To Thine Ownself Be True

Dear Readers,

On Wednesday night I got to go see Hamlet by Mr. William Shakespeare with my awesome roommate Angela. This is one of the things I love about having a theater major as a roommate. As a theater major it's required that the students see a certain number of plays throughout the semester, and sometimes even specific ones. So this week Angela had to go see Hamlet at the Pioneer Memorial Theater and since she gets student priced tickets it was actually affordable!

For a Shakespeare lover, I've read surprisingly few of his plays. Mostly I've just read the ones I've performed in. I knew the story of Hamlet going in, but had never read or seen the play before. I had always wondered how anyone could realistically portray the character of Hamlet. He has such incredible depth, and such a range of emotion in such a short time. Kenneth Branagh did an amazing job on film, but film is so very different from the stage.

The actor playing Hamlet at PMT was phenomenal! I actually almost cried during the curtain call. And Ophelia? Outstanding! I never realized that Polonius was a comic character. I never realized that some of the phrases I've grown up with are actually lines from this play! "To thine ownself be true" is the one coming to mind currently. I wish I could remember more to write about, but I was so entranced for the entire 3 hours that it's all a haze of emotion. Plus, we went on Wednesday and I've slept a lot since then.

I would tell you all to get in your cars and go see it right now, but tonight was sadly the last performance. Oh, and another thing. The exit signs there are purple! Yes, purple! That makes me happy.

Focusing on the positive in order to stay alive,
Your Lonely Dreamer