Quote of the Day

Sunday, January 28, 2007

The Giver


Having three children, it is very rare to spend time with only one, especially both parents at one time with just one child. Last night we had that opportunity. There is a local children's theatre in town that we have been going to quite a bit in the last two years. Each play has a few adult actors but the majority are child actors. We have never been disappointed in one of their plays yet.

This was opening weekend of The Giver based on the Lois Lowery book. This book was one of K2's all time favorite books and in fact, she pestered me until I read (about a year ago). It is definitely not a happy book and makes the reader think quite a bit about the freedom of having choices. In the book, Jonas lives in what seems like a perfect world. It is not until he is made the Reciever of Memories at the Ceremony of Twelve that he learns of the dark secrets behind his community. The play stayed very true to the book, of course, parts were cut out but nothing that made the story lacking. It was very, very good.

What we really like about this theatre company besides the majority of children involvement is that after each show they have a talk-back sesssion. They take questions from kids in the audience and usually one of the actors will answer. With kids doing the asking, one never knows what exactly will be asked... we have heard some great questions (why didn't I think of that? type) and some hilarious questions. My favorite question last night was of the hilarious nature and it was posed to the stage director... The back wall of the set was white plastic panels cut into triangles and emphasized with dark colored lines for accent. A little boy asked if that was all duct tape holding that wall together! Yeah, go kid!!! Duct tape is everywhere! The unique thing about this talkback session is that Lois Lowry was present. Questions were posed to both her and the actors. I love hearing authors talk especially children's authors.

Normally after a night out at the theatre, J & I would go for drinks or dessert someplace downtown. We decided to still continue this however we let K2 pick where we would go. She chose (finally! took her long enough...) Cheesecake Factory. J and K2 each had a piece and I shared off each of theirs... banana cream and choolate raspberry truffle. Yummy! I love their dessert!

It was a great night!

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