nat

• beatrice and benedick are hallway neighbors and the ultimate will-they-won’t-they

• the macbeths are the neighbors upstairs who are always either bickering or having loud sex or committing atrocities

• juliet finally saved up enough to move out of her parents’ house and she’s ready to make bad decisions when it comes to love

• orsino and olivia are exes who find out they both have been dating the exact same person

• puck is the neighborhood weed dealer

• everyone knows kate is too good for petruchio and wonders if they’re just together because they have the same kinks (that’s exactly why)

• horatio and benvolio are the stablest people in the building. their boyfriends hamlet and mercutio are the least stable

Dandelions are considered by many people to be weeds. They're not toxic, but they're eyesores in any perfect garden or lawn; they spread fast due to the way they seed, so they're considered invasive; their one use—attracting pollenators—is negated by the fact that their pollen is low in nutrients.

In other words, they're useless. They're pests.

Peeta throughout canon is treated similarly. It's a repeated theme that he is always brushed aside and disregarded in some way, second best to someone or something else. He's the third son. His mother deems him inadequate, he loses to his brother in wrestling, his father always wanted a daughter. Haymitch saves Katniss over him in the first games, the rebellion saves Katniss over him in the Quell. Peeta, in the eyes of others, inculding himself, has very little value. It's partially why in Catching Fire he says on the beach, "Nobody needs me."

And yet, we see how Katniss views dandelions, just as she views Peeta. To Katniss, dandelions are a sign of spring, the first bit of food bees get after winter, a sign of cultivation and new life on the horizon. They mean being sustained, for every bit of a dandelion is edible. They represent hope. To Katniss, dandelions are beautiful.

Peeta is her dandelion. He takes a beating to feed her when she's starving. The bread he gives her is enough to keep her alive for when spring comes, and she can forage in the woods. At her lowest, most cynical, and most suicidal, Peeta returns to her and plants a garden outside her window so that she can mourn in peace, and bakes her bread for breakfast the next morning so she can eat. So she can live.

There is so much in the text that shows us how valuable Katniss finds Peeta. To her, Peeta is incredibly kind, talented, and intelligent. He's a wordsmith. He's her hope. He's beautiful.

But I think it's best expressed in Catching Fire, in response to Peeta's assessment of his worth: "It's true his family doesn't need him. They will mourn him, as will a handful of friends. But they will get on. Even Haymitch, with the help of a lot of white liquor, will get on. I realize only one person will be damaged beyond repair if Peeta dies. Me.

'I do,' I say. 'I need you.'"

happy pride! remember that being a transgender is everything but fiction. there are so many real historical figures from every century about whose transgenderism we aren't even aware of

And it was astonishing because not only was it an amazing sense of connection between the audience and the actress, but you also realized that this was a kind of an historical lesson in theater reception. That’s what must have happened at The Globe. These soliloquies were not simply monologues that people spoke, they were call and response to the audience. And you realized that vibrancy, that that sense of connectedness is not only what makes theater great in prisons, it’s what makes theater great, period."

Hamlet. There’s a scene where Hamlet sees Claudius praying and debates whether to kill him now or wait (because if Claudius dies praying he will automatically go to heaven). The actor playing Hamlet was genuinely asking the audience the questions in the speech, and when he got to “and should I kill him now?” someone in the audience shouted “YES KILL HIM HE NEEDS TO DIE!” Hamlet took the entire rest of the monologue to that person, enumerating his reservations so persuasively that they started to nod in agreement.

Romeo and Juliet. In this production, the fight between Mercutio and Tybalt happens in several rounds, of which Mercutio won the first. Mercutio’s actor made the choice, upon his victory, to run down the audience with his hand out for high-fives. He decided this in rehearsal, so he had time to plan for the three responses people would probably give him: a) a high-five back; b) being stunned and not reacting; and c) the old “oops too slow.” What this Mercutio did not prepare for was the audience member who panicked and deposited their handful of M&Ms into his open palm. The way I heard it, Mercutio was still processing this when Benvolio came up beside him and stole the M&Ms out of his hand to eat them.