Today, Wednesday, was an unusually student-filled day. Mer and I and a few other teachers, along with about 125 students, went up to Cleveland to the Hanna Theater to see the Great Lakes Theater’s production of Shakespeare’s Richard III. These field trips are always a bit uneasy in that you never know if the students will like the play, and also, since the theater holds about another three hundred students from other schools, how the day is going to go.

Pretty well, as it turned out. There was a slight delay in getting the play going, and the students were a bit restless (especially those from other schools), with some of them starting rhythmic clapping at times, but once the production got going, everyone settled down and the audience was as good as you could hope for.

Richard III was great. It was set in an unspecified modern time, with most actors wearing suits or skirts. The set was minimalist, with lots of bare metal supporting a catwalk, on which was hung a lit-up neon-esque sign proclaiming whichever monarch was in power at the time. There were cell phones and automatic weapons and modern camouflage uniforms, and it all worked well on stage for me and Mer. We were both reminded that students are not always used to “modern” productions of Shakespeare plays, where the clothes are modern but the speech is four hundred years old, and formal for even that time. Some students said it took them a bit to get used to all of that. Plus, Richard III can be hard to follow because of the sheer number of characters, many of whom are related, share names, and/or also go by titles different from their names. It is not easy to keep it all straight, but the kids did really well.

The acting was excellent across the board. I have never seen a poor performance at Great Lakes. Richard was quite strong, with the actor taking on a limp and a crippled hand throughout the play.

After the play, we dropped everyone off in Hudson to go get lunch anywhere on the old square or in the new one. Mer and I and the other teachers went to Hattie’s, an ice cream parlor run for the benefit of mentally disabled people. The food is good, and the cause is a good one. We did get ice cream at the end of the meal, but we had to get it to go, as we were running out of time.

Back at school, I had a standard Fools’ practice. The improv practices are always from 3:30 to 4:30 on Wednesdays, and I have typically had about fourteen of the eighteen Fools show up each week, which is a good class size.

I ended my student-intensive day with going out to eat with some of my Connections guys. At CVCA, each faculty member is assigned a group of eight to twelve students to meet with once per week, and staff can sign up too. I have a group of ten seniors, and five of them met me in Cuyahoga Falls, at the Royal Buffet Chinese restaurant. I like buffets because we can all get what we like, and we can be leisurely over the meal. The six of us ate and visited for over an hour, and they guys seemed eager to go out again before too long, although given the business of the holidays, I’m guessing it will be January or February before we go out again.