Culturing Weezie

Weezie turned three last week. To celebrate, we went to Alice the Musical produced by the local Children's Theatre. This is an amazing group of parents and professionals who have been staging productions for over sixty years. They feature children in starring roles, some of whom are on stage for the first time. My neighbor's granddaughter auditioned and won a role in Madeline's Christmas so we will definitely attend that one.

Weezie was a little alarmed by some of the scenes in Alice. She loved the White Rabbit, who dashed about stage and aisles, peering at a large watch and muttering "I'm late, I'm late" in dead-on character. One stage set had Alice growing larger (unseen) within a little cottage. When a giant eyeball appeared in the doorway window, Weezie freaked. We left at intermission and soothed our frayed nerves with cocoa, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and pumpkin ice cream at the neighborhood hangout. Safely away, she was all smiles and ready for next time. If Madeline goes well, we may even try for The Nutcracker; Weezie loves tutu's. If not, there's always next year. We're not going for stagestruck here, just some cultural rounding.

Of course, Nonna could do with a few cultural rough edges filed off herself. Meanwhile, Hitchcock's observation that "the length of a play should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder" works for me. Especially when we're seated in center row.