Coincidental theater

This is a random entry and has nothing to do with my children (as my remaining 2 readers click away...)

Anyways.

Continuing.

Sometimes I read this blog: http://www.reagansblob.com/page/2/ I don't know why I just do.

A little while ago she mentioned this tidbit:

"Also, last night Jake and I went to *Sleep No More. I had to buy tickets clear back in November because they were sold out for so long. It was insane!!! I don’t know what to think, but that’s ok because we are going again next month.*Sleep no more is a theatre type show in a huge old hotel. It’s floors and floors of intricate sets/rooms. You wear masks and follow the characters you’re most interested in. I went with Jake and two friends, but we split up at the beginning and had our own very different experiences, seeing totally different things. It’s very strange and not for everyone, but so so cool if that’s your bag."

Then a few nights ago I was searching for something to read on the kindle and came across "The Night Circus" available to borrow from the library site. I figured I'd give it a try since most of the other available titles were 1. romance novels 2. Dr. Laura books (apparently her advice is not well-valued out here) or 3. super specific non-applicable titles such as "A Guide to Better Relationships between Black Men and Women" (no, I'm serious).As I was reading it I kept thinking "this reminds me of that theater thing mentioned in that one blog thingy I read" and "it would be cool if this were made into one of those theater things and you could wander from tent to tent and follow the characters around."Then at the end of the book there was an Acknowledgments section, as there always is, and I read it, as I always do AND the author mentioned something called Punchdrunk as a source of inspiration.

So I googled it and discovered - voila: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/20/theater/sleep-no-more-from-punchdrunk-transforms-chelsea-warehouses.html?pagewanted=all

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"IF New York’s junk shops, antiques fairs and confectioners have fielded some odd requests recently, it may be because the British theater company Punchdrunk is coming to town for the first time. The props list for its show “Sleep No More,” an environmental, stylized mash-up of Shakespearean drama and Hitchcockian noir, reads like the contents of a madman’s shopping cart: plastic teeth, animal eyes, hair samples, several kinds of blood, caramel spray. For “Sleep No More,” which arrives in New York after a run at a school near Boston in 2009, the company took over six stories of three adjoining warehouses on West 27th Street in the Chelsea gallery district. Audience members don masks and explore some 100 rooms and environments, including a spooky hospital, mossy garden and bloody bedroom. An eerie soundtrack fills the air as costumed performers move about all six floors re-enacting pivotal scenes from “Macbeth.”Each room has a back story that has been painstakingly detailed and designed with a mid-1930s vibe. More than 200 unpaid volunteer artists spent about four months hand-writing letters, coloring wallpaper and building furniture. A spokesman for the show declined to say how much the production cost, other than the budget was “in the millions of dollars.” . . .“In our world, every single drawer, cupboard, wardrobe that can be opened, should be opened because you’ll find something inside,” he said."

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Punchdrunk IS that theater thing that the book reminded me of.

I feel 1. very clever 2. like the stars are aligning for some mysterious purpose and 3. like I need to go see this.

The End.

Acknowledgments:

My clown collection - because circuses are fascinating, but also creepy. My baby - for sleeping in her bed by herself long enough for me to type this.

To Catch a Leprechaun

The boys were determined that this would be the year they caught a leprechaun. Sawyer is now old enough to team up with Will and between the two of them they were confident it could be done.

The leprechauns scored the first points in the St. Patrick's Day battle though. The boys woke up to find that a leprechaun had colored their fingernails and toenails green, drawn shamrocks on their cheeks, colored the toilet water green, and left them a taunting note on the bathroom mirror along with little leprechaun footprints.

I *may* have still been awake when the leprechauns were going about this nasty business. Shortly after they completed their mischief Will woke up to go to the bathroom. I watched from the bottom of the stairs as he wandered into the bathroom, turned on the light, peed, washed his hands, turned off the light and got back into bed. All without noticing any of the leprechaun's recent activities. This makes me wonder what else we could get away with in the middle of the night.

In the morning Bryce had an early church basketball game. He had told Will that he could go with him if he woke up on time. Will had been up the night before so, of course, he wasn't awake by 7:30 on Saturday morning. I heard him wake up shortly after Bryce left and he came running into our bedroom to tell us he was ready to go. I told him that Dad had already left. Total meltdown ensued. I sent him back to his room to cry and after about 5 minutes of crying I heard:...(long pause)...gasp!...gasp! And then he came tearing into my room saying "Mom! Look what a leprechaun did!" He woke up Sawyer and they discovered the "Will and Sawyer can't catch me!" note on the bathroom mirror. They took off downstairs to get their butterfly nets and spent the morning creating various traps.

The boys spent the day trying to find a leprechaun. I spent the day trying to convince them that maybe if they cleaned up the house it would be easier to see if there were any leprechauns hiding out in here. (Any opportunity to trick children into cleaning up I will take.)

We made another leprechaun trap cake as well as some pot roast with (supposedly) traditional Irish potato pancakes (boxtys) and mashed potato and cabbage dish (colcannon). I found the recipes online so I'm sure they are legit.

Before we had friends over for dinner we promised we would take the boys out leprechaun hunting. We gathered up some nets and drove around the neighborhood looking for mischief or anything green lurking about. When we drove past the church Bryce thought he saw something green dart past out of the corner of his eye. We let the boys out to investigate. And while they weren't quite fast enough to catch the little stinker they did find a pot of treasure! Will said "Hey! There's something over here! It's a pot! The leprechaun's pot!"

The boys were ecstatic. They were also a little worried that the leprechaun was going to be really, really mad. The pot is still being stored in our garage where they can keep an eye on it because they are convinced he will come try to take it back.

The pot has a striking similarity to one that has been in the flower bed in our front yard for the past 3 years, and which is now missing, but the boys haven't noticed its familiarity nor its absence. Makes me wonder what else could disappear and reappear as something new.

The boys were very excited to tell their friends, aunts, grandparents, etc. about their find, but they really were a little stressed that an angry leprechaun might come steal their money. Luckily we haven't had any go missing so far.