Shakespeare in the Park

Bill loves to go to Shakespeare plays. His parents started taking him to the Stratford Shakespeare Festival as a child. And we have gone to a few plays over the years in Philadelphia and Ashland, Oregon which boasts the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Last year, we read about the Portland Actors Ensemble doing "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in Esther Short Park. They offer free performances but they do ask for donations to help support their mission. We went and had a very nice time. It was a very different presentation. They read their lines from scrolls and there was a "referee" that would stop and start the action whenever the bell tower would start chiming, a plane would fly over or a train would go by which was frequently. It was fun at first but got kind of old after awhile. I'm not sure Esther Short Park is the best place to have a play as it is a noisy place in the path of all kinds of transportation. Last night we went to see "Pericles-Prince of Tyre" at Mount Tabor Park in Portland.

Before going to the play, we decided to play it by ear and find a place to eat on the way there. We don't really know that area of Portland well so we didn't know what we would find. We came across a Lebanese restaurant and it seemed very fitting as it went along with the theme of a Mediterranean evening. We had a lovely meal before heading to Mount Tabor for the play.


The play was being performed at the top on the top of Mount Tabor which is an extinct volcano. We had to park below and climb up to the top. A group of belly dancers performed for us while we waited for the play to start. That is always fun to watch.

"Pericles" isn't a very commonly performed play but it was interesting and we had an enjoyable evening. After the intermission, it was dark enough that they had to light Coleman lanterns and use them as footlights to light the stage area.

The Portland Actors Ensemble is going to do "A Comedy of Errors" at Maryhill Museum out on the Columbia Gorge in about six weeks. We are making plans to go out there to see it and spend the night. Should be fun.