Sleepy Bear Goes To the Theater–The Bathhouse Theater!

Hi Theater Buddies,

Last night I went to the theater again.  No, not the movie theater. Live theater on stage!  I saw the play ARSENIC AND OLD LACE at The Bathhouse.

I’m just sitting around drinking some tea before the show started.  Oh, alright.  I was really sitting on the set pretending to be in the show.  It was a little scary when I saw the audience watching me.  I don’t know if I would be able to act on stage.  I think I would have stage fright!

This is the other side of the stage before the show started. Kyna Shilling did a super good job making the stage look like the inside of a house.  The rectangle opening on the right is a

window with a window seat.  You have to use your imagination a little bit but that’s part of the fun!

Back to my seat in the audience.  ARSENIC AND OLD LACE is a comedy.  It’s about two sisters who try to help people by giving them a yummy drink.  Except the yummy drink makes them really sick.

Their nephew, Mortimer, tries to help them because what they are doing is not nice.  But they don’t want help because they do not agree with him.

More people come to their house and so the sisters and the nephew have to keep their secret from the visitors.  Sometimes the visitors want something to drink but they can’t because then they will get sick, too.  It was a little complicated for me to keep track of everything.  But I understood most of the story.

This play was directed by Shana Bestock.  She directs a lot of plays for the Seattle Public Theater.  I like how she helps the actors really become the character.  Oh!  I forgot to tell you that the actors are kids in middle school and high school! 

On the right is one of the sisters, Abby Brewster.  She’s talking to Mrs. Harper, a neighbor lady.  Abby is played by Casey Bouldin.  The neighbor lady is played by Sarah Murphy. 

She plays two different characters, Mrs. Harper and Mr. Witherspoon!  They both did a super job convincing me they were the characters in the play and not their usual selves.

At the end of the play the actors came out and took a bow.  That is their way of thanking the audience for coming to watch them perform.  On the far right is William Lavely.  He plays Mortimer. He is a super actor.  The girl next to him is Hannah Ruggiero. She plays Mortimer’s girlfriend.  She was really good, too.

ARSENIC AND OLD LACE has shows today and tomorrow. Ask your parents to take you.  This is the link you can tell them about with all the details:  http://seattlepublictheater.org/education-programs.htm

I hope you get to see the play.  If you do, write to me and tell me your favorite parts. 

I’ll write again about shows performed by kids in the education program with Seattle Public Theater.  You can follow my blog so you know exactly when I post something new!

Your Theater Buddy,

Sleepy Bear