Thespian Thursday

Score!

After a three and a half hour wait in line, I got us free tickets to Shakespeare in Central Park's Cymbeline.  To be honest, they needed to have a superior performance for me to like it more than Saskatoon's Shakespeare Lab's version.  The Central Park performance featured Hamish Linklater and Lily Rabe plus seven more and it equaled the excellence of Shakespeare Lab's.  It was an enjoyable evening in perfect weather.

Many bring picnic lunches to have before the show and some picnic with the beautiful Belvedere Castle behind them.  The Delacorte Theater is really near the Belvedere.

The waiting in line for free tickets this morning was a great experience.  I asked the young people who were first in line when they arrived.  They had waited outside the park (it's closed at night) starting at 11 p.m.  I got there around 8:30 and was 189th in line.  Tickets were given out at 12.

Time passed quickly because of an endless conversation with the 45 year old man next to me.  We covered travel, investments (his line of work), marriage problems (his, not mine), the Bible and religion, good books, Russians laundering money through NYC real estate, travel, condos and houses, pets , American/Canadian politics and much more.

Here's the line near me:

And here is the beginning of the line.  These people aren't dead ... they're sleeping. 

The path we waited on was shaded by these enormous trees so even though it was hot in the sun, we were comfortable,

I entered the park with a man who let his two big dogs off leash as soon as we were in the park.  His dogs ran over to other dogs and the fellow was saying that he and his dogs have a whole network of people and dogs who are their friends because they are all in the park at the same time.  I like how "small town" that is on an island of 1.6 million,

Once I had the tickets, I hoofed it through half of Central Park to meet Bob and we caught the subway to Brighton Beach which is New York City's Little Russia.  We knew of Tatiana's because it's been on Blue Bloods and Diners, Drive Ins & Dives.

Even though it was a hot day, we couldn't resist the borscht.  Bob went for the traditional beet while I tried the spinach.

I like Brighton Beach more than the adjoining Coney Island because it is much less busy.  However, there are old geezers in Speedos and ladies even larger and older than me in bathing suits so maybe that's not a good thing.  And for the first time, I saw a topless sunbather there.

It's not a very long walk down the beach to Coney Island.

It was a good day to be at the ocean.