CPL's Book a Week Challenge discussion

Happy Monday, all! I was very happy to feel weather that wasn't going to melt the skin off me when I stepped outside today. I hope we continue on the moderate side of hot for a while.

I may be in the minority, but I love plays. Now, I don't necessarily enjoy reading the script of a play. They were always meant to be seen and not just read.

That is why I am a die-hard Shakespeare fangirl. It is true that his plays are tough to read, but when you see them on stage, it suddenly becomes so understandable. These are themes that are still perfectly relevant today - love, jealousy, betrayal, revenge, mischief, appearance versus reality, corruption, ambition, and so much more. I was lucky enough to see Twelfth Night at a theatre in London, and it was just brilliant to see the mistaken identities and various shenanigans play out right in front of me (sometimes literally; at one point Stephen Fry playing Malvolio ran up the audience seating to run out of the back door and was within inches of me).

I realize that I am probably in the minority with my Shakespeare love, but what other plays do you all like? I actually enjoyed reading the script for Arthur Miller's The Crucible when I was in high school. I have also adored Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest - both in print and on stage.

So, this week, the play's the thing! (Thanks for that line, Mr. Shakespeare!) Tell me which plays you have enjoyed, whether you read the script or saw it on stage.

I’ve always liked musical & some plays. Maybe when my kids head off for college I’ll get to indulge more!

I love Shakespeare, and at one point considered becoming a Shakespeare scholar (grad school the 1st time). I'm currently obsessed with musical theater, I'm jonesing to go to NY and see Frozen.
I spent a semester as an undergrad in London, and saw Vanessa Redgrave in Henrik Ibsen's Ghost, and Derek Jacobi in Breaking the Code (about Alan Turing). The highlight was watching Fair Maid of the West at the RSC, with a very young, very cute Sean Bean running right past me.

I remember going to see Death of a Salesman at the George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, NJ when I was in college; we were reading it in a course I took in college (don't remember the course name). The play made more sense on stage than when I was reading it.
I recently went back to my son's elementary/middle school to watch their production of The Sound of Music. It was fabulous! The production was sophisticated and well done. Above the stage, slides of the real place and people involved were shown during the play. Rather than being a distraction, the pictures enhanced the experience (they even had a picture of some of the nuns in the Abbey at the time).

I was a Theater and English double major in college, so I love to read plays. That was about 20 years ago, so I don't remember all of my favorites. My parents' just cleaned out their garage and gave me a whole box of books that contained many scripts. Your post has inspired me to go through that box. Now that my kids are getting older, I really should try and get back into local theater, too.

I rarely read plays but regularly attend the Generic Theater in Nofrolk. They have a tendency to show very unique plays. Not sure how I can pick a favorite play because they're never the same when you see them, always a new interpretation. I do really like the Pillow Man by Martin McDonagh being that it's main character is a writer and it involves some actual horror short stories in the play.