Shake It Up!

If Jimmy Dugan, the baseball manager in the movie, A League of Their Own, was flabbergasted with the crying of his female players, he would have been equally surprised by the St. Mark's Drama Department production of Great Shakes this weekend. Coffee houses in The Merchant of Venice? Light saber battles in MacBeth? Leather jackets and poodle skirts in A Midsummer's Night Dream? Yup. Once the audience got past the initial shock of the novel productions (though some cackling students in the front rows never did), they were treated to energetic and enthusiastic performances. "Great job" to all the actors, directors, narrators, writers, and techies. With the amount of talent on this year's team, I'm already looking forward to the Drama Dept.'s Super Bowl, the spring musical. Now if I can only convince Mr. Patch to have his group perform Damn Yankees. That ain't happening. Even if he did break some time-honored traditions in producing Great Shakes, I know that the staunch Red Sox fan will NEVER put a girl in pinstripes, Yankee or otherwise. Draw your light saber, Mr. P. Winner gets to choose this year's musical.