All this week I've been going to a Shakespeare camp, which for all of you out there wrinkling your noses, this particular camp (tis my third year going there) is ANYTHING BUT BORING!!!

IT RULEZ!!!

So anyway.

The camp (which I will refer to as SC -- Shakespeare Camp) is so much fun. We work on improv, stage combat, screaming our lungs out, playing THE most fun games you will EVER play.

Bippity boppity BOO!!
Zip zap zop!
What are you doing?
Yes.
"Thisby!" "WHAT?!"
"Lord of the Rings!" "You shall not pass!" "GANDALF!!!"
Red leather, yellow leather.
A big black bug...
To sit in solemn silence...
"It's all about the fedoras."
"HE JUST SAID THE SCOTTISH PLAY!!!"
"I will take a hot fiery rod and stick it right here and pull out your Achilles Tendon up to your knee!"
"It feels like you're poking a credit card." (about his hair with gell in it)


...ok, if you understood ANY of that (the LotR doesn't count unless you know WHY I put it here), then please e-mail me IMMEDIATLY because that would be SO cool. It would also mean that you have either been to said camp or... you're some kind of mind-reader. Actually, that would be kind of creepy. o_O

ANYWAY. Many fond memories.

In case you were wondering: We preformed three scenes from Much Ado About Nothing, in which I played Leanoto. Mucho lines! It was Italian Mafia-themed, so we were all in fedoras (hence the fedora quote above^) and talking with Italian accents. And yes, I am a girl. And I was cast as a guy. I realize that this is because there were more girls in ze camp than guys (but not by much), but this is the third time I've played a guy role.

I'm beginning to suspect something.


And now, for some memorable quotes from camp... (yes, read these even if you weren't there. because I said so)

"I've been trying not to step in the strawberry corpse." ~me about a smooshed strawberry
"My grandma spelled her name many different ways back in early America. Back in 19... 0... 10." ~the stage combat dude
"He uses big, confusing words. ...And small, confusing words." ~some kid about Shakespeare
"Anything that can go wrong will go wrong." "Yes, and anything that can go right won't until the fifth act." ~two people about Shakespeare's plays
"I want you to kill Sam first." ~instructor during a stage combat class
"What is blood?" (meaning the word in context) "Stuff you bleed." ~a kid
"If you don't know what death is you shouldn't be watching this play." ~a kid about Romeo and Juliet
"The fun just never ends." ~a kid sarcastically about laying in a circle
"I got yogurt in my eye yesterday -- that hurt." ~a girl
"I am the Smith of the curry chicken." ~a kid
"My spleen! My spleen! My spleen!" ~a kid while being "tortured"
"What's your last name?" "Your mama."
" 'Not a sufficient source of nutrition.' " ~a kid reading a Mountain Dew can
"I am being beat by a pizza box." ~a girl
"Oh my god!" ~a kid as a fedora went flying past his head
"That image is now burned forever in my mind." ~the head instructor dude about one of the guys wearing a dress and heavy make-up
"My kidney! My other kidney!" ~ after being "killed"

Man, I miss it already! It's just not going to be the same not pulling myself out of bed at 7:00 in the morning to drive down to a near-by college campus where ze camp is located and then running around using the "force" while wearing fedoras and seeing all the guys in suspenders. Oh man, that was amusing. The pictures are PRICELESS.

Lesse, what else to add... I got many hugs from so many people who I would never have expected to come up and hug me. "Break a leg"s were flying everywhere, and Don Pedro (the "godfather") had a giant ring that I kneeled down to and kissed on his first entrance. So what kind of ring was it, you ask? A Ring Pop. Because those things are ginormous.

No, I did not actually kiss it. I kissed the air on top of it. Because he really wanted to eat the Ring Pop afterwards.

There was a slight moment of panic when one of the guys accidentally went into the girls' changing room instead of the guys'. I was not there, but I heard much about it later.

In the second scene -- the longer one -- I was pretty much only with these other two guys, so we kind of hung out together during the week. Well, not really, but since we all had guns (Mafia, wh00t!) we would just randomly go up to each other and "shoot" each other in the head. Fun.

Man I'm gonna miss camp! Everyone was friends by the end, and we all had fun screaming "bippity boppity boo" in each others' faces, brushing gell out of the guys' hair (it looked painful), singing songs from "Fiddler on the Roof" (don't ask), trying to send telepathic messages, beating each other up, knocking fedoras off peoples' heads, tripping over steps, dancing to random music, narrowly avoiding cursing, making faces while stretching, over dramatisizing being shot while in stage combat class, dissing fellow actors in Shakespearian, falling asleep in text class (just kidding, Sara), and the list GOES ON!!

I can't wait to do it again next year!

"It is so indeed, my daughter says, and the ecstasy hath so much overbourne her that my daughter is sometimes afeared she will do a desperate outrage to herself!"
"No!"
"It is very true." ...