A Midsummer Day’s Dream

Donna Fletcher Crow @DonnaFletcherCr

I first heard of the Ashland [Oregon] Shakespeare Festival in the mid-1960s when some of my fellow drama students at the college I was attending in Idaho spent the summer as interns at the festival. I recall that one budding actor spent his entire summer carrying a banner on and off stage in one of the historical plays. Even attending the festival seemed like an adventure beyond dreams.

We fulfilled that dream four or five years later, when my husband and I returned to the west after graduate school (for him) and teaching (for me) in New England. We managed time to make the pilgrimage to Ashland and were totally captivated by this small town nestled in the foothills of the Siskiyou Mountains that was completely given over to Shakespeare and all things Elizabethan.

For many years thereafter a summer trek to the Shakespeare festival was a yearly event. For a few years we hired babysitters so we could take our growing family (eventually 4 children) with us and still attend all the plays on offer. When the children were old enough, we took them to the plays, too. Early education that has led to lifetime appreciation for all of them.

In those days it was “Stay 4 days, see 5 plays.” Even that left one’s head whirling. Today the schedule offers ten plays, with often 3 or more on the boards every day.

The classic outdoor Elizabethan stage began life in 1893 as a Chautauqua Arena and its ivy-covered walls still surround the theatre.

Beautiful Lithia Park is behind the theatre and spreads for miles along a babbling stream into the mountains.

The festival also has the state-of-the-art Angus Bowmer Theatre, named for the energetic young drama teacher at Southern Oregon Normal School (now Southern Oregon University) who founded the festival in 1935. There is also a smaller, more flexible performing space in the Thomas Theatre.

Through the years my husband and I have attended Shakespeare performances in England, Canada and many venues in the States, but we never tire of returning to Ashland where the dream is re-ignited every season by actors, directors, technicians and young interns who may spend the summer carrying banners.

It was a natural, then, that when I came to write my Elizabeth and Richard literary suspense series based on my favorite authors that Shakespeare would be one of my first. AMidsummer Eve’s Nightmare was first published in in 2010 (although written in 1992—the history of many novels often wanders, too). It has just been re-released in an all-new edition.

And so the story goes on. The love of literature and the dreams it creates never die; they are born anew in each generation and in each reader.

You can see all of Donna Fletcher Crow's books and more photos in her Research Albums on her website

WHATEVER THE WEATHER

   

One of the interesting things I've discovered since being a contributor to this blog, is how tied I am to the weather.  Since this page has followers from the other side of the world, I have to remember that when I'm sweltering in a summer heat wave (like now!) some of you are bundling up in sweaters and scarves.  Right now, I want to write about summer and about Canada Day (July 1) and how we celebrate with picnics and BBQ's

and swimming at the lake.  But those who are lacing up ice skates and buckling on snowboards, are unlikely to relate.
     It's a truism that everyone talks about the weather but no one does anything about it.  But as authors we can do something about the weather -- at least in our books.  Writers from Shakespeare to Nora Roberts use the weather as a metaphor for mood and character.   Blinded King Lear stumbles about in a storm, symbolic of the disaster that has overcome his life.  

Roberts "Born in Fire" sets the mood on the opening page with  "...winter racing in from the Atlantic like a hound from icy Hades." 
    And how many mysteries take place on "a dark and stormy night?"
    There is no doubt, we writers love to use the weather in our stories.  But my question is about the influence of the weather on our actual writing.  When you sit down to the keyboard does it matter if there is a thunderstorm raging outside?  Can you write of shipwreck on a calm and sunny day?
    My writing room has a window and I find weather does impact  my writing.  When I begin a story in January, it is inevitably set against snowstorms and icy roads and sleeping gardens.  When I start one in May, the story is full of apple blossoms and lilacs. 

     On hot and humid days, my pacing slows down.  Not only do I have trouble dragging the words out of my brain, but my characters all want to go sit under a shade tree and drink lemonade instead of getting on and solving the mystery. 
      Autumn is my best writing time.  Cool, crisp days energize me.  My characters zip around getting into trouble in double-quick time.  They show imagination and initiative.  Unfortunately, my villain is apt to be too likable on a day when frost rimes the grass.  I have to wait for a lowering sky before I do justice to the sneaky, selfish, and cunning creep.
   

So, what about you?  Are you a slave to the elements?  Is your story world entirely independent of your real world?   If I study your opus would I know which books you began in winter and which ones were dreamt up over the summer?  What tactics do you use to overcome the weather outside and focus on your story climate? 

 Now I'm off to work on the Christmas play for my church.  Very hard to think sleigh bells and snowballs when the temperature is
24°C and the sky is a cloudless blue. :-)                                     To learn more about me and my books, go to www.alicevaldal.com