With the weather being cold all March long, we didn’t feel like doing or seeing anything in DC, although there is always something going on in this vibrant city. However, we set up a date for tonight, which we enjoyed quite a bit.
We met after work at Gallery Place and went for dinner in one of the restaurants in China Town. ‘Wok and Roll” is a casual spot featuring Chinese & Japanese fare, sushi & a karaoke bar. It’s a cute place and the menu has a nice selection.
After dinner, we took the train for a couple stops to the Folger’s Shakespeare Library in the South Capitol area. It was cloudy and slightly rainy, but warm. We enjoyed our walk through the nice DC neighborhood, observing the buildings, Spring flowers along the sidewalks and gorgeous blooming trees.
Folger’s Shakespeare Library presented a screening of “The Winter’s Tale” ballet and “Beyond Words: Book Illustration in the Age of Shakespeare” exhibition tonight. Since we had some time before the show, we started with the exhibition, although access to the exhibition was available during the intermission as well.
Beyond Words exhibition includes more than 80 illustrated books and prints from the Folger’scollection from the 15th to 18th centuries—many of which have rarely been displayed before. Video and period illustrations show how images were made and printed. Astoundingly, Beyond Words even includes the woodcut and copper plate from which two of the prints were produced.
This exhibition shows how images in early modern books are as full of meaning as the text they illustrate. Among them are portraits, views of daily life, maps, and more.
The Folger’s Shakespeare Library was established by Henry Clay Folger in association with his wife, Emily Jordan Folger. It opened in 1932, two years after his death. The Henry Clay Folger bust is in the Great Hall.
The First Folio is the first collected edition of Shakespeare’s plays and is the only source for 18 of his plays, which might otherwise have been lost. One of the Folger’s many First Folios, along with a touchscreen display, is on permanent display in the Great Hall. This original Shakespeare book has his portrait from engraving in it.
Portraiture, or the art of creating portraits.
We learned that the images in 15-17th Centuries were transformed on to paper from engravings. Some of them were metal, but some of them were wooden. This is a metal engraving.
This woodcut, depicting a type of lettuce, was printed from the woodblock that appears next in this gallery. The inked black lines visible under the hand coloring correspond to the uncut areas in relief on the block. The hand coloring was likely made for or by an early owner of this 1562 Czech edition of Pietro Andrea Mattioli’s famous herbal.
This part of the exhibition emphasizes the importance of Text on prints.
It was our first screening ever. At first, I didn’t expect much, but it was quite entertaining. Of course, a screening cannot beat a live performance with premium seats, but there are other advantages to doing that. One of them was the great camera work and the opportunity to take a look behind the scenes through the interviews with the producers and actors.
Christopher Wheeldon, Artistic Associate of The Royal Ballet, created his adaptation of Shakespeare’s late great romance The Winter’s Tale for The Royal Ballet in 2014. Building on the success of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, The Winter’s Tale received ecstatic praise at its premiere for its intelligent, distinctive and emotionally powerful story, told through exquisite dance.
Even though we watched the screen, we had a complete theater experience, with intermissions, buffet, and the atmosphere in general. Currently, this theater offers a Winter’s Tale live play for one more month, so we might attend it, as long as good seats are still available for sale. The picture below depicts one of the ballet scenes. The picture is from folger.edu site.
One more street shot on our way to the metro station. I really like this beautiful blooming tree. Overall, we both had a really nice time out. We are planning to have more dates here in DC as soon as it warms up. 🙂
A short video created from iPhone live pictures.