The Shakespeare Showdown by Steve L.

Shakespeare Showdown! We got up at 6:00, ugh, and drove to the drop off point. And it was snowing. I mean winter was over 3 months ago, for crying out loud! Well we all piled into one of the leaders vans and drove about an hour to Heber Valley Camp. Interesting thing, it's actually a young women's camp, but a very nice facility. (Much nicer than a boy scout camp!) We got to sleep in really nice cabins, instead of tents, which was pretty dang awesome.

The Shakespeare Showdown is a special event where Shakespeare conquest groups from around Utah get to come together and do lots of fun stuff. After getting lunch, we watched a performance of "The Merry Wives of Windsor" performed by one of the other troops. All the troops who came performed their play they had learned this year. After the performance and dinner we hung out and played board games for the rest of the night. The next morning, we were rudely awakened by the girls from our troop banging on our cabin door. We got up and ate breakfast, consisting of a bagel and cream cheese, not my idea of breakfast, and then we got ready to perform our play.

Many of you have seen my play "A Comedy of Errors" which I hope you liked. The play went off without a hitch. Of course we couldn't bring along all our props from our actual performance, so instead of using our nice hardwood door, we had to use a piece of duct taped cardboard. Thank goodness it worked. We performed to a full house.

Then we gathered in the main pavilion for a hilarious performance of "Shakin Spear Experience" performed by the staff. They had taken numerous Shakespeare plays and, shall we say "converted" them into different styles. Such as, a five minute "Romeo and Juliet" western, a silent movie "Macbeth", and my favorite, a High School Musical "Hamlet." The day also had a few more performances and workshops.

The next morning, we were again awakened by the girls banging. But, quick thinking Javen, jumped out of his bunk, opened the door and yelled "boo" mid-bang, making half the girls scream and the other half fall on the floor laughing. After another "delicious" breakfast of homemade yogurt and granola, the day was filled with a devotional and workshops on acting. We left the scene about noon and slept all the way home. We had an awesome time.