This summer I took a trip to the Stratford Festival up in Stratford, Ontario. I traveled to Canada with three of my net.friends and met two others when we got there. I was able to see one musical (Man of La Mancha) and three plays (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Much Ado about Nothing and Julius Caesar). The plays were great, but I mostly came for the company. (Oh, and if you would like to see a larger image than the thumbnails shown on the page, just click on them.)

Elsa Frohman and Judi Grant were my roomies (hmmm, why does that seem familiar) this year. We started our trip in Detroit. I drove there, Judi flew there, and Elsa lives there. Possessed by something (we aren't sure what) the night before our trip we ate hot and spicy food at a local Thai restaurant. (And it's not as if we've never done that before.)

Chris Sweitzer joined us the next day at Elsa's house and from there we drove the long long distance to Stratford. Actually, from Detroit it isn't a long long distance, unless you have a Rand McNally map that had the wrong road names for Canadian roads. Then the trip takes a little longer than one would hope. Still, we made it there in one piece and with time enough to have a picnic before the show. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

When we arrived at the hotel in Stratford, we were able to meet the others in our party. Sue (AKA Edana) and Marion Saunderson. We headed off to the Festival Theatre where our musical was going to be performed and had a picnic before the show. Who catered our picnic? None other than the fabulous Elsa. The food was superb, but the wind didn't seem to want us there. Thankfully we managed to get to Man of La Mancha with few food items upon us.

That night we talked for awhile before heading to bed. And the next morning we got up bright and early (for us, very very bright since we forgot to close the drapes) for our tour of the costume warehouse. The picture provided here is Early Bird Judi wearing a hat that I'd brought. (No, I'm not a recent graduate. The principal gave all of the teachers the left-over hats from this year's Seniors Rule Week.)

I'd been to the Stratford Festival 2 other times but never got around to the costume warehouse tour. So this year we all went. It was quite impressive. One of the things I found most fascinating was the difference between how things look on stage and how they look in real life. The chandelier here looks gorgeous on stage, like a real crystal chandelier. If you look close at the photo you might notice that the light supports are covered in cellophane tape. :-)

One of the other neat things is getting to try on some of the costumes yourself. Of our group, only Judi felt like doing it. Don't you think she looks good as a page? Or whatever it is that she's dressed up as?

Later that day, Marion and I saw The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie which I really wanted to see since Lally Cadeau was in it. I enjoyed the show, even though no one (not even Lally) could do a half-decent Scottish accent. Can't blame them for trying, though.

Our evening performance was Much Ado about Nothing which starred another favorite of mine, Brian Bedford. I think we all enjoyed the show - there was certainly enough laughter in the theatre that night. The next, and, alas, last day we watched Julius Caesar. I remembered enjoying it in English class many years before, but it just didn't do anything for me when I saw it performed. I guess I was expecting lots of stage fighting and things.

This trip was a fun one for getting together with friends. And we even got some culture in the process. Perhaps one of these days I'll make other pages with pictures and info from my trips. Perhaps.