Beauty and the Beast

Yesterday, all of the 4th graders went to the Saenger Theater to see a travelling production of "Beauty and the Beast". The trip became eventful even before we left the school. Two of the buses failed to show up, so we had to make room for two more classes and parents about 60 people total. When the teachers realized there was no way to fit everyone on the buses, they nicely came on the bus and asked if the parents would carpool downtown to the Saenger to make more room for the children. It was funny because, I guess it is a true sign of the gas prices being high, because at first, none of the parents were volunteering, which is unusual because have you ever ridden on a bus with about 50- 4th graders? Let's just say, that it doesn't smell the best. The teachers had to ask again because we were running late and we had to hurry to make it to the show on time because once the show started they would not let anyone in. I was fortunate because another mom asked Lisanka and I if we would ride with her.

Luckily, we all moved pretty quick and we made it to the Saenger on time. Here is a picture of the Saenger Theatre entrance. I have to say, that this theatre is absolutely beautiful inside. I tried to take some pictures, but the kids all kept saying:"You're not allowed to do that, so I was a good example and put the camera away.

Here's a picture of Ariel, Lisanka and Ethan hamming it up for the camera inside, before the children chastened me for taking pictures.

Because we got started late, the show started within 5 minutes of getting there. Which I was glad. The first scene was about start and we saw 6 people on the stage. 3 girls and 3 men. I just knew they had to be towns people about to break out in the great Beauty and the Beast song, "Bonjour". But oh no, it was another song, something unfamiliar, something that did not seem quite right. Were they singing a song about "And the Story Goes On"? Yes, I think they were.

I quickly began to realize we would not be viewing the Disney adaptation of Beauty and the Beast. Let me just say, I was highly disappointed. I was looking around to see if anyone else appeared lost. I whispered to Ariel, "Do you like this"? She said, "yes. shh!" I said, "It's not like Disney's version is it?" She said, "No, mom. It's another version.shh." I later found out the kids knew that it was going to be a different version. I was the lame one for thinking I was going to see the "cartoon version". There was no dancing dishes, talking clock, Gaston and the list goes on. I could not help but compare the two. And I was not the only parent who thought that. Several others were like, "we kept waiting to see something Disneyish".

If you don't compare the two shows, the actors did a great job. They really did. The 6 actors did the complete show. Their voices were awesome and the guy who played the Narrator/John Pierre (I guess he was their version of Lumiere) was hilarious and VERY FLEXIBLE. They travel around the country doing this only for school children. So they did do a good job. Ariel and several of the kids I talked to loved it.

Here is a picture of Beauty and the guy who played the Narrator/John Pierre

After the show, we went to Langdan Park and had lunch. The weather was perfect. The kids had a great time playing, feeding the ducks. But after about a 1/2 hour of being there playing the parents were ready to go only to find out: we had another 45 minutes of play time. YEAH!







Ariel found a baby frog which all the kids seemed to like.

Ariel fit her big self into the kiddy ride at the park. I scolded her for doing so, but not before I took her picture.

All in all, the field trip was pretty fun. It was very relaxed, and I enjoyed it because I realized that the older Ariel gets, the less field trips there will be. You can't really go wrong spending time together.