Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Theater fun at the Library

This afternoon we had lots of fun with the Atlantic Coast Theater group at our Library.http://www.atlantic-coast-theatre.com/

The kids and adults all enjoyed a charming performance of "Chicken Little- An Appalachian Musical Jamboree". The husband and wife team sings, dances, plays all sorts of musical instruments... in the show today that included an assortment of banjo, mandolin, "bonemonica"(harmonica in a big dog bone ...played by "Doggy Woggy" )and washboard. The audience...ages 2 to 7o plus all really liked it. we've had them once a summer for the last three years....and last years performance of "Rockin Red Ridin Hood" brought back memories of the summer or 1969?70?. We lived on a cul-de-sac with 17 houses and over 50 kids! And of those 50.....there were 10-11 girls within a year or two of my age, ( we had a blast! ). My sister Martha and I, Dixie, Lisa and Rene( and maybe Patti and Karen) decided to raise a little money and have some fun at the same time. We decided to put on a play "Little Red Riding Hood" and charge all the little kids 25c ...which also included popcorn. What a deal! We had it all set up in Dixie's backyard/back porch. I don't remember who played Little Red Riding Hood...but it must've been Dixie or Rene...because Martha was the "Big Bad Wolf" and Lisa and I were doing a" commercial" before the play. ...basically to make the whole thing last longer! haha The commercial was from a class project we had done in English class, My Dad wrotehelped me write this crazy commercial about "Exlaxo Detergent"(....it makes those stains GO! GO! GO!) It involved a Salesman...(yours truly) and the homemaker (Lisa). The salesman(basically an older version of Billy Mays...that my Dad dreamed up) demonstrated how all these stains "he" smeared on a white t-shirt would be gone in no time...with just 6 cups of Exlaxo Detergent. We popped the shirt into our cardboard washing machine and took it out and "Voila" the stains were gone.....and there were 6 holes in the shirt...hahaha.
So...back to the play.......Lisa and I sit down at a little table and chairs and promptly spill some detergent on the table and start giggling. (I've mentioned before I am a bit of a troublemaker that way...once I start laughing.......I can't stop) At one point we were laughing so hard we couldn't even say our lines! Luckily the laughing was infectious and everyone else was laughing too! We finally managed to get through our lines and it was time for the main event! If you are close to my age you probably remember a hit song at the time by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs (watch it here on YOU Tube)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XmuhDymN-U ."Hey there Little Red Riding Hood...you sure are looking good.......etc.
Well...in our little play my sister Martha (now a COO of a hospital by the way) was the BIG BAD WOLF. She was dressed in a black leotard and tights....some sort of ears and tail and she had a (I believe) ukulele...for a guitar. Her part consisted of jumping out from behind a tree to serenade Little Red Riding Hood with the Sam and the Sham and the Pharaohs song! All was going according to the plans until the Perlmutter's dog "Sam" (a black Lab) decide to get in on the fun! Apparently Sam spotted Martha aka "The Big Bad Wolf" and was feeling amorous and he started chasing her around the yard. Picture it now...Martha wearing her leotard, tights, tail and toting a ukulele running from the dog "whose thing was out" (as the crowd was gleefully shouting) with Lisa and I on the side laughing till we were crying....I don't even know what happened to Little Red Riding Hood! hahahaha. Well so much for our grand performance...but the neighborhood kids all agreed it was worth the 25c! to eat popcorn and watch Sam chasing Martha around the yard!
Ah we had good fun back then! Rest assured the group today was much more professional than our little troupe...but we sure had fun!

2 comments:

BKaminski said...

HAHHAHAHAHAHAHHA I can not stop laughing!

Dona said...

Too bad nobody had a video camera! You could have won a zillion dollars!