Bucket #3: Shakespeare in the Park
June, 15, 2014
Temp: 61 degrees (in the am), 70 degrees (in the evening)
We started the day off at 5:30 am…now if you know the Sutton Sisters, this is crazy talk. We hate waking up early for anything, so the fact that we chose to do that on our day off was quite a big deal. We left the apartment at 6:00 am for a quick stop at the store…only…our store wasn’t open yet! This was shocking to us. We are often at the store at closing time (midnight), but we have NEVER been there too early! Fortunately, the 24 hour Rite Aid across the street had the snacks we needed to get us through a long day of sitting in line.
We met Maddy on the train and dealt with construction on the N/Q line to finally make it to Central Park shortly after 7:00. Al met us and we quickly got in line. (or on line depending on where you are from!) The days before our outing had been quite hot, so we were not expecting the brisk morning we had. It really didn’t warm up at all until 11 am, but I guess it’s better than 90 degree weather we will probably have to deal with for the next Shakespeare in the Park in late July.
Time passed quickly with several chats, snacks and games. The company was outstanding…wonderful people with whom to spend the day! We were waiting to get tickets for “Much Ado About Nothing.” Well, midway through our waiting time, I started making Much Ado About Everything from the dog fight we witnessed to the BIG ROCK OF DOOM! What is this big rock, you ask? Why yes, I was just about to tell you about it. For the show, each person on the line is allowed to get two tickets. They don’t hand out the same amount of tickets each show, so it’s difficult to tell if you’re going to get tickets. We really didn’t want to wait around all day only to lose out on seeing the show. My friend, Blair (who I was going to get a ticket for), texted me midway through our waiting time to ask if we were ahead of THE BIG ROCK OF DOOM. Now let me tell you, there are several rocks in central park, several big rocks, and several on the paths leading up to the theatre. I started snapping pictures of rocks to send to her to see if we were out of luck. Apparently if you are after this certain rock, you generally don’t get tickets. We ended up with tickets as well as tons of people after us, BUT we did later determine by Blair’s confirmation that we were indeed right next to THE BIG ROCK OF DOOM! Thank goodness our day was not destroyed by the rock this time, but we must heed this warning for King Lear tickets and get there earlier!
THE BIG ROCK OF DOOM!
After hanging out for 5 hours, the time came to hand out tickets! When our group of four got to the front, we said 4 people, 8 tickets. The lady said we would be split up and handed us 4 tickets and 6 tickets. hmm…that one confused us! So we had ten tickets in our hands, and we didn’t know why! After deliberating, we decided to ask someone in charge if they were supposed to give us two extra tickets or if that was a mistake. We certainly wanted to give the two extras to friends, but we also know what it’s like to wait in line for hours with the possibility of not getting tickets. We turned them back in and went on our way back home for a lengthy nap.
We basically slept the afternoon away and headed back to the theatre. By this time, the weather was absolutely beautiful with no rain forecasted! (We had a rain adventure the last time we went to Shakespeare in the Park…the rain added to that evening, but I wouldn’t trade this beautiful night for anything!) Blair, Tony, Eric and Laura joined the original four for the show that evening.
It was THE PERFECT NIGHT! The show was just amazing! Lindsay and I agreed it was the best Shakespeare we’d ever seen, and it was simply gorgeous outside. So far every bucket list adventure has had great weather. (Hope I didn’t just jinx it!)
http://www.publictheater.org/en/programs–events/shakespeare-in-the-park/?SiteTheme=Shakespeare
Note: I did not take this illegal picture…Lindsay did! hehe!
After the show, 5 of us decided to get a bite to eat. The show was three hours long, so 11 pm on a Sunday night can be a little difficult to find a place that is still open. Blair told us about Big Nick’s. We weren’t sure if we would be able to eat much there, BUT we when we walked in, we saw a sign for gluten free pizza! How perfect! We had a fun dinner and a lovely walk to the train where the moon glowed and mesmerized everyone.
We are finding these adventures to be even better than we imagined! We definitely encourage everyone to try something similar for a period of time. On to the next bucket! 🙂
A Sutton Sister Summer 