Friday, August 17, 2012

" 3 Cheers For Open Air Theatres!"

 
AND ALSO ( as The Man said:  "Three Cheers For Our Olympiads!" !)

The last Friday of the Olympics, a beaming guy in the audience at **Chester Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre**, stood up at the start of the play and yelled: " Let's have 3 Cheers for our Olympiads!!" , much to the delight of actors and audience alike..

 AND I suppose this is an example of the wonderful warmth/intimacy ( not to say, the surprises!) created by/to actors/audience of theatre in the open.

Yesterday lunchtime, we took another trip to the Park, where we enjoyed a chat in the sunshine with the cast of the 2 plays now running: "Twelfth Night" and Glyn Maxwell's followup: " Masters are you mad?...The search for Malvolio".
 A previous lunchtime ( a rainy one!) Director Alex Clifton ( on right in snap above) gave a spirited/ informative talk re his "directorship" of this company, assembled for a 6 week summer run in Chester.
And yesterday was a great idea to meet the talented and eloquent cast too. See them above!
**Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre was created by Chester Perfornmes( www.chesterperforms.com) **

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

" She Was Just Seventeen, You Know What I Mean...And The Way She Looked Was Way Beyond Compare...!"

 Years and years ago....when I should've been conjugating verbs... devouring Henry 8th's wives ( sorry, a list of )... grappling with Pythagoras.....2 friends and I legged it out of school.
Up Princes Street to the Town Hall we ran, belting to the Crosville buses, as we stuffed our school panama hats in our satchels,  rolled the waists bands of our skirts down as low as we dared, slicked on pale pink lipstick.... ( EEK!)....
THEN we boardedg a bus to the Wirral, dismounted at Birkenhead, caught the famous Ferry Across The Mersey to...yes, the iconic Cavern Club!
And last week, it all flooded back!!

IN A NUTSHELL: Rolf Harris has had a thriving Exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool ( www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/walker/)  and we visited it on Friday.
THIS was an Eyeopener of an exhibition...beautifully and ( you can't help but think) most lovingly presented.
Rolf's vigour/energy, his vibrant colours/his paintings are prolific...Wildlfe, Landscape, Cityscape, Australa, London, Places and People...including his beloved daughter, Bindi, immortalised as Vermeer's "Girl With Pearl Earring"..... AND of course, the Queen, somehow exceedingly approachable in Harris's ( nevertheless, exceedingly) respectful portrait......as if she were merely a friendly elderly neighbour or someone's Aunty...in her green dress and best pearls, on the occassion of her 80th Birthday...

BUT ONE PAINTING ( www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqXrq4TqDHg )  brought those very particular memories: 2 girls standing outside the Cavern...OK, not L'pool's original Cavern, but a newer one, created in memory of all those "Groups": Beatles, Faron's Flamingoes(!), Merseybeats, Swinging Blue Jreans ( or WAS it Genes??)and of course my favourite ( after Beatles, of course) ..Billy J. Kramer and his fabulous Dakotas...!

****I can't blog without mentioning the fantastic Games! We've been enthralled as have most folk I know.
AND Jacques Rogge said it all, calling them: " Happy and Glorious". A triumph for so many.
AND I'm missing them already.****
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