As You Like It ... At Goody Bassett's

It may not be a  midsummer night, yet  ice- cream and Shakespeare continue to play a part in  the ongoing attraction to Goody Bassett’s Olde Fashioned Ice Cream Shoppe this winter.  

On loan courtesy The American Shakespeare Festival Theater archives, the window display of Shakespeare memorabilia – playbills, posters, photos, costumes and props -  has been evoking history and nostalgia since it was set up late February.

It also serves as a forerunner to the yearly Shakespeare Festival, which will be held  August 11-21 on the Theater grounds.

“It’s been a huge hit,” says Paul Joy, owner of Goody Bassett’s.  “People have been coming down, pass by, and stop at the windows.”  

Third District Councilman, Matthew (Matt) Catalano, a driving force behind the restoration, and someone who has worked in professional theater for more than 20 years, felt that Goody Bassett’s was a “good fit,” not just because it is downtown, but because Joy “has always been prominent in the ‘Sister Cities’ project (www.sistercities.org).”

The aim was to bring “more awareness “ to the Theater.

The David family from Stratford, Robert and Lynn David and their  three sons, Ethan, Tucker, and Cooper  have been regulars at Goody Bassett’s - especially in summer.  Lynn David, a lifelong Stratford lass,  studied Romeo and Juliet as an English Major.  She  reminisced about  A Midsummer Night’s Dream,”  played a few years ago at the Stratford Theater grounds and the field trips there in grade school.   “ It’s a beautiful town,”  she declared with much pride.

Some of the items on display include a costume collar that Katherine Hepburn wore in 1960 when she played Cleopatra in Anthony and Cleopatra, posters of famous people, such as Raymond Massey, Christopher Walken, Katherine Hepburn, Fred Gwynne and Anne Baxter, to name a few of the actors.

There’s a riveting photograph of Christopher Plummer in Othello, a costumed character (Twelfth Knight?), a mask from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, goblets, swords, a scepter top, and books  - The Taming of the Shrew, Macbeth, Comedy of Errors, and As You Like It.

“Most people seem to want Theater back,” says Joy of Goody Bassett.  “People are excited when they remember the history of the Theater.”  In this “prominent town” there have been “prominent people” all through history.

According to Joy, big stars were little known when they starred at the Theater. Christopher Plummer played Othello here before starring  in the movie Sound of Music. In the 1990s he played Henry V.

Katherine Hepburn was already a movie star in 1960 when she was working at the Theater.

Joy, who “loves Stratford history,”  has a flavor of it  all over his olde-fashioned ice-cream shoppe.

Ye can see fer yerselves - in Town or on Facebook.