Lion King in Detroit

Tickets to see The Lion King in Detroit were amongst Calivn's packages under the Christmas tree this year, the show date being a perfect couple of weeks after the difficult return from Hawaii. This is a show I have wanted to see for some time. We've all heard so many great things about the costumes, the music, the stage presence. It's an epic show with a legacy larger than most. As a recent presence, it outshines the epic productions of my youth, like Phantom, Cats, and Les Mis. So what I'm about to say is going to be very unpopular. I was thoroughly unimpressed. I might even go so far as to say that I was utterly disappointed. The movie was sweet and charming with just the right blend of humor and intensity, but while the story remained much the same on the stage, a lot was lost to poor pacing, uneven use of space and characters, tasteless comedic additions, and a few new songs that seemed oddly out of place. 

Over all I'm not sorry that we went, but it only gets three out of four starts from any of us. 

Pools, gardens, ducks, and lions (a circuitous journey to Stratford)

We are just back from our final summer trip, and the last of our traditional it-isn't-summer-without-it trips: Stratford. Only this year it was a little different. Jon was headed in that direction to present his company's summer lecture series in a few different towns, and rather than have him go and come and go again, we tagged along with him for his week of work preceding our weekend theater tickets. This was a new thing for us, and one which required a lot of planning and a little getting used to. Let's just say that to make a tagalong trip successful, one really only need add pools.

Yes, throughout the week, while Jon was busy presenting to adoring masses of piano teachers (autographs are a common request, I kid you not), Calvin and I were busy becoming hotel pool connoisseurs. This was where the planning came in, because we had to make sure that the hotels Jon booked had pools to begin with, then we had to organize our time so that Calvin and I could take advantage of said pools while Jon worked, keeping in mind check-out times. It ended up with Calvin and I showering, throwing things in suitcases, and dashing out of hotel rooms just before the noon bell chimed, only to spend the next hour lounging in the lobby on our suitcases, eating lunches packed from the family cooler. It was a nifty system, once we got the hang of it, which was, oh, about Jon's last day of presentations.

So pool connoisseurs we have become, but we also made good use of travel time between cities, for though Jon was working, we ended up spending his family time in the afternoons, sight-seeing on the road, and reserving the evenings and nights (and mornings, of course) for work. Like I said, we really got our stuff together by about the last day, but we had a good time doing it, and we saw a lot of things—cities, and pools, and gardens, and shacks, and pools, and rain showers, and sunshine, and did I mention pools? All on our way to one of our favorite summer destinations: Stratford.

There were a lot of stops, and there are a lot of pictures (many from the phone this time, too, because so often I found myself in a place where I never expected to want pictures, then was glad to have the phone—which is good, because that's why we got it).

Day one is always the worst: the most driving combined with the most eagerness and the most impatience. That, and we got a little lost in Windsor when the money exchange was closed (how on earth do they expect people to spend money in their nightclub dives without a money exchange???), but we got it together eventually, then rewarded ourselves with root beer floats at a rest area (note to U.S. road commission: get A&Ws in the rest areas stat).

Day two saw a lot more action. Pool notes first: pool number one was warm and was a great size, but it was in the hotel basement and felt a little secluded. 

After swimming all morning we did our first shower-and-pack dash, then ate lunch and read in the lobby. It was actually kind of relaxing. Toronto was less so, but since we've become regular visitors to Chicago, we didn't find the city as taxing as some might. We found the CN Tower almost as underwhelming as the beer at the Steam Whistle Brewing, but enjoyed the trains at the Toronto Railway Museum.

Day three. The pool was actually pretty great, except that two hours of the morning it was being used for swim aerobics and water workouts for the (elderly? geriatric? local old folks?). We were still welcome to partake of the pool's wateryness, but there wasn't any room for us to swim, so instead we hung out in the deep end, getting a kick out of the collected grumpiness that filled the rest of the pool.

The afternoon was more successful. After our lunch/reading time in the hotel lobby, we all stopped at the Royal Botanical Gardens where we found bees, chipmunks, and a long dead and burried horse, but not as many flowers as one might expect. We stopped at three of their garden sites and their quaint tea house before heading to our final pre-Stratford stop, London (where our hotel looked delightfully like a castle).

Day four. The best pool yet, in part because it was really three pools in a fun atrium setting, but also because we stayed two nights there, so we had two full mornings to swim. Plus the hotel, in addition to being awesome because it looked like a castle, had a fascinating interior, including putt putt golf.

An added benefit of our castle hotel was its downtown London location, which allowed us to go for afternoon and evening walks between rainshowers. 

Day five: probably our best day outside of Stratford. On day five we enjoyed the castle hotel pool one last time before shoving off for the Fanshawe Pioneer Village. This is a quaint collection of old buildings (and some replicas), assembled roughly in the order of a timeline, yet somehow also in the shape of a town. We started off at a mid-1800s log cabin and moved through several other buildings from that era before entering the late 1800s, then the early 1900s. Along the way we saw demonstrations of varying sorts—blacksmith, wood working, sheep, an osprey, even a groundhog (okay, those last three weren't exactly demonstrations). We also met a period actor who was delighted to know that we were enjoying ourselves, even as frequenter visitors of Greenfield Village, and we got to see real live Indian Runner Ducks. We had a great time. I have only one warning: don't bother with the food.

Day five was also Jon's first day of actual vacation, and the day that we finally arrived in Stratford. It's hard for me to explain or describe our love affair with this town. The natives there are short of friendly, everything is overpriced, and getting service anywhere is difficult. But over the years we've come to look forward to our time there, staying in the family-owned motel with the perfectly quaint breakfasts, going for walks along the man-made "Avon" and talking to all the entitled water fowl, eating hand-dipped soft serve like you've never had anywhere else at Jenn & Larry's, and, of course, taking in the expertly produced plays (this year? The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and As You Like It).

can you spot the two baby bunnies in the open grass?










wine sippy cups at intermission...

YPT's Tarzan

I mentioned back in January that Calvin had tried out for and gotten a chorus style part in the Young People's Theater production of Tarzan. What I didn't mention then (because I didn't know) was how much a life takeover that one moment would turn out to be. It's not just the rehearsals, which were numerous and long, nor the parental involvement, which turned out to be so absorbing that I swear the house went uncleaned for the final three weeks, but that the caliber of the show and the intensity of the people working it, young and old, rubbed off on us in some way. 

As he did during the audition back in January, Calvin took this entire journey in stride. Rehearsals for him were anywhere from once to four times a week and lasted for one to three hours. It seemed like a lot at times, especially on the nights when his earlier choir rehearsal meant he was eating a cold dinner in the car between the two activities, or on nights when he got home fifteen minutes before his usual bedtime. But he loved every minute of it and expressed only disappointment on nights when there was no YPT rehearsal. 

I have no idea what went on in those rehearsals that left him so eager to return because parents were never allowed in. You dropped your child off at the door before it started and picked him up at the door when it was over. Rehearsals were run entirely by the director, assistant director, music director, choreographer, and an indispensible producer. With a cast of one-hundred-and-seven that is a testament to the professionalism and dedication of all the kids involved, as well as to the respectful and patient attitudes of the adults working with them. That or it's a statement about how good kids are when their parents are not around.

Though the lack of parent invitation at rehearsals does mean that parents weren't involved. Being a mostly volunteer organization, parents were strongly encouraged to participate by volunteering for a particular team, which is how I found myself working on the costume that was responsible for the biggest and most impressive costume show in YPT memory. I didn't know what I was getting into when I signed up, of course—the costumes weren't yet designed at that time—but only a two months later I was putting in my own measurable hours every week. There were weeks when costume pieces were spread throughout the house, days when we couldn't even eat at the dining room table, and all the time Calvin danced through our own jungle of costumes singing his Tarzan songs.

The months of preparation culminated in a final two weeks of intense rehearsal. That last week Calvin and I were at the theater every night from four to nine for full run-throughs, bookended by the application and removal of stage makeup at home. I was ever so thankful yet again that we are homeschoolers, because we basically took the week off and spent our mornings outside and our afternoons resting inside with books before applying makeup and heading out the door. For the whole week we lived and breathed the Tarzan jungle and all the people—actors and volunteers—who were part of it.

And Friday night, Jon and I dropped Calvin off for opening night . . . and went out for dinner before taking in that first show from the audience. It was a fun date night to celebrate the survival of theater "hell week" (which we both remember fondly from our high school days). Dinner was fun, the evening was beautiful, and the show. Even after all we had learned of the organization through our months of involvement, even after all the nights I'd spent backstage working costumes during the final week of rehearsals, we were totally unprepared for the caliber of the performance. It was like Broadway with children. The voices were delightful, the dancing spectacular, the costumes pretty darn amazing. 

We went back the next day with our parents (the doting grandparents) and then I worked the final two shows backstage. I was torn the whole time between wanting to be in back or in front of the curtain and loved every minute in both places. Families from our homeschooling group and from the neighborhood came and Calvin basked in the attention of his friends. He loved being on stage, and it was obvious from every seat.

While there are so many things I could say about how well YPT is run—how well they take care of the kids and how much they teach them—there is nothing I can say to truly describe how wonderful this experience has been for our family. Now, a week out from the final performance, as I am finally getting the house back into working order and finding time to make fresh dinners and sort the gardens out from under the weeds, Calvin is already talking about "the next show" and what he can do to prepare and how he will audition. 

Tarzan (photos taken of rehearsals/performances from the front of the stage are by YPT photographers Sabine Gabaron, Krista Campeau, and Susana Pecina)

(home)school play

It's been a performance week here all around. Calvin participated in a master class at Jon's piano studio yesterday, had long Tarzan rehearsals on three evenings, and this afternoon was the HAA end of the indoor year play, talent show, still projects display extravaganza. Calvin, of course, did all three. He wouldn't to leave any stone unturned, or any activity undone.

The play this year was homegrown—a story written then scripted by one of our own homeschool kids. It was a bit of a socialist production focused the uneven distribution of wealth between the seasons, which in this case were countries of their own. The moral of the story was "share to avoid going to war with the have-nots". It was cute and well-adapted, and I had a good time coming up with a last minute costume for my military leader of the have-nots (billed as chief warrior from the fall).

I apologize for the dark and blury shots from the play. Photography in the gym where we hold our indoor activiites is touchy, to say the least. And I was so busy enjoying the talent show that I forgot to take video of Calvin's performance, which was brilliant. 

But be sure to hop on over to his own blog to see the photograph and accompanying poem (both his own) that he turned in for his still project display. He is considering entering both in the 4H youth show this year as well.

Up next? It's dance recital weekend.

Cinderella in Detroit

If I haven't mentioned it before, and I'm pretty sure that I have, our family has a great love for the stage. Shortly before Calvin was born I made an acquaintance who was very involved in children's theater and went to a performance of Charlotte's Web in order to see her perform. At the time she had a three month old waiting for her backstage, and my infant was about three months from making his own debut, but I was already sold on the idea of great children's theater. Calvin went to his first real show just a few years later and sat in rapt attention through the entire performance of fairy tales and legends done by Wild Swan, our award winning local children's theater group. He loved it, and we got season tickets for years after.

Even today we still go see some of Wild Swan's shows for older kids, but children's theater was really just a gateway drug. When Calvin was only five we went with friends to see the traveling Broadway performance of Mary Poppins. That went so well that we tried him out on Pirates of Penzance at the Stratford Festival that same fall.  A few shows in he started performing himself, first with his homeschooling group, then in camps, then, coming full circle, in a children's chorus for a Wild Swan show itself. It's a true love affair, not due necessarily to any strong aptitude, but to a great depth of enjoyment. 

I mention all this for two reasons. First, because a few weeks ago Calvin decided to audition for a coveted spot in a local children's performing troupe for the production of the musical Tarzan, and he won a place in the mid level chorus. The process required a full resume with head shot to be turned in at the audition where he was interviewed and put to the test for recitation, vocals, and dance choreography. I was nervous for him. I think it was the resume with head shot that made it clear how next level up this really was. Calvin was pretty easy about the whole thing, which might have been his saving grace. We'll never know. But the next few months in our house will be all Tarzan all the time.

The second reason I mention all this stagey stuff is because this weekend we went with our close friends (also known as our camping friends) to see the Broadway travelling performance of Cinderella in Detroit, almost four years to the day after we went with them to see Mary Poppins. It was a great show—a really surprisingly fresh and hilariously updated show with amazing costumes and perfect one-liners. It was a great show, plus it was a nice break from Tarzan.