A is for Ass: welcome April, what a fool will you be?

Today begins many things from the the arrival of spring, Easter, my relaunch of my Kickstarter (hint, hint), the first day of several writing challenges (NaPoWriMo, Blogging from A to Z, and Camp NaNoWriMo), also birthdays of the late dragon lady, Anne McCaffrey and several of my personal friends happen on this day. With all that it is enough to make a person head swim in dizzy circles. I am planning on participating in two of those challenges and with my Kickstarter that should be enough, right?

Maybe...

Okay, to be fair, that is a lot. I don't always do well when overloaded, but this time... I have learned a few things about time management and planning. The first being that planning ahead is really for the best. So, I have planned my A to Z days (that would be every day blog about something starting with a different letter of the alphabet) with books or plays that I have read that start with the corresponding days letter. Oh, we take Sundays off! And, I plan to writing a poem a day for NaPoWriMo about the days book featured for the day. I have also made it easier by picking a poetic form I am very familiar with and writing in the style for 26 days. Smart thinking, right?

I think so. It took me awhile to figure this out.

I have done both A to Z and NaPoWriMo, sometimes at the same time, and it is something that I miss. This give me a chance to blog this month, revisit some of my favourite (or at least unique) books, plays I have read over the years. I picked the pantoum, which is a Persian poetic form, that is song-like (often traditional pantoums are/can be sung.

Today's letter is A (and yes it is a Sunday, but there are five Sundays in April, so quiet you), and A Midsummer Night's Dream by the bard himself, William Shakespeare. Written as a pantoum, where the second and fourth lines are repeating in the next stanza, and the last stanza combines the line from the previous and the first first.

Midsummer is my favourite Shakespeare play. It also has the large role I have played in a Shakespeare play, that of Nicolas Bottom, complete with ass ears and the ONLY kiss in the ENTIRE production (okay it was at curtain call, but still!) I love the setting of the show, with faeries and magic, drama and comedy. It kind of has everything, except death. It can be considered the silliest of Shakespeare's works. I don't believe that, as I think that there is much more to the story of the Athenian Lovers, Bottom and the Rude Mechanicals, and even Theseus and Hippolyta.

Pyramus and Thisbe with the Wall (photo fro Keuka Lake Players archive)

Anyway, I learned how to overact while this show was rehearsing and that the best slip up in the wording comes at the right time. Titania's Bower is a bitch to build and thus to transport. I am not afraid to put myself out there for the good of the show (no stage fright here). And the most important part is that I LOVE Shakespeare and his language! Because of that show I went of wrote 31 sonnets as a challenge to myself. I do not fear iambic pentameter anymore.

Did you know that some of the moon of Uranus are named after faeries of A Midsummer Night's Dream? Oberon, and Titania. :-)

Not only is A Midsummer Night's Dream a play, but there have been 4 movie adaptations, a ballet, an opera, even graphic novels, and as a porn spoof. You can 'watch' Brows Held High review it here, A Midsummer's Night Cream (there is no sex feature, just a review and interpretation of the 'movie'. If you are curious. Oh, and it is very informative and entertaining.

If you are here for the poem, than you are lucky, because it is below. Enjoy, Dear Readers! Leave me a comment, what is your favourite Shakespeare play, or least favourite? Have you see one live? Did you/Do you like Shakespeare?

Forest Bound

Forest bound the players be

to their goals they set out

for of love or play, indeed,

until something unexpected happens.

To their goals they set out

with the Lovers seeking happiness

until something unexpected happens

and a foul joke is played upon them all.

With the Lovers seeking happiness

and elsewhere there are Rude Mechanicals;

and a foul joke is played

within the Faerie's playground.

And elsewhere there are those Rude Mechanicals;

preparing for a theatrical show

within the Faerie's playground

that of Queen Titania and Lord Oberon.

Preparing for a theatrical show--

a Greek Story of separated love

that of Queen Titania and Lord Oberon,

the directors of today's performance.

A Greek story of separated love

that mirrors the own Lovers pair and

the directors of today's performance

get more than they bargained for.

That mirrors the own Lovers pair and

that of what is given to silly asses

get more than they bargained for

until Oberon dares to set it right.

That of what is given  to silly asses

for of love or play, indeed,

until Oberon dares to set it right (and)

Forest bound the players be.