Last weekend was a busy, but fun, little weekend. On Saturday, Mer and I headed up early to Cleveland, to the Idea Center next to Playhouse Square, for the regional National Shakespeare Competition. Regional schools are encouraged to hold school-wide competitions, and then compete for the regional title and a chance to go on to the national stage in New York. We were there to support CVCA’s entrant, a talented young woman who was doing the “unsex me here” Lady Macbeth speech from Macbeth.

There were about twenty-five or thirty schools competing, so we were split into two groups. Three finalists were to be selected from each of the two rooms, and then those six would compete for the regional title. Each contestant had to do a monologue from a play and a sonnet as well. Our student was going pretty late in the competition, so we got to see what she was up against.

The level of acting and reciting was quite good, as one would expect from school champions. In our room, Mer and I felt that about five or six of the competitors, including our young lady, all had a good shot at the three finalist slots from our room. When the results came in, we were disappointed. Two of the three slots were understandable – they were quite good, and I could see where the judges were coming from. The third slot was the one that made me and Mer confused and a little angry. The third slot went to a contestant who did an adequate job, but was not in the top six of either of our lists, let alone the top three. In fact, we were questioning whether the performance was even worthy of the top ten in our room of thirteen or fourteen. It was not a bad performance; it was just really bland, with little movement or inflection. So, for the second year in a row, we left the competition confused as to what the judges saw (last year we could not see what the judges saw for the second-place finisher, who was pretty clearly not as good as the third through fifth finishers). I hope this does not come across as petty; Mer and I wanted our girl to win, of course, but we thought she could lose out to four or five others. Where we got upset was when one of the slots went to someone neither or us had even considered as a contender. Very strange.

We left before the finals, since we were supposed to be heading to Ellen’s in Michigan. I did not see putting off spending time with a good friend to see Shakespeare monologues when we had already seen three of the six. Happily, Mer agreed, so we headed out earlier than we had expected. We stopped at Steak ‘n Shake for lunch, but we still got to Ellen’s place in Hillsdale around 3:00 or so, about two hours earlier than we had hoped. I think we caught Ellen still wrapping up getting supper going, but she was gracious and happy to see us. Ellen is the standard-bearer for hospitality for people roughly our age, and she took our visit as an opportunity to organize a small dinner party of her own.

We got installed in Ellen’s guest room, and she surprised us with a couple of CDs as belated birthday presents. One was an English Christian band called Mumford and Sons that has an eclectic and interesting sound. The other was a Norwegian folk singer with a crystal-clear voice. Both CDs were thoughtful gifts, and we have already gotten much profitable listening out of them. To return the favor (in a less giving way), I introduced Ellen to The Anonymous 4, a group of women singers who do arrangements of hymns and folks songs. Ellen took a liking to them and ordered a CD the same day. That was gratifying.

As was the dinner. Ellen had invited her pastor and his wife, and her headmaster and his wife, and so we had a party of seven. Ellen made some spectacular food (a great soup and make-your-own burritos), and the evening was lighthearted, with quite a bit of laughter. We talked until about 10:00, when the others had to go. I headed to bed directly, but Mer and Ellen stayed up for a bit to chat.

On Sunday, we went to Ellen’s church, which is a Presbyterian church that meets on the campus of Hillsdale College. They are in the process of buying a property to renovate as a church, but for now, they still meet on the campus. It was a good service, and it was pleasant to have a personal connection with the pastor from the dinner the night before. They had a brief congregational meeting after the service to discuss the new property, so Mer and I took that opportunity to take a short (and cold) walk about Hillsdale College to check out the campus. We wandered the main square before retreating back to the student center for warmth.

Back at Ellen’s, I made brownies while Ellen ran over to school. We all had leftovers for lunch, which was fine by us. A good meal called for a nap for me, but Mer stayed up to grade. In the evening (post-nap), I ran out for dessert supplies, and we spent the evening eating and visiting (a common occurrence when we come over).

Monday was the reason for our visit. Ellen teaches English at Hillsdale Academy, and for the third year in a row she had invited me to speak on the play Rosecrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Mer used to teach the play, and when she did, I came up with a talk on the relationship between some of the odd things in the story and some of the odd things that happen in the world of quantum mechanics in physics. It has been over twenty years since I have studied quantum mechanics, so my theory is rusty, but the ideas behind the equations are still pretty fresh and interesting to me. We are also both happy to see Ellen in action – she is a very good teacher, and teaches some pretty interesting works (Dante’s Purgatory and Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby on this particular day).

I gave my presentation, which was received quite well after a slightly rocky start (I had forgotten what some symbols in an equation meant for a moment, on the first slide. Ooops.). The students were very well behaved, and several of them seemed to be quite engaged. That is always gratifying. After the class, Mer and Ellen went off to a writing class, but I had the good opportunity to chat with a senior from the college who was sitting in on Ellen’s class. He was a social studies major, and wants to teach; we had a great conversation about the modern period, C. S. Lewis, historical methods, and more. He is a bright young man, and I hope he does well.

Ellen took us to a local deli for lunch, and we finished up the afternoon with Gatsby. Sadly, Mer and I then had to head home and back to our usual jobs (and, as it turns out, to both of us getting sick for the following week). Still, I look forward to speaking in class again next year if Ellen keeps the play on her class list.