so why was me seeing twelfth night in central park this week such a big friggin’ deal?

well, perhaps you know how i’ve been transitioning my art career into what i love the mostest: kids’ books.

after a lifetime as a reader (as well as an artist & illustrator for other people’s stories), i’ve spent the last 6+ years attempting to learn the craft of writing my own stories, too. and have been making every effort to get them published & on your colourful shelves as well.

after 160+ queries to agents with multiple books over the last three years or so, last fall i signed with my literary agent, kristen terrette at martin literary management.

and this spring, after another round of developmental edits, some kid-sized beta readers (who all enthusiastically approved, btw), and adding some sample illustrations to the opening chapters? well, my (v. loose) twelfth night retelling within a production of shakespeare’s twelfth night at a middle school boarding school for the performing arts in new york city— well, that book is now out on submission to editors at the publishing houses! the same publishers and offices i’ve been walking past all week— on my way to bookshops and coffee shops around the city— all counting down to LAST NIGHT when i got to see a star-studded production of twelfth night. in central park. within blocks of where my fictitious story takes place.

*not the final title or cover: it’s all bound to change. but you get the idea. i loooooove this book!! especially all the theatre-nerd trivia footnotes i included. :)*

the public’s delacorte theatre, home to FREE shakespeare in the park for millions (?) of new yorkers over the past 60 years, underwent a recent renovation— ensuring more accessibility, highlighting sustainability, and, for better or worse, fewer raccoons interrupting actors backstage— or making an appearance on stage during a show. (yes, it has happened more than once. the raccoons had also been known to chew through sound and stage wires mid-season.)

all that to say: that when i heard the delacorte was (grand) re-opening with THE PLAY i’ve been consumed with and writing about since 2021— well: it was fate, no?

**“Jove, i thank thee*,” and all that.**

*tweflth night, act II, scene 5. told ya i’m a wee bit into it. :)

*exterior of the recently renovated (and so far raccoon-free) delacorte theatre in central park.*

knowing our quick trip to the city was revolving around seeing the show, i did, in fact, “cheat.”

as in, in order to ensure we got tickets, i donated to the public months ago* for the opportunity to reserve a seat on my day of choice during the show’s run.

*hey, i’m a patron of the arts as well as an art-employed individual!

so yesterday, wednesday, show day, after a bagel breakfast (duh) and on our way to brunch (teehee; not just here for the city carb tour, despite what my instagram stories and bakery receipts may show), we stopped by the public theatre — the mothership.

the three-theatre building, library, and offices on lafayette. The Line was gathered to enter the ticket lottery for that night’s performance— and since i already had our tickets for tonight’s show, i was merely there for the costume exhibit of shakespeare in the park costumes from the past 60 years.

a small piece of the line to enter the daily lottery draw for shakespeare in the park tickets. i waited upstairs in the mezzanine library until the costume exhibit opened so as not to be in the way. :)

costume i’d be most likely to wear in real life award goes to this one: gertrude from HAMLET. but also saw costumes worn by meryl streep, sir patrick stewart, jeff goldblum, ali stroker, allison janney, etc etc etc!!

*you’re not wrong: earlier this year, i saw a costume exhibit at SCAD fash (atl), a retrospective of sandy powell’s work (small sample in photos above)— which also included costumes from* **shakespeare in love***—where gweneth p and joseph f performed* **twelfth night** *within a (v. inaccurate) film of shakespeare’s life— but yeah: more hallie-book illustration reference and inspiration galore!!*

*left: perhaps the funniest picture from this trip— the costume exhibit ended, on theme, with an “exit, pursued by a bear” sign (shakespeare humor a là* **THE WINTER’S TALE** *and his most famous stage direction; on the right: boukie-bear in sight of our reservations at* ***clinton st baking co.*** *famous, but for good reason. it’s the pancakes. :)*

when 4:30pm rolled around, it was time to collect my will call tickets at the delacorte.

shakespeare in the park tickets are only give out day-of.

including: in-person at the theatre (people in the park by 6am didn’t all get tickets!); the ticket lottery at the public (pardon me, just here for the costumes and the brochures for my junk journal/scrapbook/studio framing needs, tyvm!); a few pop-up locations around town; and an online lottery (about which the lady at the ticket counter said you minds’ well buy a power ball ticket while you’re at it as you’ve got about the same chances.) there was also a stand-by line in the park in case people with tickets didn’t show up. by 4:30, it was 150+ people deep, and i’m sure it was WAY longer by 7:30 when they started releasing tickets. (if any!)

*p.s. the fifth way to get tickets,* ***via donation****… well, the only levels left for ticket access via donation were at $3K+. ha. not our level of giving, i promise you. #wouldificould*

again, the fact i got to see it felt like a miracle.

once we were in the theatre, in my seat, i had to keep myself from crying.

it’s just ALL my fave things all at once:
a perfect evening (mid-60’s)
in the city. new york city.
my first time seeing the public’s shakespeare in the park.
and it was twelfth night!!!!

the shakespeare play which totally feels like “mine” right now as i compulsively check my email waiting for my agent to say “publishers are interested.” ;)

*anybody else an nbc* community fan? if so, you understand me. :)

oh, and boukie-bear was with me and eating it up— even if i did have to keep him from talkling to ALL the strangers around him. (you can take a boy out of the south, but you can’t get him to stop talking to the person next to him on the subway so we don’t miss our stop. yes, it happened yesterday. also, his broad shoulders are NOT subway-sized. bless ‘im.)

so as for TWELFTH NIGHT in the park:

even before the show began, the all-female string quartet on stage had me swooning at the spectacle of it all.

thank God for paper playbills, btw; if tswift & travis-whoever can spend $40k on engagement flowers —and they should— theatres should give cast and crew and sponsors their credit due in tangible type. mementos for future museums and us memento-hoarders, too—*a paper PLAYBILL and not a dumb qr-code i’ll never be able to find or look at the digital program with again!!*

the stage was red—with a subtle paisley print. (the string quartet had shiny red shoes that blended right in.)

the full title shakespeare gave the show (first performed 1602 best we can know) was “twelfth night, or what you will.”

‘what you will’ was in giant red, capital letters for the backdrop, curving around upstage for the actors to move through.

during the show, stage elements appeared from below—rising from the stage floor itself.

lupita n’yongo (!) and the captain in a life raft.
duke orisino and his court.*

*cue the best push-ups from the entourage scapegoat ever. teehee.

lady olivia (sandra oh!) at her desk stamping and signing papers that malvolio (peter dinklage!) passed to her.

also, the back of the glass box duke orsino (khris davis) and his court ascended in looked like a kahinde wylie portrait of the duke holding his fencing helmet; all the more reason for the red paisley print floor. (and the duke’s ego.) :)

the entire cast was incredible, of course.

sir toby (john ellison conlee) and andrew aguecheek (jesse tyler ferguson!!) got oodles of laughs, of course.*

*including malvolio with the hairdryer and the edge of the heart-shaped jacuzzi; another rising set element for giggles and nyc humor! bhahaha.

and moses sumne as feste?!? oooohmmmmghhhheeeee! the BEST feste (& maybe the only tolerable one) i’ve ever seen. he played electric guitar. his vocal range and styles—moved us all to dance and bop and tears. he was truly incredible. and actually linked the story together instead of stopping the show for one of its five songs…!

the other time i cried was when viola/cesario (lupita n’ong’o!!) and her brother sebastian (junior nyong’o!!) are reunited— they spoke in swahili (pretty sure!) to each other— and it was as magical as shakespeare’s language—even if you don’t understand it— or catch all of it— you get it. (when the acting is good and the actors Know what they’re saying— then you can usually “get” it, too.) :)

the other v. cool thing they did was that antonio (b), who saved sebastian from the shipwreck, was played by a non-binary actor. so all the intuited, perhaps-beyond that deep early modern era male-friendship love, could be explored as an intense crush antonio has on sebastian. (including a surprising kiss!) :)

the only images of the show i’d seen before getting to go was the curtain call. *

*no curtain, as it was an outdoor amphitheatre, but you get it.

and as such, i was a bit nervous the whole thing was all going to be a rainbow-swirling technicolor mamma mia-style disco spectacle: but that costuming was only the traditional (for shakespeare) closing jig/actors-take-their-bows attire!

after feste’s finale song that closes the show, the WHAT YOU WILL letters spun around (only the Ls were backwards now!) to reveal multi-colored light-up letters— the cast came out for bows and claps in Vibrant, flowing, gender-fluid costumes (he/she/who/will-they-won’t-they being one of the play’s centrifugal themes, of course). and as lady olivia says—in the Best delivery of this line i’ve ever heard— “MOST WONDERFUL!”

i haven’t touched a drop of alcohol (or whatever sir toby and sir andrew were smoking/snorting last night, obviously) this week— but literally felt drunk-tired-woozy walking back to our hotel last night.

like, the months and months of build up and anticipation and then a glorious, exceeds-expectations one hour and 55 minutes of acting and live theatre, an engaged audience spectacle in a venue that’s been made only better since it landed on my bucket list of destination activities decades ago…

i couldn’t process it all.*

*see also: i believe i’m living proof of stendhal syndrome.

*the awning of the public on lafayette. where* hamilton workshopped it out/premiered a decade ago, too. :)

so i collapsed dizzily in the room— happy and overwhelmed.

and today, planning to sleep in, i woke up at 6. (my usual waking hour, but this time without help of the alarm clock.)

and after getting the room’s tiny coffee machine to whirl to tepid life, i posted what i could of yesterday’s city-ings in my insta stories since i was totally incapable last night.

then onward to a day in brooklyn, where i now sit at loaf on paper, writing this blog in my traveler’s notebook, as i wait for noon when the stationery shoppe in the back opens. :)

*a black sesame salted caramel iced latte, a lemon poppy seed madeleine, and a new OHTO pen from* *goods for the study* *(uws location all of 2 blocks from our hotel; teehee). man, i love new york. :)*

so here’s to accessible arts— WHILE paying the professional creatives who work so hard to make GOOD ART HAPPEN.

to the designers and tech and builders and admin and ticket crew and seating crew and those on stage and backstage and in the booth and the donors and those who show up—enthusiastically—to make all of THOSE people know that their jobs MEan something. that they’re making a difference in this world.

as my (twelfth night-esque!) book’s character scrim says: “joy is an art, too.”

so here’s to nyc.

here’s to twelfth night.

here’s to shakespeare.

and mostly to live theater and surprises that overwhelm us in the best of ways.

and here are all the further hopes that my book—which included all those joyous things and more—finds its way into your hearts and onto your bookshelves soon—as soon as it finds its way to the RIght editor’s desk first.

then we can get it to you.

with all my bard-loving, new-yorker, theatre-ghost heart,

your dizzy, smiling fool (who, like malvolio, also looks terrible in yellow),

xo,

*hallie :)

bonus: PBS was filming this week’s shows, so it’s supposed to air on GREAT PERFORMANCES sometime this fall!! yay!!

true, it won’t be the same as seeing it LIVE, surrounded by hundreds (a thousand? more?) of new yorkers, of course, but i’ll be re-watching it and trying not to pass out again, i’m sure. :)

how can you remember the difference between patience and fortitude, the two lions standing sentry at the stephen a. schwartzman building of the new york public library? my trick: **FORT**ITUDE is the one closest to **FORT**Y-Second street. patience is the other one. ;)

post update: on friday, before we flew home, i dipped into the new york public library on 42nd & fifth. not just to say hi to patience and fortitude, but because i love their (free! and ever-changing!) treasures exhibit. and lo & behold: they had a first folio!!!!!

*i don’t think i’ve ever seen one in real life before!!!! golly, this trip was THE BEsT trip, no??? ;D*

it was smaller than i imagined them to be, but how grateful are we that they exist??

from the info plaque:

(bold text mine)

“Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies, most commonly referred to as the First Folio, is the first collected edition of Shakespeare’s plays and is now regarded as the most important book in all of English literature. Of the 36 plays compiled in this volume, 18 appeared in print for the very first time—including The Tempest, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, and Shakespeare’s shortest play, The Comedy of Errors. Without this book, those 18 previously unpublished plays may have disappeared entirely from the literary canon. The now iconic frontispiece portrait of Shakespeare by Martin Droeshout the Younger (1601-ca. 1650) is considered the most authentic likeness of the playwright, thought it was made several years after his death and it is unlikely that Droeshout was personally familiar with Shakespeare. The portrait’s artistic quality has been the subject of criticism, and the commendatory poem by Ben Jonson that appears opposite the title page encouraged readers to “looke / Not on his Picture, but his Booke.”

could i ramble on some more? sure. but here’s hoping YOU get to see it— whether in the park or at least on PBS soon. and i’ve gotta get three other book projects ready for september’s book events and opportunities, so this theatre ghost is off to her studio once again… :)

bucket list unlocked: why TWELFTH NIGHT in central park was such a BIG DEAL