to see Knuffle Bunny at Emerald City Theatre

On March 25th, 2018 I went to see Knuffle Bunny at the Emerald City Theatre with Mommy and Margot. The show is based on the book by Mo Willems with music by Micahel Silversher and was directed by Aileen McGroddy.

The play was about a little girl named Trixie (played by Deanalís Resto) who takes a trip with her dad (played by Matt Miles) to the laundromat where she loses her stuffed animal, Knuffle Bunny. Poor Trixie is too young to explain to her daddy why she's sad and her daddy can't understand why she's so sad. It's a real problem. A problem Trixie's mom (played by Abby Murray Vachon) can help solve.

My two favorite elements were the puppets and the projections.  My favorite puppet was the pigeon puppet (the pigeon from Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, another Mo Willems book, makes an appearance in the play) operated by Jar'Davion Brown.  I also loved the life-size Knuffle Bunny and the ginormous clothing puppets too, they were all awesome and designed by Angela McIlvain.
My favorite projections were the black and white slides when Trixie's dad was chasing her. I also love the projections of Knuffle Bunny and Trixie's Dad inside the washing machine. The black and white photos reminded me of the pictures from the book and the movie from inside the washing machine was really fun and all of it was designed by Michael Commendatore.

My favorite part was when Trixie's Dad said "I found it!" and Trixie's mom said "See honey I knew you could do it" and then Trixie's Dad pulled something out of the machine and held it up and Trixie's mom said "Some ladies Underwear?!?" That was so funny! I also liked the part where Trixie started to sing her sad song again and Trixie's dad yelled at the stage manager and said he wouldn't let that happen again!

This play was a good reminder to be mindful of important things you carry with you. I think that's why that's why it's called a "Cautionary Musical"...it's probably a good idea to keep your favorite things at home.

I give this play Infinity Million points and I hope infinity million people go see this show because it's so funny and awesome.


Love,
Gunnar

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 WICKED

On January 17th me and mommy went to go see WICKED at the Oriental Theatre in downtown Chicago. The musical is by Stephen Schwartz and book by Winnie Holzman and its a story about a girl named Elphaba and how she becomes the Wicked Witch of the West, but it is also a story about how a girl named Glinda becomes Glinda the Good. I know these characters from the Wizard of Oz.

The shows starts with the ensemble singing NO ONE MOURNS THE WICKED because the Wicked Witch of the West is dead and Glinda (played by Ginna Claire Mason) comes down from the sky in a bubble and tells the story of how Glinda and Elphaba became friends at school. Glinda has so many bags and all of the friends when she gets to school and Elphaba has just one bag, green skin and a sister in a wheelchair named, Nessarose when she gets to school.

We know Elphaba (played by Mary Kate Morrissey) has magic powers when she tries to protect her sister.  Madame Morrible (played by Tregoney Shepherd) tells Elphaba she's going to meet the Wizard.  Elphaba and Glinda share a room with a blue bed and a pink bed and they don't like each other.  Glinda gave Elphaba an ugly hat as a joke and Elphaba thought it was a gift, so in return she gave Glinda a training wand and a chance to train with Madame Morrible. When Glinda found this out she felt happy but sad that she was mean to Elphaba so when Elphaba gets laughed at for wearing an ugly hat to the ball, Glinda teaches Elphaba how to dance and they become friends.

Dr. Dillamond (played by Harry Bouvy), the goat professor, was losing his voice and when Elphaba and Glinda got to the Emerald City to see the wizard of Oz they found out that he was the one taking away his voice. The wizard had asked her to give his monkeys wings which was when she learned that he had no real powers so Elphaba took his book and decided to fly away, Glinda wanted to fly with her but she decided not to because she was maybe scared. And from then on Elphaba was known as the Wicked Witch of the West.

I loved ALL of the costumes, designed by Susan Hilferty,  because they were all so fancy and princess and prince-like. My favorite costume was the blue and silver Cinderella-like one that Glinda wears in the beginning and the end because she looks like a beautiful beautiful princess.

The songs by Stephen Schwartz were so good. I really liked "One Short Day," "What is this feeling," "Dancing through Life," "For Good," but my favorite song was "Popular" because Glinda was so funny especially when she taught Elphaba how to toss-toss her hair and she screamed with glee, this was my favorite part of the whole show.

If there was something I didn't like it was the dragon on the set because I thought he might blow fire and he moved and his eyes were red. I also didn't like the mist on the stage because it made me a little scared.

This show taught me that you can learn to be anyone's friend no matter what if you just show kindness to them.

I think that everyone in the whole world should see this show because its so cool and fun, well everyone expect babies, because babies would be really scared of the dragon (and their babysitters should stay home with them).

 I give this show 200-ZILLION POINTS because it is so AWESOME!

Love,
Gunnar

It was so cool meeting everybody after the show thanks to my friend Greg!