Shakespeare at Staunton

David enjoyed the performance of Loves Labours Lost at the Shakespeare Theatre in Staunton.

 

It was obviously not permitted to take photos during the performance.

It must have looked very authentic and impressive when filled with actors and audience.  Hopefully we will be able to visit together in the Spring.

Staunton

Although we were not able to go away together over Thanksgiving as planned, David decided to drive to the town of Staunton anyway and to use one of the tickets for the Shakespeare Theatre there.

The theatre is next to the Stonewall Jackson hotel - a huge building which shows the importance of Staunton in the past as a railway and industrial town.  It is situated in the lower part of the Shenandoah Valley, close to the Blue Ridge mountains and en route to Roanoke.

David had a bright sunny day for his visit and took lots of photos to share.

This last building is a Glass works with many beautiful creations.  Apparently lots of lovely small shops in the town - not typical Black Friday shopping!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is not ‘our’ holiday but nonetheless we have much to be thankful for - on both sides of the Atlantic!

A very Happy Thanksgiving to those celebrating the holiday and an opportunity for us all to be thankful for all that we have!

Dusk at Dulles

The eve of the Thanksgiving holiday is traditionally a very busy time to travel as millions of Americans move around the country to spend this important holiday with family and friends.

Dulles Airport was therefore very busy as we approached at the end of the afternoon.

Holiday Windows

On Saturday before going to the theatre we walked around the neighboring streets in DC and saw that the red carpet was out at Macy’s Department Store.

All the windows had been decorated for the holidays and were waiting to be unveiled that afternoon.

We returned after the theatre for a peek at the windows but they were still covered!  A stage was ready to receive a celebrity ‘window revealer’ presumably, but there was no indication of when they would be unveiled.

We went for a quick look inside, focusing on the Christmas and toy departments..

David was quite taken with the ‘walk on piano’..

Christmas is Coming..

In Reston, the Christmas tree is up and the Pavilion ice rink in place for the winter.

The Christmas lights will be switched on after the Thanksgiving Parade on Friday.

In the Bargain Loft, the last two days have been full of frenzied activity as 20-30 volunteers moved in, unpacked and displayed the contents of literally hundreds of plastic dump bins of Christmas items, stored throughout the year..

By the end of the today everything was priced and in position and looking pretty good..

Tomorrow at 10am the doors open..

Images of Atlanta

We returned from Atlanta on Friday night but a few more photos from my walks around the city.

Near the Centennial Olympic Park are a number of huge sporting venues including the Mercedes Benz Stadium, above, and The Philips Arena, below.



Close by the world headquarters of the Cable News Network, known more commonly as CNN.  A vast building with a huge central atrium open to the public.



We started our guided tour on a huge escalator which took us up the side of the atrium..

Of course there was no photography allowed as we passed the live newsrooms and studios which were all explained to us - as a 24 hour news operation there are many reporters working on stories in three shifts around the clock, with many more on call.

This was a mock-up of a news studio where the equipment was demonstrated, including the use of green screens.

In the city some of the leaves had changed colour and framed the big wheel and extraordinary cylindrical Westin Hotel.

Atlanta is an interesting mix of historic buildings and new, mainly glass, skyscrapers.

Plenty of building is still underway as this evening view from our hotel showed.  This is one of the largest cranes that I have ever seen - we were on the 7th floor and it towered high above much taller buildings.

 In Autumn 2014 I took a photograph over the lake in Piedmont Park looking back to the Midtown skyline.  The photo is on our wall.  

As it was the same time of year I wanted to compare with photos taken this week as I had the impression that the trees had not changed colour so far this year.  I put the two photos together - the older one at the top..

I was right about the Autumn colour, but that is not the most striking difference!  I was aware that more buildings had gone up but was surprised at just how much the skyline had changed in three years!

Ford’s Theatre

On Saturday we took the metro into Washington DC to visit and see a performance at the historic Ford’s Theatre.

We had booked for a tour of the theatre at 11am - when we arrived there was a very long queue of visitors also waiting to do the tour.

Across the road from the theatre in the Ford’s Centre for Education and Leadership, a large black and white photograph of Abraham Lincoln looked down on us all.

When the tour began we visited a museum in the basement of the theatre.  The museumtold the story of Abraham Lincoln’s presidency, his actions to abolish slavery and the events of the day in1865 when he was shot in the Ford’s Theatre.

He was shot by an actor who crept into the box where he and his wife were watching a performance.  Shot at point blank range, he did not die immediately but was taken across the road to a private boarding house where, despite the attentions of doctors, he died several hours later.

After the museum we were shown into the theatre itself where a National Parks Ranger (the theatre is run by the National Park Service) told us the story.

It is a modest sized theatre and in fact a replica of the 1860’s theatre, created in 1968, the original theatre having fallen into disrepair after the assassination.



The presidents box was marked with flags - as it would always have been.

We then returned to the theatre for a matinee performance of A Christmas Carol, which was excellent.

No photos allowed during the performance of course but I managed to take a few of the stage set and  the auditorium before and after.