One of the challenges of doing touring productions of Shakespeare in the Park is getting all of your costumes, props, and gear from point A to point B. Sadly, sometime after last Saturday’s Backyard Bard play and before Sunday’s matinees, and somewhere between hither and yon, some base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy, worsted-stocking knave pilfered an entire suitcase full of costumes being used in Macbeth and The Two Gentlemen of Verona.
The disguise being worn by Nicole Vernon at right—hat, realistic fake mustache, and all—is one of those among the missing. You can get a look at several of the others in Ken Holmes’ Facebook album “Stolen Costume Alert!” Also missing in the vile heist are some stuffed animals and a few dollars in loose change.
The show, as you know, must go on, and so we dove into our storage unit and pulled together some replacement costumes on short notice and in time for Sunday’s plays. The stolen costumes don’t have tremendous monetary value, but many of them have been used in quite a number of GreenStage plays over the years, and we hate to lose them. As Nicole said, if Lady Macbeth seemed a little more vengeful than usual on Sunday, it may have been because she was thinking about what she might do if she had the power to get back at the canker blossom who stole her crown!
The fiendish crime occurred in Fremont. Our crack constable Dogberry is on the case trying to comprehend these auspicious persons, but he may need help. If you spot some whoreson, malt-horse drudge or dissembling harlot walking about dressed as Banquo, Lady Macbeth, or Crab the dog, please tackle them immediately!