In case you’ve been living in a cave and haven’t seen any ads for the upcoming holiday. just a reminder. shop! buy! spend! the true meaning of xmas.
i, personally, have bought two fabulous presents already. I’m very excited about them, and have been showing them to everybody, except the lucky people who have no idea that they’re getting such wonderful things.
i was in the radio play of “it’s a wonderful life” over the weekend. most of the time, i just had to sit in a chair, waiting to read my lines. i didn’t fall off the chair at any point, and when i sauntered offstage to get a drink of water, i didn’t crash into any random pieces of scenery lying around. so i have to say things went very smoothly. i explained in another entry about how the radio show worked – it’s like a 1940’s radio show, we were all decked out in 40’s clothes, and we read the script in front of microphones. a couple of guys did sound effects, and the show is going to be broadcast on WUIS on christmas eve and xmas day. if you want to read more about it, i’m including the link to the gordon website. in the cast photo, i’m the one in the gold top.
the phone rings several times during the show, and one night the phone wouldn’t work. gus gordon, the producer and director who is also in the show, finally stepped up to the microphone and made a “ring ring” noise. it worked well, and i don’t think anybody in the audience knew it wasn’t supposed to be like that.
that’s about all the calamaties we had in the show; it wasn’t the kind of thing where too many bad things could happen, since we were just standing there reading from scripts, and like i said, i managed to remain upright the whole time. I do have to say i was a little panicky about potentially falling; i fell down on our front walk on friday morning, wearing clogs. i skinned my knee, the same one i always seem to fall on, and it’s still sore. so my apprehension about falling during the show was not unreasonable, considering that i was wearing very teetery 4 inch heels.
i also went to see the ballet “Nutcracker” at the Sangamon Auditorium over the weekend. It was incredible. I hadn’t seen the Springfield Ballet Company’s Nutcracker in about 20 years, and this version was nothing like the one i remembered. i don’t usually see lots of ballet, but this one was amazing. the sets and the costumes were absolutely beautiful, lavish and lovely, and the dancing was very fine. MB happened to be in the production, so i felt i had to go see it. i wasn’t looking forward to it, to tell you the truth. i was excited about seeing him on the stage, but i figured the rest of it would get boring. but i was so wrong, and so happy to be so wrong.
i got all dressed up to see the show, but when i got there i felt overdressed. Mom pointed out that all the little girls in attendance were also very dressed up, in their frilly holiday outfits with matching purses and sometimes hats, so i didn’t feel bad. i pretended i was a (giant) child.
MB was marvelous, by the way. He played Clara’s father, and when the curtain opened, there he was, up there at the tree with clara’s brother. I couldn’t stop grinning as i watched him. MB told me last night that Clara was on the stage then, too, but i was too busy admiring MB to pay any attention to her. he danced with her at one point, and even had to lift her a few times, and he didn’t drop her at all. i wish i could have seen the performance twice, because i was so busy watching MB all the time, i didn’t pay any attention to anything else going on in the party scene, and apparently there were many different things happening. but it was all basically just a bunch of girls dancing, and there was plenty of that to watch once MB had left the stage.
if you didn’t get to see the production, you should definitely make it a point to go next year. the springfield symphony plays the score, by the way, and they add a lot to the production, which is fabulous to begin with.
once again, i get tired of people whining about nothing to do in this town. there’s all kinds of things going on, all the time. next saturday, for example, the food mart downtown is having an italian open house. the food mart is on monroe street, just west of 5th street, and their open houses are great. they always have lots of good food, sometimes wine tastings, and great sales on all kinds of delicious stuff.
did you make it to the festival of trees this year? my niece mercedes, my mom and i have had award-winning gingerbread houses in it, but this year we didn’t have time to make one. the festival didn’t seem as big this year, and there weren’t any really spectacular gingerbread houses. we tried to find the most garish tree; they give out lots and lots of ribbons, but i think they should have a prize for most garish tree. i thought that one covered with pink feathers was quite hideous, but Mom insisted that a silver-covered one was worse. MB had never been to the festival of trees. he did seem to like it OK, but he’d expected the trees to be in neat rows, instead of plopped down randomly. he’s slightly obsessive-compulsive, but not in a bad way.
i must go shop now. time is slipping away! don’t forget, most stores are open till about 11 or so, so you can shop very late at night if you want to.
ok then,
grace