Internationally acclaimed Director and Educator, Louis Fantasia, to speak to SCHAS Daylily and Bulb Society.
Arcadia, CA (March 1, 2013) The SCHAS Daylily and Bulb Society is pleased to present Louis Fantasia in a talk entitled: “Baleful Weeds and Precious-juiced Flowers” - a discussion of Elizabethans and their relationship with plants and flowers. The lecture will take place at 10am on Saturday, March 16, 2013, at the Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden’s Palm Room. Admission is free to first-time guests.
A note on the presentation: Flowers and plants were important to Shakespeare and other Elizabethan and early modern English writers on three levels: plot, symbol, and signifier. For example, in plays as diverse as A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM and ROMEO & JULIET the "juice" of plants form essential plot points, whether it is transforming lovers' eyes or feigning death. On the level of signifier, the most obvious examples are the White and Red roses of the History plays, denoting the houses of Lancaster and York. But, in HENRY V, for example, a leek is used to signify a Welshman. As symbol, the Elizabethan trope was that "the beauty of the rose was in its passing" - the first bloom of love or buds of youth would inevitably fade, leaving, in the words of Shakespeare Sonnet 73, "bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang."
Louis Fantasia is currently Chair of the Department of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the New York Film Academy (Hollywood campus), and Director of Shakespeare at the Huntington, the teacher training institute of the Huntington Library, Art Galleries and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California. He has taught at the Juilliard School and the University of Southern California School of Theatre, the London Theatre School (Head of Acting and Director of Studies) and Schiller College-Europe University (Chair and Artistic Director of Theatre Programs). From 1988 to 2002, he was Education Director of the Shakespeare Globe Centre's Western Region and ran the Globe's actor/director training programs in London. In 2003, the Council of Europe in Strasbourg named the theatre collection at its library in the European Parliament in honor of Louis Fantasia, who holds both U.S. and European Union passports. In 2007, he served as President of Deep Springs College. His second book, Tragedy in the Age of Oprah, will be published by Scarecrow Press in 2013.
All are invited to attend SCHAS meetings to learn about Daylilies, other Flowering Bulbs, and our club. Meetings are held at 10 a.m. every 3rd Saturday of the month at the L.A. County Arboretum & Botanic Garden - Palm Room. SCHAS programs feature speakers with power point photo presentations and an educational show & tell flower session. Please join us to hear one of our fascinating speakers, to see and learn about many types of plants that thrive in our area, and participate - if you like - in our plant raffles while enjoying delicious refreshments. First-time visitors to the meeting will receive a free plant.
The Details:
Who: Southern California Hemerocallis & Amaryllis Society
What: “Baleful Weeds and Precious-juiced Flowers” with Director & Educator, Louis Fantasia.
Where: L.A. County Arboretum & Botanic Garden - Palm Room
301 North Baldwin Avenue
Arcadia, CA 91007
When: Saturday, March 16, 2013 at 10:00 a.m.
Admission: First-time guests are free.