Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,
Yesterday I got to greet UC Davis Music Professor David Nutter as he strolled into the matinee showing of the Davis Shakespeare Festival play As You Like It, now at the Veterans Memorial Theatre on 14th Street here in Davis. Nutter’s emeritus faculty photograph shows him playing a lute, which makes sense for someone who has published scholarly essays in Journal of the Lute Society of America. As my marketing friends tell me, “the riches are in the niches.”
You know the last name Nutter if you have attended any of the poetry readings that I’ve hosted over the last couple years, for Timothy Nutter, David’s son, is the Musical Director of the Poetry Night Reading Series. When you engage in significant volunteer activities, as I do, you get to throw around impressive titles; that sort of power is a nice substitute for a salary. In addition to being a dancer, translator, and founder of the Art Theatre of Davis, Timothy Nutter is a multi-instrumentalist himself, so we’ve enjoyed hearing his performances on the electric and acoustic guitar, and on the keyboard that he hauls into the Natsoulas Gallery himself.
Often laconic until he steps up to the microphone, Timothy wows people with his concerts, mixing instrumental and vocal genres of performance with combinations of choral bravado and original lyrics that you won’t find anywhere else. Or at least you wouldn’t find Timothy regularly singing anywhere else before this production of As You Like It opened last weekend. Walking around the stage, and sometimes stopping for an extended solo under a spotlight, Timothy provides most of the production’s interstitial music, as well as the mood music that works ingeniously to make a 400-year-old play more accessible and successful. He also plays the part of William, a hesitant suitor to Audrey, one of the many sought-after beauties whom one expects to be married by the end of this Shakespeare comedy.
Because Timothy is so adept at playing the part of musical director while spending significant time on stage, the music really ties together this remarkable production. His father David must have been so proud, watching from the back of the house with Timothy’s brother also experiencing the fun. I was there with my son Jukie, perhaps the youngest attendee at yesterday’s production, so Jacques’ famous speech about the ages of man resonated with me and probably other audience members directly, with so many generations of playgoers enjoying the performance.
All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.
And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
I didn’t see you there at the play, but, luckily, you have a few more weekends to see Timothy Nutter and the other talented actors commanding our attention at the Veterans Memorial Theatre. If you have been in love, are currently in love (as I am), or would like to be, the play will delight you. You will want to experience the play yourself, rather than taking my word for it. As heartsick Orlando says at one point, “Oh, how bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man’s eyes!”
Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on topics raised above, as well as on the following: Greek mythology, video games, PS foods, music as the food of love, boat adventures, unions that you’ve heard of only if you are a participant, ancient history, flowers that are not known for their blooms, people whose work can be found in The New Yorker, the satisfactions available to the consumer of oranges, a hesitant suitor to Audrey, Buddhists, circulation, winners of the Pulitzer Prize, forest adventures, Vermont pastimes, people named LeBron, uncomfortable bosses, deep dives, public school assignments, plant life, blacklists, favorite squares, Academy Award nominees, outmatched heifers, outerwear, U.S. Presidents, professors that are more famous than your professors, beverages and cosmetics, stadia, hard-working musicians, and, as you will have gathered, Shakespeare.
The students are back in town. Isn’t it exciting? See you tonight.
Your Quizmaster
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Here are three questions from last week’s quiz:
- Late Actors. What late actor won Golden Globes for his work in Evening Shade (TV) and Boogie Nights (film)?
- Science. Starting with an A, what is the central unifying concept in behavioral ecology?
- Books and Authors. “Rip Van Winkle” a short story by the American author Washington Irving, was published in what century?
P.S. Congratulations to “Portraits of Professor Christine Blasey Ford” for scoring 29 points at last week’s Pub Quiz. I think Karen Mo was the deciding factor there.