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Shakespeare & Beyond

Summer Shakespeare memories: Picnics, thunderstorms, and wildlife interruptions

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We asked our Twitter followers to share their favorite stories from outdoor Shakespeare performances: incredible actors, unexpected animal visitors, dramatic weather events, and more. Tell us your story using #SummerShakesMemories.

Shakespeare & Beyond

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Inhaling a huge moth at the beginning of Banquo’s soliloquy and coughing through the whole thing, tangled by Texas wind in a huge cape as Cornwall during the fight scene pleading with an ineffective and frozen servant to “Kill me!” after being unable to extricate myself and then being hauled off to peals of laughter, and being arrested by an incompetent officer while playing Antonio in Twelfth Night when the officer drew his sword with a flourish and lost his grip and it clattered down two flights of stairs to land at my feet (I picked it up and held it while convulsed with laughter, sat down on the steps and just handed it to him when he came down to arrest me). Those are memorable but they don’t compare with Moonshine when he entered with his dog for our first full dress with an enormous basset hound that proceeded to hump his leg lustily during the entire scene. The actor had great fun playing through and we all cried from laughter. The dog was replaced with a nervous chihuahua for the final dress and during the same scene became so frightened it turned butt first towards to audience took an enormous, shaky crap at the same moment. Opening night found the dog transformed into a stuffed toy tied to the actor’s foot. I missed the rejected canines and heartily missed what could have been their first steps on the road to stardom.

Dr. Tony E. Medlin — July 31, 2019