Up To

So last week, Jackie I and journeyed south to St. George, Utah for the annual Utah Theatre Conference at Dixie State College. It's a fun weekend of warm weather, meeting up with theatre teacher friends from across the state, watching shows, going to workshops and getting off of your bathroom routine because you're eating a lot of crap.
First, we took students to see this:

Now, I have seen over 150 Broadway shows, both in New York and touring shows. But, in all of my years of teaching, I have NEVER seen The Phantom of the Opera. Bizarrely, I've seen Cats 4 times, Les Miserables 4 (not counting our school production last year), Wicked 4, etc. etc. But Phantom? Never.
I have to say I was pleasantly surprised AND, if you are going to see it, the Las Vegas production is the way to go. 90 minutes, no intermission and amazing technical effects that are not in the Broadway or London production. Plus, we had an amazing 45 minute talkback with the stage manager, stunt coordinator, Christine understudy, spotlight operator and a backstage worker. Fantastic experience.
Over the weekend we also saw a production of Once on this Island- which has the distinction of being the first musical Millie ever saw (when she was 3 weeks old).
Also, last week I took students to see the hilarious comedy Black Comedy at Pioneer Theatre Company. Great show which I first saw at BYU.
Also, now that it's a new year, start planning to put in your deposit for our NYC trip in 2012 in October. We are taking 2 trips. One for students and their parents and one for adults and alumni. That should help keep the numbers manageable.

Winter Tunes

So if you're like me, you are bloated with Jackie's famous Christmas fudge (or if you're my 5-year old, you're feeling great after eating everything in your Christmas stocking in 30 minutes secretly in your room), nothing is good on tv this week, you've already seen the movies you want to over Christmas and it's freezing outside. Well, if you are looking for something to warm you up, let the sweet, sweet sound of Broadway showtunes do the trick.

This upcoming Friday, Jan. 7th and Monday, Jan. 10th, the Riverton High School MUSIC, DANCE, THEATRE class will be performing their annual winter revue, On the Radio: A Broadway Revue. Tickets are only $6.00 and the show starts at 7:00pm. Accompanied (as always) by the amazing Kelly DeHaan (who will be singing a song from the musical Shrek), this revue features a little bit of everything. You want dramatic ballads? We have them (Children of Eden, Edges and A Tale of Two Cities). High energy dance numbers? Got those too (Grease, Chicago, Memphis). Chopping up people and eating them in pies? Got that (Thoroughly Modern Millie- we've put a dark spin on that show...).

So come on out this Friday or Monday and see this great show!

I Think I Saw...

So a couple of weeks ago I was stirring from a Sunday afternoon nap- when out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw movement under the door of our unfinished section of our basement.

I lept up and yelled "mouse", which brought Jackie out of her cavern of studies.

For the following 2 weeks, Jackie was a woman crazed. She cleaned everything (including the wallpaper. If we had wallpaper) looking for the villainous varmint. Strangers were told at Walmart and Home Depot (as I searched for traps). Neighbors shared their horror stories with mice. Jackie became an insomniac- she was like a cat on a hot tin roof waiting to pounce on our furry visitor.... which is funny because the longer I thought about it, the less likely I was that I saw it in the first place. There were no signs of food gotten into- no droppings (although the discovery of a raisin under the sofa nearly called for the smelling salts for Jackie)- just the foggy mind of an afternoon Sunday nap.

So the traps remain empty- but Jackie is ever vigilant.

And to help with Jackie's cleaning schedule, on Christmas we welcomed a new pet to the Eaton household:

The Roomba 550. It cleans amazingly well- and all by itself. I even found myself saying "excuse me" to it the other day when I got in its way. Jackie can program it to vacuum it any day she wants. It's only gotten stuck once (under the entertainment center) and Ellis has only asked to ride it one time (although she has requested it "get out of our house" when she thought it was going to climb up the sofa and get her.

So all mice watch out. Between Jackie and the Roomba we're ready and waiting.