Dear Great Book Guru,  You mentioned a few weeks ago that you were starring in a performance of “Julius Caesar” to be performed here in Sea Cliff. When will it be since I certainly want to attend?  And,  is there a book you would recommend I read in preparation?  Smitten with Shakespeare

Dear Smitten,  Yes, the Silly Shakespeare Company under the very able direction of Elizabeth Sehring will be celebrating its tenth anniversary this summer with a performance of “Julius Caesar”  Saturday, July 21 at 7pm with a dress rehearsal on Friday also at 7pm both in Spooky (Elm) Park on Dayton and Elm Streets. While my role is small, yet meaningful, the play itself is an amazing visual  spectacle  with a very talented cast.  Definitely attend and bring a blanket or beach chair and be prepared for a evening of  great fun and much pathos! The book I recommend you read is Robert Caro’s THE PASSAGE OF POWER.   Just as Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar is a study in the  passage of power from one leader to another, so too is Caro’s biography of Lyndon Baines Johnson- a detailed study of the days and months that followed the assassination of JFK and how LBJ transformed the country with his power to control the minds and actions of his fellow politicians. Caro devotes much time to the bitter feud of Johnson and Robert F. Kennedy, both powerful figures with long standing grievances who are brought together by a brutal  assassination.  Julius Caesar, Brutus, Marc Antony, and Cassius all can be seen as prototypical characters in  Caro’s modern day tragedy. A chilling, informative read!