Saturday morning I finally decided to do some more laundry. I loaded up, grabbed a book, and walked over to the nearest laundromat on 79th Street. I threw in a load and then sat down and read while my clothes spun behind me.
After that two hour adventure, it was back to the hotel and then off to the library (Mid-Manhattan branch). Sarah, the Correctional Librarian, was having an organization day and needed volunteers. She offered free pizza and heck, I couldn't say no!
The past several weeks Sarah has been organizing the collection of books that move in and out of the jails she and her staff services. The most popular books stay in the libraries at the jails while other books sit at the Mid-Manhattan until they are requested or the collection is looking a little light. Currently, the books had fallen into a bit of a mess and Sarah wanted to start fresh.
With pizza in our stomachs, myself and several other volunteers were ready to work. I was helping with the fiction collection. I weeded duplicate copies and books that were no longer fit to be in circulation, alphabetized books, and shelf-shifted this new collection. It might not sound like a ton of fun, but I was sort of in paradise. It was neat to see what books the collection consisted of and find the most ridiculous fiction titles. There were lots of good ones.
Once that project was finished, I walked to a nearby Barnes and Noble to do a little reading and people watching. In reality, I was buying time until the event I had later Saturday night.
We saw Macbeth at the Japan Society. It was directed by Mansai Nomura and was a fascinating performance of one of Shakespeare's most well-known plays.
The play was done in Japanese with English subtitles on a screen on the right hand side of the stage. There was no intermission and that was a smart choice. It was the entire story of Macbeth, but Nomura had different elements he wanted to emphasis. There were only five actors and this was considered a stripped down version of Macbeth. The three witches (played by men) ended up playing other roles while Macbeth and Lady Macbeth stayed in character throughout the entire performance. This adaptation focused on the three witches and it appeared Macbeth's motivations were commanded by the witches. This is always an interesting way to read the play and the commentary it makes on human free will.
The play left me with much to think about as I made the trek back to the hotel. Another successful Saturday!
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