*I received tickets to this play free of charge. All opinions are my own.
Today I’m taking a detour from tutorials and recipes to talk briefly about two of my favorite things: theater and children’s literature. You see, I met my husband onstage when we were both serving as performing missionaries for our church over a summer in college, and I used to teach elementary school. So, when I was contacted by a local arts center, Lone Tree Arts Center, and asked if I would like to review their children’s theater production of Bunnicula. I was thrilled to accept!
To prepare for the play I read my son the classic children’s book, Bunnicula. I remember it fondly from my elementary school years, and I also read it to my third graders. It is such a fun, short chapter book. It is the first chapter book that I have read with him (he is 4 1/2), so we read a chapter or two each afternoon when his baby sister was napping. We stopped often to review what was happening and who the characters were. He loved it.
And so we left Baby Sis with Bapa (grandpa) and headed off to the Lone Tree Arts Center with Daddy. The Lone Tree Arts Center is only about 15 minutes away, but I didn’t even know it was there! It is a beautiful theater, and we really enjoyed the production. The sets and costumes were colorful and fun, and the performers were all very animated and talented. I love it when a performer is confident enough to just give up their dignity completely to a goofy character. It’s awesome!
The two best characters (and performers) were definitely Brett Ambler as Harold the dog and Amanda Earls as Chester the cat. My son was a bit confused at first because they stood and walked with the family and weren’t really dressed like animals, but he caught on eventually with some prompting and reminders from mom of who the animals were on stage. I’m really glad that we had read the book ahead of time so that he could follow it more easily. Both of the “animals” had beautiful singing voices, and my son just giggled and giggled at their antics. Amanda Earls (as the cat) really stole the show in our family’s opinion.
All in all, we loved having a fun family outing to the theater. My husband and I were also lucky enough to get two tickets to see South Pacific in mid February, and I can’t wait to see and review it. (I may be a bit biased, because Nellie Forbush is going to be played by one of my dearest friends, but the girl is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!! I am so happy that she doesn’t live in New York City anymore so that Colorado local theaters can be blessed by her talent!)
Here is a little bit more information about the children’s theater programs at the Lone Tree Arts Center. I am excited to go see more of the shows with my boy! My husband and I love watching theater and performing together, and we love sharing it with our kiddos as well. In fact, my son and I are going to start reading Stuart Little tomorrow to prepare for next week’s show.
Here is the info about the Lone Tree Arts Center’s children’s programs: Seedlings is a family lunch-time program designed to engage parents and children (toddlers-kindergarten) in arts, culture, and science at the Lone Tree Arts Center. The Passport to Culture is a program specifically designed for families with children 12 and under to experience arts and culture outside the classroom and inside a world of imagination through performances, workshops and pure entertainment to foster the growth of visual and performing arts, science and cultural understanding. Student matinee program allows for low-cost admission to top performances that integrate into your existing curriculum. Matinees are provided several times throughout the school year. The ticket prices for the different shows start at $3 for our Seedlings, $5 for our Passports, and $8 for our Student performances.
If you live in the Denver, Colorado area and you are interested in any of the following performances then you can get $3 off of your tickets using the coupon code BLOGGER.
Stuart Little on Wednesday February 5th at 6pm
Doktor Kaboom on Thursday April 10th at 7pm
Dinosaur Zoo on Monday May 19th at 7pm
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