It's Not Inappropriate, It's Shakespeare

It's been almost a month since I last wrote. It's been one of those months where I never felt like I was doing an awful lot but never seemed to have much time either. At first I thought I haven't done much that's worth writing about. Upon further reflection I feel that is completely untrue. So I'm now going to attempt to make up for a month of silence. This may come in no particular order whatsoever or in several posts.

The best place to begin is with the production of Romeo and Juliet that I am stage managing this semester. Working on that show has really ensured that my time in Florence has been a positive experience that I will look back on and remember with a smile. What's better than taking random lines of Shakespeare out of context and using them to make inappropriate jokes (not that they are appropriate in context either). I also like the fact that most people seem perplexed by the occasional incidents of thumb biting.

I went to Vicenza and Padua with my dramatic literature class (which contains most of the cast of Romeo and Juliet) for a day. In Vicenza we saw the the Teatro Olimpico which was designed by Palladio and is the first example of set design with perfect perspective. The set was built at the same time as the theater and was meant to be used only for the inaugural production of Oedipus Rex however it was so awesome that they couldn't bring themselves to tear it down. And I have to say thank god. Picturing that set in a ye olde Renaissance dumpster is enough to make me cry. The theater is truely a work of art. I wanted nothing more than to leap onto the stage. However since getting arrested in Italy isn't something I want to try, I restrained my self.

After that I went to Padua with the goal of wiving it wealthily. Actually I we went to the University and toured the university and the chapel with the Giotto frescoes. However the highlight of of our visit was when we saw the celebration for recent university graduates. When an Italian student gets their doctorate, their friends make them dress in ridiculous outfits, recite dirty poems and songs, and drink... alot. It was hilarious to watch however it also made me glad that I will not get a doctorate in Italy. Although great to watch the celebrations are also a sort of hazing ritual, the kind that is illegal in the US. And as funny as it was to watch a engineering grad get is back waxed while drinking, reading a dirty poem, with a cow's tongue down his shorts I really wouldn't want that to be me. But I have no compunction about giving me sense of schadenfreude free reign to revel in another's pain.