A Cup! A Cone! My Kingdom for a Scoop!

The city's weekly farmers market became a sort of Renaissance faire Friday as a minstrel and troubadour joined Marcella Trowbridge and Dic Wheeler of Shakespeare Everywhere! in Middletown Friday dressed in Elizabethan attire.

Folks were challenged to recite a couplet from any of William Shakespeare's work and be rewarded with an icy cold Farmers Cow ice cream at the on Main Street in front of It's Only Natural Restaurant.

Trowbridge launched the "flash mob"-style event at 1 p.m., dramatically declaring it "meter theater — we put coins in the meter and instead of parking cars, we parked performers!"

In a flowing lilac dress, braided hair with a matching flower, Trowbridge led the crowd's attention to Artfarm Irregular Orchestra musical director Joseph Getter and Elizabethan singer Judith Milardo with, "may music be the food of looooove! Play on!"

The troubadore and minstrel then performed the song of Othello's Desdemona and the pastoral strains of "A Lover and His Lass."

Several young children and adults picked a couplet from a basket and did their best rendition of lines from plays such as "Othello" and "Julius Caesar."

If you missed this or previous outdoor performances at Wesleyan's Center for the Arts and the Music at the Wadsworth Mansion, will take place Aug. 5 at 5 p.m. in the Grove at hosted by WNPR's Chion Wolf.

For information, contact ARTFARM at (860) 346-4390, info@art-farm.org or www.art-farm.org.

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