Dear Parents,
Below are the synopsis of the plays, and our itinerary for this year’s Ashland trip! We will be reading and listening to the music from the delightful Pirates of Penzancewith everyone before we go, as well as doing some in depth preparation on the history and plot of The African Company presents Richard the III with the high school groups. I have read or seen these plays and have them available if you would like to read them before we go. Please feel free to call me with any questions or concerns about the plays. As always, I fully support parents in deciding what’s appropriate for their children.
We’ll need a lot of parent drivers for this trip. You must be able to take five passengers in order to drive, otherwise I have too many drivers and not enough tickets. We pay for your gas and your ticket. You pay $50.00 for lodging and food. First come, first serve.
Pirates of Penzance
A day at the beach for the daughters of a modern Major General provides Frederic and his pirate mates with a chance encounter and a first-rate opportunity to marry with impunity. Then Duty, filial and otherwise, threatens to scuttle everything. Can Catastrophe be averted? Will Love prevail? Of course, but not before Gilbert and Sullivan fire a few broadsides at social stuffiness in this rollicking operetta that abounds in music, comical paradox and delicious silliness delivered with wit as sharp as a corsair’s cutlass.
Age recommendation: Suitable for all playgoers 6 and up.
Run Time: Two hours and 18 minutes; includes one 20 minute intermission.
The African Company Presents Richard III
In 1820s Manhattan, a homegrown company of free black actors, passionate about creating art out of their own experience, draws packed houses of blacks—and whites. Performing jobs of servitude by day, they rehearse Richard III at night. But when they dare to open at the same time as New York’s premiere theatre opens its own Richard III, there is no room for competition. Based on a real incident, this provocative play is a must-see for Shakespeare and theatre history lovers—and anyone else who cares to ask: Who owns Shakespeare’s words?
Age recommendation: The African Company Presents Richard III is a fascinating historical drama with racial tension but no overt violence. It is suitable for students 12 and up who are prepared for the historical context of the play and able to handle the occasional use of a negative racial epithet. Prologue recommended.
Run Time: Two hours and 9 minutes; includes one 15 minute intermission.
Ashland Trip Itinerary 2011
Monday, October 3rd:
9:00 a.m. Leave school and drive up 101 to Crescent City for lunch in the park. Take 199 to Grants Pass and Ashland. We’ll caravan as much as possible. You have a list of phone numbers and a map to Ashland Commons in case we get separated. Check it out on-line at www.ashlandcommons.com We should arrive around 2:00 p.m and unload.
4:00 Go to Lithia Park
6:00 Pizza in the Park
7:00 Green Show Preview and Pirates of Penzance in the Elizabethan theater
Tuesday, October 4th:
8:00 Breakfast/packing lunches
9:00 Pack up and load cars
10:00 Younger groups go to ScienceWorks Science Museum www.scienceworksmuseum.org , older groups go downtown for shopping.
12:30 Older groups have Prologue for African Company Presents Richard III
1:00 Older group sees African Company Presents Richard III
1:00 Younger groups go downtown for shopping. We all meet in the Park at 4 for pizza
4:30 Driving home
9:00 Arrive at Laurel Tree.
Costs:
School is paying for theater tickets and the science museum
$20.00 for lodging
$10.00 for gas
$20.00 for groceries and pizza
Total $50.00 per person
70 students divided by 5 = 14 cars Approximately 85 people going
Emergency Numbers:
Brenda’s cell phone (707) 498-1770
