University of Mississippi Theatre Play Disrupted..............and, a cell phone is not to blame

In case you are wondering, the image above is apparently of a quilt to stop homophobia.

It was homophobia, rather than a cell phone, which disrupted a since-concluded production at the University of Mississippi of "The Laramie Project," a play being performed in Washington, DC http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com by Ford's Theatre at an alternative venue due to the federal government shutdown.

According to various students, the disruptive students, which consisted of some 20 Ole Miss football players who were taking a freshman introduction to theatre class, heckled the actors on stage which various hateful, homophobic profanities.

Garrison Gibbons, the only gay student in the production of a play about the murder of University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard who was gay, said the incident reminded him of how much intolerance remained in the Magnolia State.

"The Laramie Project" was also protested by the radical, fringe Westboro Baptist Church, based in Topeka, Kan. Members of the cult held up homophobic hate signs up in front of a venue that was performing the play in Durham, NC, in 2005.

The play was written in 2000; Shepard's murder occurred in 1998.

SIDEBAR: The federal government shutdown which has closed many national parks, including tours of the Ford's Theatre in Washington, DC, did not stop the Air Force-Navy game which was played in Annapolis, Maryland, on Saturday. Navy won the game 28-10 thanks in large part to quarterback Keenan Reynolds who ran for 126 yards and scored three touchdowns.

http://www.nohomophobes.com

http://theatre.olemiss.edu/

http://www.fordstheatre.org/

http://www.navysports.com/sports/m-footbl/

Shakespeare Over Soccer?!

Yesterday afternoon, I had an interesting situation as I got tickets for a production of William Shakespeare's play "All's Well That Ends Well" before knowing that Turkey, my late father's homeland, was going to be playing the American national men's soccer team in Philadelphia which was also broadcast on ESPN-2 at the same time!

But, since America won the game 2-1 and I essentially pulled a "Benedict Arnold" by rooting for Turkey (well at least I'm not playing for another country unlike Italian-American Guiseppe Rosa from New Jersey who not plays for Italy but he scored two goals for them in a game against The United States!), I guess I could say it was perhaps for the best.

So, I thought I would list my ten favorite Shakespeare plays. I am certainly no authority on The Bard, so if you are an English professor at my alma mater Radford University in Radford, Va., or anywhere else, please pick on your own kind!

1. "Othello" (pictured)

2. "Macbeth" (love the Polanski film version too!)

3. "Hamlet"

4. "12th Night"

5. "King Lear" (wasn't that a Kurosawa film too?!)

6. "The Merchant of Venice"

7. "Richard III"

8. "Romeo and Juliet" (what's this with unhappy endings?)

9. "Rosencrantz and Guilderstein Are Dead"...........oh wait, that's a Tom Stoppard play.....make that "Taming of the Shrew"

10. "All's Well That Ends Well" (what else?!)

For more info on the production schedule of the American Shakespeare Center, one can log on to www.ASCstaunton.com or call 1-800-MUCH-ADO