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Expensive tickets, long run times, foreign languages, and a reputation for elitism – not to mention a propensity for wildly inappropriate story lines – makes opera a hard sell for families. Seattle area families have an advantage, though. The Youth Opera Project’s affordable opera designed expressly for children and families is a great way to test the opera waters.
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It’s been a while since my 14-year-old joined me at the ballet, but she was excited to see The Sleeping Beauty at Pacific Northwest Ballet last weekend. Even after she realized this was not the one-hour narrated PNB School performance.
Her drama teacher requires students to critique a professional performance, so I hijacked her homework. Here are my teenager’s unfiltered thoughts about this classic ballet, only slightly edited for spelling and punctuation.
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Apparently, stage movies are a thing now. I only caught on last month, when I saw two within a week of each other. I’ve already mentioned the second one – NBC’s stage production of Jesus Christ Superstar that was broadcast live on Easter. The first one was so weird I have to blog about it. I saw a movie of a play about a cartoon. That’s right, I drove to Shoreline to see Sailor Moon: The Musical – Le Mouvement Final at the Crest.
I was just a little too old for the first generation of Sailor Moon. Ok, that’s an excuse. I watched Ranma ½ during the same years Sailor Moon was new. Anyway, I never got into Sailor Moon. But my kids did. They’ve read all the manga and dissect the differences between the anime reboots. My oldest was Sailor Mercury for Halloween. So when a friend tagged me on a facebook post announcing a Sailor Moon event at the Crest, I bought tickets for the whole family. Read More
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John Moore and Kevin Glavin in Barber of Seville Photo by Jacob Lucas c/o Seattle Opera
When I saw The Barber of Seville at Seattle Opera in October, I declared it my new favorite opera and left McCaw Hall determined to come back with my whole family. That proved easier said than done, but I did it. Here’s how. Read More
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When a middle-aged white man complained on Twitter with a picture of one of my favorite graphic novels captioned “Can you believe they expect us to buy this stuff?” a woman replied, “It’s not for you.” So before I review the Disney on Ice “Follow Your Heart” show I need to disclose that Disney-themed ice shows are not for me.
I am an admitted urban snob who has worked tirelessly to protect my daughters from the Disney princess cult and made a niche writing about sharing the art I like with my kids rather than spoon-feeding them the idiotic drivel our culture tells us is the only stuff safe for their consumption. My taste is high-low eclectic, running from ballet and opera to heavy metal festivals and comic books, but if there is one unifying thread, it is almost always noncommercial.
I associated figure skating with hired thugs and baseball bats until my daughter discovered Yuri!!! On Ice and I found myself driving to Shoreline twice a week for skate lessons and studying the merits of heat-molded boots. When I got an offer for press tickets for the whole family to attend an ice show, I overcame my knee-jerk response of “I’d rather have my eyes picked out by crows,” and accepted the tickets because I knew my daughter would want to see professional figure skaters live.
What happened next will astound you (sorry, couldn’t resist.) Read More