to go down to Cedar City and see Pinafore and Hamlet again.

I’m also trying to convince them to install a rainfall shower head in the bathroom downstairs when it gets a badly-needed makeover.

Details to come tomorrow!

So, I’m at the Shakespearean Festival, right? One would expect great Shakespeare plays. I’ve been before, and seen what these people can do. I was entertained by The Merry Wives of Windsor, but frankly, Antony and Cleopatra was boring. HMS Pinafore was quite hilarious, though. Between plays and friends and shopping, I’ve had quite an entertaining few days.

But.

NOTHING could have prepared me for the awesomeness that was Hamlet tonight. I’ve never seen it live before, but I highly doubt any other live performance I may see in the future could live up to this. It was absolutely AMAZING.

Brian Vaughn can so sit by me.

More details later. Probably when I write up this whole trip.

I want to see it again. Right NOW.

There’ll be more eventually, as I didn’t have much time or opportunity to take pictures last night, but here’s a teaser of my adorable little niece.

Her hair, which you can’t see because of her little hat, is a sandy blonde/light brown, and seems to have a teeny bit of a curl to it.

Isn’t she adorable?

I’ll upload more here as I get them ready.

Name: Anna Marie Bytheway

Birthdate and time: July 21, 2006, 9:23 PM MDT

Length: 21 inches

Weight: 6 lbs. 10 oz.

Pictures to come tomorrow!

YAY!!

1) My internet (which went out on Tuesday) is back, and seems to be working okay, despite all best efforts of Comcast to make it look like they fixed it when they actually didn’t!

2) My sister-in-law is on her way to the hospital! Later today, I’m going to be an AUNT!