to see Magic Tree House "Showtime With Shakespeare" at Emerald City

On Saturday morning I went to go see Magic Tree House "Showtime with Shakespeare" at Emerald City Theatre with Mommy, Daddy and Margot. The play is based on the Magic Treehouse book but the book is called "Stage Fright on a Summer Night", the play is written by the author's husband Will Osborne along with Jenny Laird with music by Randy Courts and it was directed and choreographed by Jamal Howard.

The play is about Jack and Annie who have a magic tree house that makes people go back in time when they say "I wish to go there." In this story they went back in time to meet Will(iam) Shakespeare who is a famous playwright from a long time ago and they get a mission from Morgan le Fay that is to find a magic that can turn daytime into night.

My favorite characters were Jack (played by Nik Kmiecik), Annie (played by Emily Senkowsky), Will or William Shakespeare (played by Leon J Evans) and Dan the funny dancing bear (played by Miguel Long). I was impressed with how high Nik Kmiecik could jump and how he played Jack so well because he seemed really scared about going on stage in Will's play.

I really liked the set of the Magic Tree house that turned into Shakespeare's stage designed by Angela McIlvain and I liked the prop apple designed by Danielle Myerscough. I also loved the lights on the magic treehouse designed by Brian Elston because they made the tree house look like it was spinning and spinning.

Photos by Austin D Oie

I loved all of the songs but my favorite part was when Jack and Annie solved the puzzle. This play taught me that you can learn magic by performing in the theatre. Theatre is magic.

I think all of my friends should see this show because it is based on one of my favorite books. Everyone who sees this show will love it.

I give this show 1,000,000,000,000,000 points because this show is AWESOME!!

Love,
Gunnar

to see "THE WIZ" at Emerald City Theatre

On Saturday I went to "The Wiz" at Emerald City Theatre. The play was directed by Jamal Howard. I went with Daddy, Grandma and my friend Walter.

    The play was about a girl named, Dorothy, played by Isis Elizabeth,  who was in a tornado. The tornado took her to Oz. She met some friends. She met the Scarecrow, played by Leon Evans, the Tinman, played by Jar’Davion Brown, and Cowardly Lion, played by Miguel Long. They helped her see “the Wiz” who would help her get back to Kansas. The Scarecrow wanted brains, the Tinman wanted a heart, and the Lion wanted courage. The Wiz said he would grant their wishes if they killed the wicked witch Evilene. They killed her by pouring water on her. They went back to the Emerald City and the Wiz gave the Scarecrow a diploma, the Tinman got a heart and the Lion got a medal of courage, but Dorothy didn’t get back to Kansas.  The good witch told Dorothy she could use her magic silver shoes and she got back to Kansas.

    The set design by Michael Lewis had a door, clothespins, flowers and a giant block that became lots of things. Some of the costumes were sparkly. When the Tinman was wearing his costume, it really looked like a tin man and it was sparkly. The lions costume looked like a lion. They all wore green glasses in the Emerald City and green costumes. The costumes were designed by Kate Kamphausen.

    There were lots of great songs. I liked “Ease on Down the Road” the best. The actors had great voices and were good dancers.

    My favorite part was the gatekeeper of the Emerald City,  played by Frankie Leo Bennett.  I liked how he was being so sneaky.

    Everybody in the whole wide world should see this show because I think they would like it.

    I would give this play 100 points. It was Awesome!