Monday, March 12, 2007

The Really Nice People At The Broadway Theatre League

Ok...it's not THEE-ater as we used to call it in Hartselle, Alabama growing up.
It's thea-ter. Just ignore the re and pretend it's er.

The really nice people at The Broadway Theatre League here in Huntsville have slapped a sponsorship banner on my blog. I really appreciate that so much....and in their honor, I have a story about taking my daughter Emily to the "thea-ter."

Emily is 21 now. Hard to believe they grow up so fast. Really fast. One day they are in diapers and the next day they want to know the quickest way to get from downtown Atlanta to those places where they sell the fancy designer purses in Buckhead.

But that is another story and I digress.

As a little kid, Emily was a regular at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. Early on, she watched plays presented by ASF and did great. Some kids can't be still for any length of time. Emily sat through and enjoyed everything from A Midsummer Nights Dream to Death of A Salesman.

But taking her to her first full-blown Shakespeare production did cause a bit of concern and
"pre-play planning." She was about 3 1/2 when plans were made to take her to see Twelfth
Night. Or as she used to call it...Twelve Nights Tonight.

We had a game plan going into the main stage at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. We were
third-row center and I was concerned that a 3 hours Shakespeare play...even a funny...one might be too much for a kid as young as Emily.

So I prepared Emily as much as possible. The big advice was "if you need to tell me something, just pat me on the arm and leg and let me know what you want."

Now, the crowd on Sunday afternoon at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival was a little different than other showtimes. On Saturday night, ticket holders had been to dinner, had some drinks, and were ready for a show. The crowd was young, old, and engaged in the evening's entertainment.

The Sunday matinee crowd was the Montgomery Country Club church crowd. They walked into the air-conditioned theatre having just had a huge lunch. That meant that at about 2:30, they were all asleep no matter how good the play was being produced and acted.

This was the case when I took Emily to see Twelve Nights Tonight. We were the only two people in the first four rows of the center section that were awake.

About 45 minutes into the play for Emily and 30 minutes into nap time for everyone else, I felt a little pat on my leg. I looked down at Emily and whispered...."yes, Em?"

She leaned up and said..."DAD, CAN I TAKE OFF MY HAIR BOW? IT'S HURTING MY HEAD."
I forgot to tell her to whisper. Emily had jarred the first two rows awake....and I kept waiting for the actors to say, "BY ALL MEANS LITTLE GIRL, TAKE OFF YOUR HAIR BOW!"

The guy in the yellow tights playing Malvolio I swear started to laugh. But then he realized he
was wearing yellow tights and probably decided laughing at anyone was probably not a good idea.

Love the Shakespeare Festival. Love the Broadway Theatre League as well!