Susan Chicoine

Old Globe Literary Manager Danielle Mages Amato, host of The Old Globe's On Book Shakespeare reading group.

Did you ever hear the one about the guy who started up a new gig as a theater critic right as a global pandemic made public gatherings immoral and possibly even illegal? No? Just as well; it's a dumb joke.

Happily, there's no people like show people; they smile when they are low, so let's go on with the show. First up: The Old Globe’s Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein is hosting an Sonnet edition of his Thinking Shakespeare Live! series on the theater's Facebook page this evening at 6:30 pm. Mr. Edelstein is rather well thought of in the Bard department, and here he's singing not for his supper, but purely for your enjoyment - gratis. No word yet on which particular sonnet he'll tackle/unpack/elucidate/illuminate, but here's an old favorite of mine about getting old to whet your whistle. (Pardon the formatting; we're still working the bugs out of the website redesign.)

• That time of year thou mayst in me behold
• When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
• Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
• Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
• In me thou see'st the twilight of such day
• As after sunset fadeth in the west,
• Which by and by black night doth take away,
• Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.
• In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire
• That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
• As the death-bed whereon it must expire,
• Consum'd with that which it was nourish'd by.
• This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong,
• To love that well which thou must leave ere long.

Next up: tomorrow, Wednesday — and every Wednesday after that for the next six weeks — the theater is holding workshops on making theater in a series called, naturally enough, Behind the Curtain. Anticipated start time for the interactive event is 3 pm over at the Old Globe's Arts Engagement Facebook page.

And the tomorrow after that, (the week creeping in its petty pace from day to day as it does these days), we get On Book: The Old Globe's Shakespeare Reading Group, starting at noon over on the Group's Facebook page. Per the press release, "Beginning with the two plays announced for the Globe’s 2020 Summer Shakespeare Festival, The Taming of the Shrew and Henry V, the group will offer an online space to read and discuss Shakespeare’s work with directors, actors, and other artists who have tackled these great masterworks for the Globe’s stages."

The Globe isn't alone in these efforts to keep busy and engaged in an effort to keep hope alive and the wolf from the door; do stop by for more notices in the days to come. Cheers!