to see Mother Goose's Garden

On June 10th I saw a play called Mother Goose's Garden at Emerald City Theatre with Margot and Mommy. The play was directed by my favorite Emerald City director, Jacqueline Stone. When we went into the Garden it was not like any other show I have seen before.
There was no stage, we got to be IN the play and we got a basket of objects so we could be a part of the play. I thought that was really weird but I really liked it because I got to talk to the characters and be a part of the play.

The characters were Jack and Jill, Little Bo Peep, Little Boy Blue, Mother Goose, the cow and the sheep.  Michele Stine played Jill, Little Bo Peep and Mother Goose, and Austin Ryan Hunt played Jack and Little Boy Blue. My favorite character part was when Jill made Jack play Little Miss Muffet because when he saw the spider he got so
silly scared and went "spider? Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" and ran everywhere but kind of quiet and silly. I also liked Little Bo Peep when she said "Oh Beaureguard there you are" in a southern accent, that made me laugh, that's a silly name for a sheep.

The set, designed by Brian Elston, was so colorful it looked like a garden. There were a lot of colorful flowers and a vegetable garden and berry trees. The berry trees could move and we got to pick berries off of them.  And when we watered the flowers with the watering cans from our baskets the set actually made them grow taller! I also love the sound, designed by Jeffrey Levin, because when the trees moved they sounded like an ice cream truck.

My favorite parts were when we got to be a part of the show. Margot and I got to put hay in the cows mouth, brush sheep's wool, water the plants, plant the seeds, shovel a hole and pick the berries.

Again, everybody in the whole wide world should see this show because then they'll know how to plant a beautiful Garden!

I give this play 1 MILLION and 99 points. That's the biggest number I can think of...because this show is AWESOME!!!

Love,
Gunnar

to see Mary Poppins at the Mercury Theatre

On Saturday afternoon I went to see Mary Poppins, directed by L. Walter Stearns at the Mercury Theatre.  I went with Mommy and Auntie Kerry.  The play is about Mary Poppins (played by Nicole Armold) who is a magical nanny that comes to take care of Michael and Jane when their other nanny goes away.

Michael (played by Casey Lyons) and Jane (played by Sage Harper) are two kids who want to spend time with their daddy but their daddy, George Banks (played by Kevin McKillip) is too busy working at the bank.  Bert (played by Matt Crowle) is also magical like Mary Poppins because he draws pictures that he can jump into by snapping his finger he also sings a lot and tap dances on roof tops, he's really good at that.  I was really impressed with Jane and Michael, I thought they made strong characters in their acting.

I really loved the set designed by Adam Veness because you could see the outside and the inside of the house. The outside was a painted curtain and the inside had a lot of different rooms that could change for different scenes. I loved the attic nursery because when they turned it around you could see Bert on the top of the roof.

The costumes designed by Rachel Boylan were very colorful and magical. During the song Jolly Holiday some of the black skirts maybe had some strings on them that when you pulled them you could see a more colorful skirt underneath. And I liked the dress worn by Mrs. Corry who sings Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious because it had lots of colors and lots of letters. I also really like Mary Poppins' costumes because she looked just like the Mary Poppins from the movie. Another costume part I thought was cool was when chimneys turned out to be people wearing chimneys for hats, there was even smoke coming out.

The show is really cool because it was full of magic and Mary Poppins was able to make things fly and even she could fly! My favorite part was when Michael and Jane were making icing for the cake and the Butler (played by Timothy Eidman) thought it wasn't icing he backed away and bumped into cabinets and made all the dishes crash and then he fell down and fell asleep, that was the silliest part it made me laugh so much. And my other favorite part was when George Banks was at the bank and he was thinking about how to say something and then he sang "it's Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" because he was being so silly and he finally decided to play like his kids.

I think the lessons to learn were for Michael and Jane to listen to their nanny and to learn new things and George Banks learned how to play with his children more.

I really think all of my friends especially Jo and Matilda and Sofia and Olivia and Mia and everyone in the whole wide world should see this show because then everyone can learn to be kind and listen to each other! Also they should see it because it is so fun!

I would give this play 9,900 points because it's the best play I ever saw!!

Love,
Gunnar

www.mercurytheatrechicago.com 

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!

to see The Snowy Day at Emerald City Theatre

On Saturday I got to see The Snowy Day and other stories by Ezra Jack Keats, adapted for the stage by Jerome Hairston. I saw it with mommy, daddy and Margot. It was at Emerald City Theatre and the Director was Jacqueline Stone. This was the 100th production at Emerald City...that's a lot of shows!

The play was about a boy named Peter played by Terry Bell. The characters were Peter (Terry Bell) Mom/Female player (Sydney Charles), Amy/Female Player (Kirra Silver) and Dad/Archie/Male Player (Felix Mayes).

The stories they performed by Ezra Jack Keats were: The Snowy Day, Whistle for Willie, Goggles and A Letter for Amy.  My favorite story was Goggles because it was so cool when they found goggles and pretended they were astronauts, that was my favorite part of the whole play. After the play there was a bookstore and mommy and daddy bought me the book Goggles and I wish I could read it to you right now, but you should look for it at the library.

I loved the white parachute that represented snow. When they lifted it up it look like a blanket of snow and light shined through it. The lighting design, by Rachel Levy, was very colorful. The lights helped make shadows behind the snow and rain. The shadows they showed were: Willie (the dog), a tree, a parrot, a snow angel, a snowman and Peter doing things, like -brushing his tongue. The shadows were a really good idea for how to tell the story.

The costume design by Branimira Ivanova was so cool because the snowsuit looked exactly like the one from The Snowy Day, and the flower shirt and the rocket ship shirt looked just like the shirts from Goggles.  I also liked the set, designed by Martin Andrew, it looked like giant wooden blocks that you use to build castles.

One of my favorite parts was when Peter would slide down the snow slope and he kept saying "Again! Again! Again!" That part reminded me of when my sister Margot (she's 2 years old) goes down the slide, she always says that too!

One thing I learned from the show was, whenever you write a letter to someone, you should really hold on tight to your letter when you're carrying it to the mailbox...so that it doesn't fly away. Oh and don't bump into people when you're going to the mailbox either.

Everybody in the whole wide world should see this show because it's so much fun and based on stories you can read and buy or checkout from the library.

I give this show 2,095 points because it's the

... BEST SHOW EVER!!!!
Love,
Gunnar

to see Christmas at Christine's

On Sunday I saw a play called "Christmas at Christine's" written and performed by Christine Bunuan at Silk Road Rising.  I went with mommy, I met someone named Malik he's the nice man who gave me the ticket he's the Founding executive director. He's really nice. The play was directed by J.R. Sullivan.

The play was about someone named Christine. Christine loves to sing songs and she sang a lot of songs for us in her house. Some of the songs were Christmas songs. Some were not Christmas songs. I learned a little about Christine in between the songs. I learned that her favorite Christmas Movie (and my favorite too) is "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer." She loves everything to do with Christmas like Christmas trees and decorating and shopping and forgetting her mom's password, that was funny. Her family was from the Philippine's, when she was a baby and her family came to America they taped a Christmas tree on the wall with lights.  Now her family lives far away and she won't see them for Christmas this year but she's ok with that because she knew she'd see them next Christmas and because she has a theatre family to be with, like Silk Road. 

There were twenty two songs and my favorite songs were all of them but I really like "Light one Candle" that was about lighting a Menorah, a menorah is for Channukah. I also liked "Pretty Little Dolly" that was about a pretty little dolly that she wanted from Santa. I also liked "You Got a Friend in Me" that's from Toy Story 2. And also I loved "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" I know that song from Home Alone. There was another person on stage who played the piano for the whole show his name was Ryan Brewster, he was Christine's friend and he was very good at the piano. There was another friend who sang a song for us, his name was James, he sang the song from the Peanuts movie. 

My favorite part was when she played Moishe Baby on her new ukelelé from her husband. I liked it because it was a new version of Santa Baby and I like that song. I also liked the part where she asked the audience to sing Silent Night with her but I didn't remember the words. 

This show taught me that you have to love Christmas because its a special holiday for remembering about Jesus and to remember your family. And when your family isn't near just do your own thing and be kind to people who are around you. Christine thanked us for being a part of her Christmas. And I would like to say thank you to Christine for doing this show because it was really good and it will be a part of my Christmas memories this year. 

Everybody in this Whole Wide World should see this show because it will teach them how to be kind and if they aren't kind they should have to see this show to make them happy and kind.

I give this show 2,000 points because it shows people how to be kind to everyone. 

Love, 

Gunnar

to see Disney's Moana

On Saturday I saw a movie called Moana thanks to Auntie Kerry and Uncle Zach who bought my ticket for my 6th birthday (they also bought me the novel and the CD). I went with Auntie Kerry, Uncle Zach, Mommy, Daddy and Margot. Moana is the new Disney movie from the creators of Zootopia and Frozen with music by Lin Manuel Miranda (who wrote my favorite musical Hamilton), Opetaia Foa'i and Mark Mancina.

The story is about a girl named Moana (Auli'i Cravahlho) who lives on her island taking care of her people, and she really loves the water, but her father, Chief Tui (Temuera Morrison), who is the king of the island, would not let her go out on the water because it is not safe and no one goes beyond the reef. And then her friend the water, wanted her to go because the water chose Moana to go out and find Maui (Dwayne Johnson).

Maui is the semi mini demi-god who pulled up the islands from the sea so the water wouldn't rush it away but he also stole the heart of Moana's island. It was Gramma Tala (Rachel House) who showed Moana the boats that were hidden that told Moana that her people were voyagers. And gramma Tala begged Moana to go find Maui and bring him to the island to restore the heart.  And then she journeys out on her own and when she finds Maui they go try to fight the monsters from stealing the heart and keeping it forever but they face the monsters and stop them from taking the heart of Moana's island. The first monster they have to defeat is Kakamora, the coconut monsters and then the second monster is Tamatoa (Jemaine Clement), the giant crab monster who is a scorpion, and the third monster is Ta-kā, the queen of earth and fire.

I read the book all by myself before I saw the movie and listened to the music on the CD before I saw the movie.  When I read the book my imagination pictured the evil character Ta-kā as much smaller who could transform into a bigger human size but in the movie she was so so so much bigger than I could have imagined. I also didn't imagine a big mountain at the entrance to the realm of monsters, I was just picturing just a cave door with a hole in the bottom.

The background music was pretty scary. And the songs were amazing. My favorite songs were "Where You Are" (sung by Christopher Jackson who played George Washington in Hamilton), "How far I'll go",  "We know the Way", "How far I'll go (reprise)", "You're Welcome", "Shiny", "I am Moana",  "Know who you are" and "We know the way (Finale).

 I love the songs with drums in them because the drum is one of my favorite musical instruments. I think the most powerful song was called "Know who you are" because when she talks to Ta-Kā she wasn't afraid because she realized that Ta-kā was really her island hurting because she saw the spiral of her island on Ta-kā's heart.

The story teaches us to be brave and to not be afraid of bad things (evil) because there is no such thing as bad people only people who are hurting who need help. Moana sees through the evil of Ta-kā and she decides to bravely go through the water to show Ta-kā who she really is and to find her goodness. Instead of just finding Maui she chooses to face her fear and find goodness and get her island back on her own.

My favorite part was when Moana finds HeiHei (Moana's silly pet chicken) on her boat with a coconut on his head and she takes the coconut off and he looks around and all he sees is water and he screams every time. And my other favorite part was when HeiHei sticks one blow dart in Maui's butt cheeks and Maui says "Seriously? Blow dart in my butt cheek." That was sooo funny. I also loved the part where the Kakamora blew a blow dart in their chief's arm and he fell down.

Everybody in this whole wide world should see this movie because it would make them now know how to not be afraid of anything.

I give this movie 200 points because it shows powerfulness on people who are afraid of things.

Love,
Gunnar

THE END.

to see 'A Christmas Carol on the Air' at The University of Wisconsin-Parkside Theatre Arts Department

On Friday night I went with mommy all the way to Wisconsin to see 'A Christmas Carol on the Air' by Peter Church, directed by Jennifer Sassaman at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside Theatre Arts Department.  

The play was about a man named Ebenezer Scrooge who is always mad, one night he meets three ghosts.

 It was not a normal Christmas Carol because it was on the radio and we were watching actors tell the story as they were talking into microphones on the radio. And we watched my friend Madeleine Sassaman who played the younger daughter listening to the show on her radio in a home by the rocking chair. The story had breaks, they were commercials on the radio like for the JELLO family (which was one of my favorite parts) and Pass the Blue Ribbon (Pabst Blue Ribbon).

Gabby Ashlin played Belle and others, Cole Conrad played Ebenezer Scrooge, Quinn Didier played Tiny Tim and others, Alex Griffin played Announcer and others (and I also saw him in Spelling Bee), Catherine Kleinofen played Madam and others (she also was a scenic artist and I saw her in Spelling Bee too), Colin Kovarik played Charles Dickens and others, Shane Richlen played Bob Crachit and others and Jane Sekas played the older daughter.

The set, designed by Tayler Varney,  looked like an old radio and there were microphones and everyone was holding their lines because they were on the radio. The set was so beautiful the floors looked like diamonds and sparkly and the pictures on the walls were so pretty.  The lights were nice, designed by Michelle Housh, and when the APPLAUSE light was flashing that was so cool because I love when things flash.

My favorite part was the really loud sounds designed by Eamonn Higgins, most of the sounds were done live with different objects like an accordion that made wind and ghosts sounds and the crank machine that made the sound of wind, and candy wrappers made the sound of fire. The two guys who made the sounds on stage were Jordan Stanek and Matthew Rangel.

My other favorite part was when they were playing the guessing game and they said Ebeneezer was an animal, that was funny because that was totally a lie.

I didn't understand why Scrooge was happy at the end but mommy told me why. He was happy because the ghosts taught him to be nice by showing him how others saw him. The lesson I learned from this show is that you have to be kind to one another.

Everybody in this whole wide world should see this show because it shows everybody kindness.

I give this play 200 points because I like when people show kindness to others.

Love,
Gunnar

THE END.