Hear every one of Shakespeare’s sonnets in San Rafael
Baffled by the language, “I thought they were either putting me on, trying to make us feel stupid, or there was a lot to be mined here,” recalls Currier, who went with the last option.
Marin Shakespeare Company’s longtime artistic director, Currier will again lead the festivities at San Rafael’s Fourth Street Plaza on April 23 when the company observes the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death by reading all 154 of his sonnets.
Some of the poems that Currier and associates will read or perform will be accompanied by music, dance and even some fight action choreographed by the company’s sword-fight-scene designer, Richard Pallaziol.
Because he’s the third Richard to hold the post, Currier naturally refers to him as Richard III.
In addition to notable Marin performers like Will Marchetti, director James Dunn (Robin Williams’ teacher at College of Marin), Adam Roy as the Bard and Livia DeMarchi as the Dark Lady of the sonnets, the free celebration welcomes the public to come and recite a favorite sonnet.
Currier, an amiable ringmaster who’s been directing at Marin Shakespeare Company since he and his wife, Lesley, were tapped in 1989 to run the new endeavor, will check off the sonnets as they’re read, making sure all 154 get heard.
“They’re probably the most private information, the most personal stuff we have on this guy — or whoever wrote those plays,” Currier adds.
“You can puzzle and puzzle over what he means in some of these poems,” says Currier, who loves how the master tells a “whole little story” in 14 rhyming lines flavored with double and triple entendres.
The poet finds solace in “thy sweet love,” essentially saying, Currier notes, “I’m a miserable person except for the fact I have you.”
Omar Sosa, the bracing Cuban jazz pianist and composer who found his voice in the Bay Area in the 1990s, plays classic Cuban styles his way, flavored with electronics, at Yoshi’s on Friday, April 8, and Saturday, April 9, with his pan-national Quarteto AfroCubano.
South Bay fans of Francis Coppola’s “The Godfather” shouldn’t refuse an offer to catch the masterpiece when it plays on the big screen at San Jose Center for the Performing Arts, Friday-Sunday, April 8-10, accompanied live by Symphony Silicon Valley playing score composed by Nino Rota.