a midsummer night's dream

We had the good fun of going to see a production of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" last night at Tim Robbins The Actors' Gang, here in Culver City, CA.

It's a small venue, with unreserved seating, so we got there early and were passing the time in the lobby. I turned my head and there was Tim Robbins in the small group of people who had gathered already. He looked right at us and my husband and he exchanged Hello's.

Wait, it gets better.

We got to watch Tim Robbins eat Chinese food for dinner outside the theater while we continued to wait to be seated LOL ... and then, he came back inside and stood right next to my husband. My husband who has no problem talking with strangers or being star struck, just struck up a conversation with Tim Robbins about it being the 20th anniversary of Dead Man Walking (the book by Sister Helen Prejean, the source material for his movie)! 

(I, on the other hand, am painfully shy and don't believe in disturbing celebrities and so I pretty much acted like I wasn't with my husband hahhahahhahahhahaha.  Too funny.)

And there's still more ... David Robbins, his brother, did the music for the production and played live and Tim Robbins also was part of the three person musical ensemble. (A big apology to the lovely young woman who was the third member of the group for not having your name handy for this post.) Fun fun fun. So we also got to watch our new BFF throughout the production.

It turned out to be a work in progress, a workshop production, not yet open for review.  Their website states "This workshop production of A Midsummer Nights Dream will be presented with minimal costumes, props and scenery, relying mainly on the creative imagination of its players to realize Shakespeare's magical world."  It was charming in it's simplicity and the caliber of acting is always top notch there. It was a lovely and fun evening out.

Do you enjoy live theater? It's one of my absolute favorite things of all.

I was very lucky to have a mom who loved all the arts, especially live theater. If my (faulty middle aged) memory is correct, the very first play my mother ever took me to was a production of "Oliver", at a grand old theater in Downtown Los Angeles, The Biltmore.  In those long ago days, we'd sit high up in the nose bleed section, for something like $1.50 a ticket.

Downtown Los Angeles
Outside The Biltmore Theater, 1962

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 Inside The Biltmore Theater, 1924
I wish I could have found a photo from the 1960's!

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Regarding "Oliver", I found this on Wikipedia ... "The musical previewed in the U.S. beginning in Los Angeles with Edwin Lester's L.A (and San Francisco) Civic Light Opera Association, as a 1962 national tour" ... so it came to L.A. and S.F. before it even made it's way to Broadway.

(Oh! I just looked at the Civic Light Opera history and Oliver turns out to be the second play I saw ... Bye Bye Birdie was my first, at 7 years old.) 

Thank you Mom for sharing your love of theater with me! 

And I'm sharing my love of theater with all of you this Saturday on A Favorite Thing, at Claudia's Mockingbird Hill Cottage.