Anniversaries, Birthdays, Dirty Dancing, Cathedrals, and The Saga

On Saturday, Patrick and I celebrated our 39th Wedding Anniversary. We celebrated by spending the weekend in San Antonio. We didn't really have any plans except to attend the matinee performance of Dirty Dancing on Sunday afternoon.

On Friday evening, Ezra and June went to parents night out at Junie's day care center. That gave us the opportunity for a grown-up dinner out with Katy and Travis. We ate at Tong's Thai which is near their home. I had Honey Pecan Shrimp. It was absolutely delicious. I would order it again right now. Patrick had Pad Thai which he said was delicious too. After dinner, we went with Katy to pick the girls up from Night Out. I love walking in and watching them interact with the other kids and waiting for them to notice us.

On Saturday, we had a family luncheon for my sister Kay. Besides being our wedding anniversary, it was Kay's 65th birthday. We met at Chuey's for a long, family lunch.  We had so much fun, Bylinda brought Kay and two of her teenage grandchildren, McKinzey and Connor. Her son Zack also came. Katy's family and Patrick and I made ten of us. We ate and talked and, instead of cake, we had sopapillas with honey. Yum! Kay had fun and we sat and visited for more than two hours. It just proved that we need to get together more.

Saturday night, we didn't have any plans. Travis went to his monthly poker night and we decided to go downtown to the Main Plaza at San Fernando Cathedral to see one of  San Antonio's newest attractions, San Antonio/The Saga. This is a video art installation by French artist, Xavier De Richemonte. It is AMAZING! The 25-minute show is free and plays at 9:00, 9:30, and 10:00 p.m. on Tuesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

First, a little bit of history about the Cathedral which serves as the "screen" for the show. The San Fernando Cathedral was built between 1738 And 1755 and is still an active Catholic parish. It is the oldest operating sanctuary in North America. It faces the Main Plaza which is one of only four colonial plazas remaining in America. We have attended Mass in this cathedral several times. It is known as the burial place of the heroes of the Alamo. The remains of Davy Crocket, William B. Travis, and Jim Bowie are interred inside.

On Saturday night, we paid $1.80 for a parking place about two blocks from the cathedral. We took lawn chairs and blankets along with mugs of hot chocolate.  There was not a large crowd. I would guess less than 150 people were there. There was a wedding party exiting the cathedral just as we arrived. As you might imagine, Our Little Princesses were very excited to see the bride and groom.

The show is accompanied by music and a little narration. It is fast-paced and bright and will hold the attention of any age. Every one of us enjoyed it. Our 3 and 5 year olds loved it and sat attentively on our laps for the entire show.

My new camera takes most excellent nighttime pictures so I snapped a bunch. Enjoy.

On Sunday we were treated to a matinee performance of the Broadway Road Show of Dirty Dancing at The Majestic Theater. My friend Heather bought the tickets and then wasn't able to use them, so she gave them to us. The show was awesome, one of the best I've seen. The singing and dancing was outstanding. It was a great show with a great cast. If you are a fan of the movie, you will definitely enjoy the play.

San Antonio is such a great city to visit. We love it for lots of reasons, not the least of which is that Our Little Princesses live there.

The Substitute Diaries - Serendipity

On Wednesday Grams substituted for Ms. Story's second grade class. The night before, at the PTA meeting, the second grade had presented their annual program. So the next morning, they performed the program again for the entire school.

It was serendipity. There is little I love more in this world than primary school programs that include singing and dancing. This one did not disappoint. The theme was Surfin' Safari and it had everything ... hula girls in grass (plastic) skirts, sharks, straw hats, cardboard surfboards, leis, tropical flowers, limbo dancers and a few other things I probably don't remember. 

Fish

Leis, flowers & sunglasses

Hula dancers in grass skirts

Cardboard surfboards

The director of this musical extravaganza was Betty Murphy. Betty has been a PE teacher at our school district since my kids were in elementary school. You can just see her in the photo below leading the audience participation section of the program. She has been involved in these programs at least since My Favorite Christmas Pageant Ever which would have been sometime around 1986.

My favorite part of the program was Ms. Murphy's instructions to the students in the audience who were all primary school students. She spent the first few minutes explaining to them how an audience behaves. Her instructions included how to applaud properly, the importance of staying in your seat, and being respectful to the performers. She touched on how it's not polite to laugh if a performer makes a mistake and how proper audiences don't hoot and holler. I was very impressed.

She also took a moment to speak to the performers about the example they were setting for the other students. She explained that the kindergarteners and first graders would be learning how to put on a performance from watching them.

Grandad and I regularly attend live theater performances in Corpus Christi and occasionally in San Antonio.  I am often appalled at the lack of proper etiquette exhibited by audience members. I can only hope that these young people grow up to be proper theater patrons.

These photos were all taken with my HTC Evo Shift phone. Considering that I was sitting at the very back of the cafeteria, they're not too bad.

Corpus Christi, Go See The Producers!

Grandad and Grams spent Saturday evening at the Aurora Arts Theater. Their current production is The Producers ... and it's great!

I'll confess right up front that I am a huge fan of live theater ... particularly of musical theater. I also embrace local theater. I think there are a lot of talented people who work for a living and I love seeing them shine in local theater.

We've been to several shows at the Aurora over the past couple of years. It's an intimate, 100-seat theater. Some shows have been better than others. But we've enjoyed every one of them. It's great entertainment for a really good price.

The Producers features an exceptionally strong cast. Right from the beginning when The Usherettes open the first act with a strong performance of "It's Opening Night" to the end when the entire cast closes with  "Goodbye," this show is funny and entertaining.

Standouts for me were Michael Mora, whose performance as Max Bialystock is spot on, and Peter Lopez, who is riotously funny as Roger De Bris. Both deliver strong performances, sing beautifully, and have impeccable comic timing.

Holly Crowley is beaming as Ulla. Her smile and her voice absolutely light up the stage. Travis Jordan as Leopold Blum is believably young and naive. And Jordan Bruster is hilarious in the role of Carmen Ghia. Ian Schoolcraft's performance as Franz Liebkind was funny. He brings a larger than life personality to the role that actually makes a Nazi charming. And the "little old lady chorus" cracked me up with their precision walker routine.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention Charlie Chapa, who is making his stage debut at the Aurora. Charlie, who is very convincing in the role of Mr. Marks, has stepped into a leadership role to keep the Aurora Theater up and running after the sudden death earlier this year of his brother, Eddie Chapa.

The entire cast of The Producers is delightful and their performances are strong. Kudos to Director Patrick Crowley, and to Choreographer Carolyn Atwood, who did an exceptional job of staging this "big" musical production in the Aurora's small space. The Aurora sets and scene changes always fascinate me. You've got to see it to believe it. They do a lot with a little.

The Producers runs weekends until September 4; Friday and Saturday nights at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday matinee at 2:30 p.m. Tickets are $14 with reduced prices for seniors, students and military. You definitely should go see The Producers. As I said earlier, we've seen several productions at this theater. With each production, this local theater group is getting better and better.

If you are one of those people who says "there's nothing to do in Corpus Christi," I have a message for you. There is a lot to do in Corpus Christi! Stop complaining and get out and DO SOMETHING! If you don't know what to do check out Joe Hilliard's web site 40 Things To Do in Corpus Christi.

Photos are from a flash mob performance at La Palmera. You can catch the flash mob performance on YouTube.

The Rocky Horror Show

On Halloween night, Grams and Grandad were looking for an escape from our neighborhood block party and trick-or-treaters. We don't want to buy candy, because if we buy it, we eat it ... and neither of us need candy in our diets.

Grams had seen on 40 Things To Do in Corpus Christi's Facebook Page that Richard O'Brien's The Rocky Horror Show was playing live at the Aurora Arts Theater. We've been big fans of The Rocky Horror Picture Show for many years. I didn't even realize that it was a play, I thought it was just a movie.  Silly me!

Turns out they had been doing three performances every weekend since the end of September. Halloween weekend they had two performances each night at 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. We were able to get tickets for the 7 o'clock performance on Halloween. There are no reserved seats in the small theater. It's first come, first seated in this 100 seat theater.

We were pleasantly surprised to find that the Aurora Arts Theater believes in a "complete" live performance. No canned music at the Aurora; live music is an important part of the production. Admission was only $14 each and "prop bags" were $5 each.

This was a great way to spend Halloween night. It was so much fun. The actors were well cast and "the chorus" added a lot of fun to the experience.  The small size of the theater makes this an intimate theater experience. The entire playhouse becomes part of the staging. It's truly an interactive theater experience, especially during The Rocky Horror Show. For example, every time someone says "Brad" the audience shouts "Asshole" and every time some says "Janet" the crowd shouts "Slut." There are many other opportunities for crowd interaction and a few words that I won't put into print here. I was surprised to see a number of audience members who seemed significantly older than Grams and Grandad. We're in our mid-fifties. I was a little bit concerned that the gentleman seated next to me was somewhat older and I thought he might be offended, but it didn't seem to bother him in the least.

It's a lot of fun to soak the cast with water from a water pistol during the "rain" scenes. And I loved waving my light to the tune of "Over At The Frankenstein Place." For me the highlight of the night was when the cast invited the entire audience to dance the "Time Warp" at the end of the performance. It was so much fun, even if Grandad and the old guy next to me just stood there instead of dancing.

Photos are not allowed inside the theater, but the cast graciously posed in the lobby for quite some time after the show. And, as is tradition, many of the audience members were also in costume. I regret that I did not get a photo of either Raymond Guttierrez who played Frank-N-Furter or Aaron Cooper who was the narrator. They were both delightful in the play, but somehow I just missed them when I was taking pictures.

It's clear that everyone involved at the Aurora Arts Theater is there for the love of theater and performance. We will definitely be attending more productions at this intimate little theater.

Next up on their schedule is Grace and Glorie by Tom Zeigler. They've just recently announced their 2011 season. I can't wait!