Remember last semester the discussion about what the University and the Carbondale community could do together for the spring semester? I remember there was some discussion about another drinking festival just like the Main Street Pig Out. Drinking festival? Yes, that is all it was, just a big, expensive, open-beer-garden-in-a-parking-lot with a band. I thought it was an OK festival, but they were out of barbecue by the time I got there. Drinking festivals are fine, it is just that they leave us with nothing but a nasty hangover and an empty wallet. I want more out of a festival. Call me greedy and whiny, but I am sick of drinking for no reason and no return.

I have a suggestion for the communiversity people to think about. I have lived in Carbondale for two past summers and feel the Sunset Concerts are possibly the best festivals in Carbondale history good music, good friends, a hibachi and liquor-store-bought-beer, all hanging out on a big blanket. For those of you who leave Carbondale in the summer, keep on doing it for that is the reason Carbondale is the best in the summer you are not here to crowd it up. What I am suggesting is not another Sunset Concert but something like it.

Instead of a band, have a Shakespeare festival. We need to pick a weekend near the end of the semester so it is warm enough. I would suggest we hold the festival in front of Shryock Auditorium at sunset. Imagine it, you are with your friends on a blanket, with some beer and a habachi grillin’ some dogs as students from our Theater Department transform themselves into Shakespearean characters. You can almost feel yourself transported back several centuries to the time of Shakespeare himself.

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You can be there, this spring, for the first SIUC Shakespeare festival. By the end of the featured play your belly will be full of mead, ale, or wine and roasted pig just like in the old days, or, if you like to face reality, cheap American beer and hot dogs. Either way, you will be a little bit more cultured after watching Shakespeare.

Several Universities around the country have Shakespeare festivals, and they attract many people from all around if they are good. Thus this influx of people will help out local businesses, raise the image and cultural level of SIUC, Carbondale and its people. And maybe, just maybe, for the first time since the ’60s, SIUC can once again be seen as the sister university of Berkeley in a peaceful way, not a wild drunken way. Therefore, SIUC Theater Department, I call upon you for help to pull this off. SIUC, a Shakespeare festival would be one more feather in the cap of many theater students waiting for a chance to act and get some experience. Shakespearean acting demands the best and usually brings out the best of an actor or actress.

Therefore SIUC, this idea cannot fail, it has so many benefits. I’m sorry the business people will not make a killing like they did with the over-priced beer at the Main Street Pig Out. Too bad. Why don’t we do something for the people in general and not just for you. Instead of looking for an instant profit, envision a long term one.

Thank you for listening, and to the Theater Department I make a hell of a Richard III.