One of the presents in the girls stockings this New Year were tickets to see Snow White that was running in a theater in our city.
On a very cold saturday morning, Emma and Samantha and I loaded up in a taxi and headed out for a morning by ourselves.
(I'm sure the theater got all the necessary copyright permissions from Disney to use the Snow White image before plastering it all over their tickets and advertisements...)
When we got to theater and found our seats, we discovered that our friend and her daughter were sitting right behind us! I didn't even know she'd be at the show!
The theater was very, very cold with no indoor heating - a serious bummer in the dead of winter. All in all, I was impressed with the show and enjoyed watching someone else's creativity. What follows in photographic form are all the things I thought interesting enough to take a picture of - good, bad, and interesting.
Before the show, the announcer asked 5 kids to come up and sing a song of their choosing. This resulted in general mayhem as every one of the 594 kids in the theater wanted to be the one to go up on stage and sing. They also got a little prize after singing, so the deal was sweetened even more. I loved this little boy with his cute glasses.
So - on to the show. To represent the dwarfs, they had dwarf-sized puppets that were attached to a human puppetter dressed in black. They were attached at the feet and hands for easy maneuvering, I guess. The puppeteer did all the voices and actions of each dwarf, and the result was really impressive. It became easy to forget that there was a person controlling each dwarf, which I guess is the goal of successful puppeteering.
Animals and other hard-to-represent characters were also beautifully represented through puppets. When Snow White was at the well, there were beautiful white doves attached to bouncy stick-things (please excuse the fumbling explanation) that really captured the flying and flittering essence of the birds in this scene. I thought the effect was beautiful.
Here's one of the stranger parts - do you remember the part where the hunter has just left Snow White all alone in the woods and she's running scared? All the trees seem to be trying to attack her and the bats are coming out and there are glowing eyes everywhere? And finally, she collapses down on the forest floor and cries?
So - on to the show. To represent the dwarfs, they had dwarf-sized puppets that were attached to a human puppetter dressed in black. They were attached at the feet and hands for easy maneuvering, I guess. The puppeteer did all the voices and actions of each dwarf, and the result was really impressive. It became easy to forget that there was a person controlling each dwarf, which I guess is the goal of successful puppeteering. 
Animals and other hard-to-represent characters were also beautifully represented through puppets. When Snow White was at the well, there were beautiful white doves attached to bouncy stick-things (please excuse the fumbling explanation) that really captured the flying and flittering essence of the birds in this scene. I thought the effect was beautiful.
Here's one of the stranger parts - do you remember the part where the hunter has just left Snow White all alone in the woods and she's running scared? All the trees seem to be trying to attack her and the bats are coming out and there are glowing eyes everywhere? And finally, she collapses down on the forest floor and cries? At the end of that scene, all the sweet little woodland creatures come out to comfort her - do you remember? Tell me you do. Do you remember BUGS BUNNY being one of the forest creatures?
Yeah, I didn't either. But apparently in the asianese version of Snow White, Bugs is offering his consolation. Do you see him there in the picture? I nearly laughed out loud.
The sets for the inside of the dwarfs' home were remarkable and lifelike.
For the scene where Snow White is going to "tidy-up" she makes the frightful mistake of inviting children from the audience to come up to the stage and help her. Imagine a mass exodus of children with their pushy parents, and you're getting close to how this felt. (Even when attendants were telling the audience that there were already too many children, parents were telling their kids to ignore the attendants and go up on stage anyway!)
Minus: the snow making machine was LOUD. It's supposed to be a somber scene, full of reflection and love for the sleeping, assumed-to-be-dead princess...but instead, we're only hearing the BBBBBBRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMM of the snow machine.
At the end of the show, after the red-haired asianese prince comes and awkwardly kissed Snow White, you could pay 10 local dollars to line up and take pictures with members from the cast. Emma wanted to take pictures with the evil queen as evidence that she could see the person beneath the character. The ENTIRE show she kept elbowing me and whispering, "But the lady who's underneath that queen costume is really nice, right? She's not mean in real life, right?"
The sets for the inside of the dwarfs' home were remarkable and lifelike.
For the scene where Snow White is going to "tidy-up" she makes the frightful mistake of inviting children from the audience to come up to the stage and help her. Imagine a mass exodus of children with their pushy parents, and you're getting close to how this felt. (Even when attendants were telling the audience that there were already too many children, parents were telling their kids to ignore the attendants and go up on stage anyway!)
Minus: the snow making machine was LOUD. It's supposed to be a somber scene, full of reflection and love for the sleeping, assumed-to-be-dead princess...but instead, we're only hearing the BBBBBBRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMM of the snow machine. 
At the end of the show, after the red-haired asianese prince comes and awkwardly kissed Snow White, you could pay 10 local dollars to line up and take pictures with members from the cast. Emma wanted to take pictures with the evil queen as evidence that she could see the person beneath the character. The ENTIRE show she kept elbowing me and whispering, "But the lady who's underneath that queen costume is really nice, right? She's not mean in real life, right?" I think she felt that the lady playing the evil queen was neglected and misunderstood. =)
Samantha opted for Snow White and a few of the dwarfs.
We had a great time, and it was fun to introduce my kids to more of the arts.
Samantha opted for Snow White and a few of the dwarfs. 
We had a great time, and it was fun to introduce my kids to more of the arts. 
2 comments:
I'm so glad you took them. I think we should've sent you a pair of himalaya snow boots. And, is your coat warm enough? Alas..does one ever STOP being a mother?
We ate with nana before going to see Holly and it was a semi-cold day..nothing like where you are..but, I had on a shirt and a tank top under it and a warm jacket..w/o a hood. Most of my jackets have some type of hood. I told Kate before we left from being with our sweet nana..she would say, "You are not dressed warmly enough..where is your warmer coat..you don't even have anything covering your ears."
On the way home, Kate said to me, "Mom, you say that stuff to all of us all the time." :) So, if I was there I'd be asking YOU! I love you, Rach. I loved this story.
What a great way to wake up today. :)
Momma
That's awesome! I LOOOOVE Bugs Bunny doing the comforting - hilarious!!!
And the loud snow machine - I can see how that would dampen the drama of the moment.
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