Last night’s Green Show featured Tempest playing Celtic folk-rock, one of my favorite kinds of music (don’t ask how many Steeleye Span and Fairport Convention albums I own). I bought one of their CD’s; I think my car has a CD player so we can hear it on the way home on Friday.

The main event for the evening was Twelfth Night, set in the 1920s with a blues theme. All of the music was excellent and peformed well; the Fool (Feste), played by Arielle Crosby did most of the singing and was fantastic. I was really amused when the cast broke into the Macarena at one point; apparently, there were some Beyoncé songs, too, but I didn’t recognize them! If you’re coming to Ashland this season, see this production – but be sure to rent a blanket before the play starts, because it got pretty cool during the second act!

We saw Silicon Valley Shakespeare’s production of Twelfth Night last Thursday; tonight, we’re seeing the OSF production.

So today’s lectures were both about Twelfth Night; our first speaker was Kate Wisniewski, a Speech and Text Director and Coach here at OSF. She took us through the first few lines of the play (Duke Orsino begins the play with “If music be the food of love, play on”), showing us how Shakespeare used iambic pentameter but broke the rhythm to emphasize certain words or thoughts (so the second line, “Give me excess of it…”, begins with a trochee so that “Give” is stressed). It was a fascinating hour.

Tyrone Wilson followed with today’s Theatre Reflections, preparing us for Twelfth Night.

We had free time after lunch and Diane and I went to Jacksonville to do a little shopping and a little exploration. We walked up to the Britt Festival grounds, which were open for the first time since we’ve been coming here; there were a few musicians practicing for the symphony concert tomorrow, but it was otherwise empty. We also walked a little of the trails by the Festival grounds.

While we were out, we got the news that our solar installation had passed Town inspection today; we need to fill out a little paperwork and then it’ll be submitted to PG&E for official permission to operate.

We came back to Ashland and had dinner at Caldera Brewing; we’re about to go to the Green Show and then to the Allen Elizabethan Theatre for Twelfth Night. We won’t get back until after 11, so I’m posting now.