Farewell to our friend

Vicki Serianni, NapaShakes irrepressable and irreplaceable volunteer,
at Farmstead St Helena, April, 2021.

It is with great sadness that we share the news that our beloved friend and volunteer Vicki Serianni has passed away. There wasn’t a NapaShakes event for which she wasn’t essential, particularly the live performances. She drove the entire cast of Shakespeareans around the Napa Valley – acting the stern but tenderhearted den mother. She was one of a kind, and will be fondly remembered forever.

A bit about Haggis, by James Forbes

The NapaShakes Burns Night Supper at Brasswood on Friday, January 24, 2020, celebrating Robert Burns’ birthday, features a three-course meal including hors d’oeuvres, starter, a main course and traditional neeps and tatties, but it’s the side-dish that takes center stage: the Haggis. The evening’s director James Forbes, who was born…

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Haggis, neeps and soliloquys: the bonds that tie Robert Burns and Shakespeare

In anticipation of our upcoming Burns Night Supper on January 25, we share an article from 2016, reprinted with permission from “The Conversation” written by Gerard Carruthers,the Francis Hutcheson Professor of Scottish Literature, University of Glasgow. Bard blood. Wikimedia Gerard Carruthers, University of Glasgow January 25, 2016 1.19am EST While Robert Burns…

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The Near-Death Experiences of Two Literary Legends

To be or not to be … tilting at the windmills of death within a day of each other. Don Quixote author Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) and playwright/poet William Shakespeare (1564-1616) died on April 22 and April 23, respectively, with Cervantes being buried on April 23. But Shakespeare actually passed away…

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