Toronto theatre troupe performs Shakespeare, rides subway (for fun)
Members of a Toronto theatre troupe have spent their summer vacation doing two things many students despise: reciting Shakespeare and riding the subway. The Improv Everywhere phenomenon isn’t particularly new to Hogtown (remember the subway dance party?), but this is the first we’ve heard of soliloquy enthusiasts taking over TTC cars.
Dubbed the Spur-of-the-Moment Shakespeare Collective, the group consists of nine acting grads and students who have been performing once a week for the past two months along the Bloor-Danforth line. Their repertoire includes Romeo and Juliet (don’t know how they do the balcony scene), Twelfth Night, King Lear, Macbeth, Richard III and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. According to the Star, passenger reaction has been mixed; one performer was kicked by an unappreciative audience member. (Apparently TTC riders are as grumpy as operators.) For the most part, though, shows are received with applause. Their final performance is today starting around 12:30 p.m. at Spadina station.
• Shakespeare on the subway elicits mixed reactions – including fright [Toronto Star]
Kids will be kids and pan handling is still panning.
On a more serious matter, thought should be given to establishing a new transit board that would extend from Oshawa on the east to Hamilton on the west and includes the Go operations all harmonized under a new GTA Commission and out of the control of city council and off the backs of property taxpayers.
http://torontopolitics2010.blogspot.com/