I’VE NEVER ACTUALLY SEEN THE GHOSTBUSTERS MOVIE—Misadventures during Shakespeare in the Park

To Clarify: This post is written by Heather Rae.

One of the most awesome things about living in St. Louis is that there is a ton of fun and free activities to do, especially in the summertime. Of these, Shakespeare in the Park is a top favorite of mine. Every year since we graduated from high school, a group of friends gets together and sets out for lunch and good times in Forest Park while enjoying some classic Shakespeare. This year the play was Othello. I rode to the park with one of my best buddies, Matt.

Heather Rae @ Shakespeare in the Park, 2012

Matt drove, which is a good thing, because if I had been driving we would have gotten even more lost than we did anyway. As it was, we somehow pulled into the richest neighborhood I have ever been through in my entire life.

ME: shouldn’t this community be gated?

MATT: Here’s the gate coming up…we took the back way in.

ME: WHY IS THERE EVEN A BACK WAY INTO A NEIGHBORHOOD LIKE THIS?!?!?

MATT: I don’t know, but hide the Subway cup… we don’t want to stand out. Hey look at that house! I bet it was airlifted here from Tuscany or something…

Eventually Matt maneuvered our way out of the super nice neighborhood, which is good since we were driving a Bonneville, so it didn’t really matter if the Subway cup was showing or not anyway. We were the first part of the group to arrive at the park, so we picked a good spot and hung out until the rest of the gang got there. Othello was put on wonderfully by the team this year, and if you are at all familiar with Shakespeare you can appreciate the amount of humor and innuendos that were carefully placed throughout his tragedy. For any who don’t know, here’s a quick synopsis of Othello in my own words:

Othello is an outstanding guy who marries an important woman without her father’s permission. They actually get away with it, and Othello is appointed to be in charge in Cyprus during some kind of conflict (the version we saw took place in 1912). Everything is fine and dandy with the new couple until the token jerk villain (Lago) gets all bothered about life and decides to mess up Othello’s happiness by convincing him that his wife is having an affair. Othello kills his wife first and asks questions later, and after asking questions (and discovering his mistake) kills himself as well. Lago lives (although he is now a captive), and Cassio (the alleged lover of Othello’s wife) is appointed in Othello’s place. Cassio is the clear winner here.

Sidebar: Othello has much more of a plot and meaning than what I’ve mentioned here. Shakespeare was brilliant and I would encourage you to study more into it if you have the patience. I’m writing to be funny, not to earn an award. Please don’t be offended that my synopsis has GREATLY short changed this play.

During intermission, I had to use the bathroom. Forest park usually has a squadron of about twenty to thirty port-a-potties lined up at the back of the natural amphitheatre, and they are usually surprisingly clean. However, I would advise you, that when you’re waiting in a line of many people, don’t go the ONE port-a-potty that is suspiciously marked as OPEN. There’s probably a random dude in there peeing. If you do it anyway because it seemed like a great idea at the time, just say “excuse me” and walk away LIKE IT NEVER HAPPENED. At least that’s what I did. I was laughing so hard by the time I got back to the blanket that I couldn’t even stop long enough to tell one of my friends what had happened.

FRIEND: Did you find a condom in the bathroom or something?

ME: Nope, just a man…

Besides finding a man in the bathroom, with the help of my friend Crystal, we realized that Shakespeare really has nothing positive to teach us about love and relationships. Fall in love, someone will lie, and one or both of you will probably end up dead. I feel like he gave us a series of strict warnings not to believe everything we hear, because if we do, we’ll mess up something good that we had and everyone else will watch it happen. Nicholas Sparks tried to key into this I guess. Same tragedies different era…but that’s a rant for another time.

On the way home, Matt and I passed some old hotel. The top floor was completely glass and all blue and glow-y.

MATT: From the other side of the park, all you can see is that top floor and it looks just like Dana Barrett’s apartment.

ME: Who?

MATT: Dana Barrett. From Ghostbusters.

ME: Oh. Yeah, I’ve never actually seen the Ghostbusters movies.

MATT: Heather Rae, that’s almost as bad as Jess not seeing the Indiana Jones movies. Almost.