March 10, 2012
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Our Adventures: Children at the Civic!
It seems I’m going to post the previous week’s adventure on the Saturday following! I guess that works, doesn’t it? ((grins))Well, last Saturday’s adventure took us downtown. A local kids group I belong to on Facebook (GRKids.com) gave us a tip that the Civic Theatre was having three Saturday productions – free of charge – geared specifically toward young audiences. I hadn’t been to the Civic… homigawsh, since 1997, when a friend of mine won the role of the Ghost of Christmas Present and we went to see him in ‘A Christmas Carol’. Since then, Meijer funded a total refurb of the historic theatre, and I was pretty geeked about getting to go and see both the play and the theatre.
There’re my three brave(r) kids!
The first thing we found out was that it was theatre in the round, which means that there would be audience right up on the stage. Most ‘theatre in the round’ means the audience is on all sides, but in our case, the parents were seated either in the house or backstage on folding chairs (like I’d do that when there are cushy chairs out in the beautifully refurbed theatre?!)… and the playing area was shaped like an ‘X’ with children filling in around the platforms, right up where the action would be. Very exciting for my kids!
The production was called ‘The Surprising Story of the Three Little Pigs’, but in actuality, it’s the story of the Three Pigs, Three Bears, and Three Billy Goats Gruff… all of which are sick of their stories and want out. The pigs hate the wolf and the bears can’t stand Goldilocks and the goats would like the troll gone, thanks. So take nine critters, three villains, a narrator and a couple stage hands, and mix them together, and mayhem ensues.
The pigs are running from the troll, the wolf is after the billy goats, and Goldilocks is gettin’ snarky with the stage hands while the bears are trying to figure out what the heck is going on, and whether they should just give it all up and sell their house and move to Lake Winnipesaukee, instead. There are critters scampering all OVER the stage, which is comic and exciting, but also scary as heck if your little one doesn’t really want a troll in close proximity to him, or is afraid of the Big Bad Wolf. Several children fled the stage.
Penny Pig has a hero in Papa Bear, who doesn’t fall
for the ol’ Wolf-in-Sheep’s-clothing schtick.
Aaron and Owen stayed down by us in the third row, with a great (yet distant) view of the action, and enjoyed it immensely, while Isaac, Lydia and Ethan were right up where it all took place and had a ball. And of course everything works out in the end – the wolf retiring to Lake Winnipesaukee with the bears, the troll befriending the pigs and commissioning her own house, and Goldilocks taking up goat herding. Everyone comes away happy.I have to say that my favorite part was the costumes. But then I’m biased – to my surprise, the costumer was an thespie comrade of mine from 15 years ago… I actually was his aunt in one show. ((gasp! choke!)) He moved on to bigger and better venues, and seems to kept his magic touch with the costumes – he did a fantastic job. It was fun to see him again, even if from the audience. ((grins))
So we had a great time, paid nothing more than for our lunch out afterwards, and had a wonderful adventure, t’boot!
Comments (1)
That sounds like a fantastic story. I’m really going to have to start searching around in our area for things like this. You’d think being so near to St. Loo that we’d be able to find more kid stuff to do.