Once upon a time I went to a show and it was called Augusta and Noble. And it was about a girl (Gabriela Mayorga) whose parents (Ivan Vega and Isabel Quintero) used to live in Mexico and her name was Gabi. She is trying to find out where she comes from; she has to ask her mom bunches of questions for school, but she learns it from her dreams. Her dreams tell her about how her mother and father got over to Chicago which was an illegal way. The story was about how the father might never come back in real life because if the police find him they will say, "hey, you are supposed to be in Mexico. What are you doing over here?" Then they will go and take the wife and then they might not even take the kids with them because they are American citizens. The play makes you think about what it is like to move to a different country. The playwright Carlos Murillo was trying to show you that people should be able to cross from country to country for a better life.
There was this story that Gabi told her younger brother, Jesus (Tommy Rivera-Vega). It was about this coyote (Miguel Nunez) and this rabbit. The coyote wanted to eat the rabbit, but the rabbit was like, "I know some tasty chickens. I'll go and get them if you will wait here." And the coyote was excited about those chickens, but then the bunny was hiding. But then he found the bunny and the bunny was like, to the coyote, "Oh I got a little distracted. I should go, but I'm holding up this mountain." And then the coyote decides to hold up the mountain because he really wants those chickens. In the end the rabbit makes a circle of fire around the coyote and then he burns up. It is a little bit gross that he has to burn up the coyote completely because I can imagine what a burned up coyote looks like, and it is not very pretty. The story is in this play because it is an interesting story about one of the themes of the play, and it is that a coyote is also a name for somebody who helps people cross the border and takes advantage of them. The story says that the coyote is a very terrible guy and that you should never trust a coyote. The rabbit is just trying to defend himself, so you can't really blame the rabbit.
Gabi has this stuffed animal which is a rabbit named conejito, which means little rabbit. I think that it is representing that Gabi is a rabbit--that she is metaphorically the rabbit in the story. She is going to be clever and fight back. In her dreams she is clever and fights back instead of just taking it and being like "I don't care. I just have to." She goes to school and she's scared about that because it is her first day of high school and she also has to take a train and a bus to get to her school. She acts like the clever rabbit because she doesn't just run away because she is scared. She goes with it and says, "Okay, I can do this."
There is also a spirit in this show and she was a Mujer Azul (Lisandra Tena) or woman in blue. She saves people from coyotes--metaphorical coyotes--and from getting caught by the police. She is an important character in the play because she helps the father and Gabi cross from Mexico to Chicago. Gabi is crossing in her dream only; the dad is actually crossing. There is a similarity between Ms. Chan and the woman in blue. They are both played by the same person and the teacher helps her the same as the woman in blue. Ms. Chan helps her in finding out who she really is and also helps her with the problem with her mom. The problem is that her mom doesn't want to tell her how they crossed because she is afraid that Gabi might tell some people about it and then they would have to be transferred back. Miss Chan says, "Ask things about her childhood and what she dreamed about when she was your age." And that works!
I thought that it was cool when the director (Tom Arvetis) chose, instead of having desks on stage, to have Gabi and Ricardo (Kieran Kredell) go into the audience and sit next to the people in the audience. I think he made that choice for two reasons: 1) because it is cheaper because you don't have to buy the desks or make the desks and 2) because then the audience gets to kind of feel like they are in the class with Gabi and Ricardo. That was so awesome.
People who would like this show are people who like Mexican culture, metaphoric coyotes and rabbits, and sitting in a theater on the street where the show takes place. People should go see this show because it is educational and makes your feelings come out. It teaches you about how people can be deported, what a metaphorical coyote is, and it teaches you some spanish language. You want the characters to stay together as a family.
Photos: Johnny Knight
Once upon a time I went to a show, and it was called The Elephant and the Whale. It was about a whale (Becky Poole) and an elephant (Kasey Foster ) who were best friends. But the whale lived in the water and the elephant lived on land. So it was hard for them to get to know each other until the whale, when they were baling out water to give to Quigley (Kurt Brocker) for his mermaid show, got in with the rest of the water. He needed 1000 gallons of water. That's a lot of water! And there used to be this very nice family who all of them were in the circus: there was ma (Becky Poole), the narrator (David Caitlin), and the Elephant and the gorilla. At one point in the show, they said they had been performing for 49 years. That means they would have to be 60 or 70 years old because they couldn't have started it when they were born! They are too old and want to retire, but then Quigley comes along and says sell me that Elephant! They have to because they only have 1 dollar and some cents. This show is trying to say be kind to animals--not cruel like Quigley is. It is trying to say, be kind and make new friends.
When I go to this theater they always give me giant program, which I think is really cool; I can understand why they are so big. There is like an entire activity book in there. That means you'll remember this experience even more; when you save the program, you'll see what you did with the activities. When I went, there was a school group there. So, if you are with a school group, remember that the school group is just happy to be out of school and they just want to be kind of noisy. This is supposed to be an audience-participation show, but they kind of audience-participated too much sometimes. I think the actors handled this kind of behavior by just going along with it. I think that is a good idea because then people won't feel bad.
In the opening scene they put money in a machine, and the music comes on, and they start bouncing at the same time because they are having fun. And then they start telling the story about who they are. One of my favorite props in the show was a four-seated bike. There was one in the front, and the narrator threw off the other guy so he had to sit in the back. I have only seen a three-seated bike. There are some pictures in the middle that tell the story by pictures scrolling across this kind of screen. I thought that it was a cool idea to have those pictures scrolling, and it was pedal operated. I thought that was really cool.
In this play there are a bunch of puppets. I think they could have done it without puppets, but puppets make it seem more realistic because they can't just have somebody grow a trunk suddenly or grow fifty feet tall. The puppets look more like an elephant than a human wearing a trunk and ears and a blue suit and a tail would. They could show the feelings of these characters with these puppets because they had slides of different kinds of eyes. The movement can show the feelings too: by Ella putting down her head, by the whale flipping up its tail.
The projections I thought were really really cool because you can do a giant sperm whale going through downtown Chicago on a projection but not as well on a stage. I thought some of the projections were funny like when Ella is running so fast and so stompily that it actually made Quigley go back and forth on his bike and he couldn't jump this ditch. And then when they showed a close-up of him, his eyes were rolling around like so fast. I thought that the hot dog cart was really funny because you saw it in a previous scene and then you just saw it floating underwater.
I reviewed a few Redmoon shows in my life--that is how I recognized that the projections and the puppets were by Redmoon. Just so you know, I have not tricked you or anything. It is Chicago Children's Theatre and Redmoon doing a show together. You know you are looking at a Redmoon production when you see the projection having a lot to do with the plot and not just being there for no particular reason. They like to use lots of different kinds of puppets, but mostly they like to use giant flat puppets.
I thought that the music was really awesome. The music was by Kevin O'Donnell. I liked the music because at the beginning they all began bouncing up and down and the music was like bump-ah bump-ah bump-ah bah. It was like a circus theme, and it made me feel like I was in a circus. One of my favorite songs was where the elephant and the whale were singing together. At the beginning the elephant was saying la la la la la la . And it was just las and you couldn't understand what she was saying, but a little bit later they changed it so you could. Once they translate the elephant you can understand what the whale is saying because she is repeating back what he is saying. They use a saw to make the sound of the whale. I know that sounds weird; they aren't going to just wave the saw in the air. That would make a clang. They have to make it sound like just murmurs. They do that with a saw and a violin bow. So they put the violin bow on the saw and they cut off the sharp part of the saw. By bending the metal of the saw, they make different kinds of notes. And it did sound a lot like a whale, and I thought them using a saw was a really great idea. I have seen Becky Poole play the saw before, and she is really good.
People who would like this show are people who like circuses, family, and whale language. I think this show should be for ages 1 and up because I think that babies would really enjoy the humor and the audience participation and would be really happy. I really want to take my baby cousin Zoe to the show because I think that she would like being squirted by the whale which happens in the show. It is real water! People should go see this show because it is funny, great for the whole family, and for some kids they learn something new about some animals.
Photos: Charles Osgood
I have just put up my 100th play review and chosen the winner of my 100th review contest. I loved all of your entries. I would have loved to go to a play with any of you. My mom gave me all of the entries without names, so I didn't know who I was taking to a play, but I am excited about going to a play with Miss Rachel Harper whose entry was: "People who would like Ada Grey Reviews for You are people who like laughing out loud, noticing thoughts and feelings, and 'traveling back in time...sort of.'"
Thank you to all of you for reading my blog and making me feel so glad to be a reviewer!
Once upon a time I went to a show and it was called Catch Me If You Can and it was about a guy who made a lot of bad decisions. And the guy's name was Frank Abagnale, Jr. (Stephen Anthony). He had crushes on a bunch of different girls and he made fake checks and turned them into the bank. He had lots of different professions that he didn't actually do them; he didn't have any training so he had to make fake i.d.s that said he did do that profession. He did do the actual work, but he didn't do it well. He was a pilot and he was a doctor and he also said he was a lawyer. He is actually the hero, kind of. You are kind of saying, "don't let that policeman catch you!" But you are also kind of thinking, "Policeman, go and catch him!" This play, Catch Me If You Can, is actually based on a real man's life. You would think, "this is just a fake story"--because he does all these horribly-weird and why-would-you-do-that? things. It is fun to watch it because you shouldn't actually do these things and then you don't have to because you can just watch this person do them and it won't hurt anybody.
In the play they had this song which was sung by the detective/policeman Hanratty (Merritt David Janes) who wanted to get our "hero." It was about why he got into the FBI--because he wanted everybody to obey the rules. Why did he want everybody to obey the rules? Because when he was a kid he was very serious and he always wanted people to obey the rules in games and stuff like that. And when they played gangster and policemen he always wanted to be the policeman and never he wanted to be the crook. I liked that character's singing because that character wasn't exactly somebody who would be a rock star or something like that, but he still could sing really well. He didn't seem like a character that would dance either, but he danced like he was in a musical--which he was in one, but he wouldn't be in one if this story was real--he would be having his actual life being in the FBI. I thought that that was a funny element to this musical.
There was one song I thought that showed you how much Frank really liked girls because the only reason he became a doctor was because there were nurses. It was called "Doctor's Orders," and he was singing with a bunch of ladies, and he started flirting with all the nurses. They were dressed like nurses in old-fashioned t.v. shows and they were dancing like can-can dancers. It is important to know that he likes nurses because that is one of his faults. You should become a doctor because you want to be a doctor not because there are girls. When he became a pilot, it also had to do with girls because there are flight attendants. He needs to find the girl that he really likes and not just one just that he finds and thinks is pretty--because he thinks every single one is pretty!
One of the last songs was called "Good-Bye." And you would think that meant "Good-bye, that's the end of the show." But it didn't; there was one more song. But "Good-bye" is about him saying "Good-bye, that's the end of the show, there's nothing else to see." He is saying that because he doesn't want to go to jail. And if the show keeps going, he's going to jail. The writers (Terrence McNally, Scott Wittman, and Marc Shaiman) thought, "Oh, wow, wouldn't that be awesome if Frank just wanted everybody to leave the show before he went to jail so that it wouldn't actually happen." It shows us that he is saying "My life is just a play; my life doesn't actually exist" because then he doesn't have to go to jail. Wouldn't it be funny if everybody left and they didn't get to perform the song?!
People who would like this show are people who like FBI agents, fake checks, and nurses! I think this show should be for ages 7 and up because kids who are 6 might not understand why he is so obsessed with ladies. People should go see this show because it has some great acting and it is an awesome fun story that they bring to life in a very cool way. It is a broadway musical and an autobiography at the same time.
Photos: Carol Rosegg
Once upon a time I went to a show and it was called Julius Caesar. This was not any old Julius Caesar. If you are a girl, like I am, you are about to have a really awesome thing happen. This Julius Caesar was ALL GIRLS! (I'm waiting for your applause.) Also, boys, if you are excited, I am happy for you. All these girls get to do Shakespeare together, and this is a show where they can say "Girls can do Shakespeare by themselves." So, here is a little history lesson for you. Shakespeare was alive during the Renaissance period. Babes with Blades is doing the exact opposite of what they did in the Renaissance in England--which was that all the actors were boys! Even the girls' parts were played by boys! I hope you've got that in your minds. It is important if you are a Shakespeare nerd. Julius Caesar is about these friends who want to kill Julius Caesar (Maureen Yasko) because he wants to have more power than he's supposed to. Then it is about how to get out of people being angry at them for killing Julius Caesar.
There was this really funny scene where Casca (Alison Dornheggen) was telling Brutus (Kimberly Logan) and Cassius (Sara Gorsky) what had happened with Caesar and how he kept refusing the crown. One of my favorite parts of this scene was when she said "Oh, I can't tell you anymore" and then she used her fingers to say "Come closer, I'll tell you more." I thought that was really funny because she was doing exactly the opposite of what she said she was going to do. And then she was also afraid of the rain, so she was kind of the scaredy cat character. And Cassius says, "don't be afraid of the rain; just go out in it." And that is when she decides, "Ok, I am going to come and kill Caesar with you."
There is one scene where Caesar's wife, Calphurnia (Aila Peck) says "Caesar, you cannot go to the senate today" because he is going to get killed is what she thinks because of her dream. And then he listened to her and then Caesar said "Yes, I'm going to stay home for you," and then his wife was very happy. And then Metellus Cimber (Kalina McCreery) says, "That dream is a good sign," and that happens to be one of the people who is going to kill Caesar! It shows you that Metellus really really wants to free his country. I think that when Caesar says, "I'm going to do this for you" to his wife and then he says, "No I'm actually not because this other guy says it is actually fine" it made me hate him even more. It makes you think that Calphurnia is like a fortune teller, and I think that is awesome to have a fortune teller wife.
After they have killed Caesar, in the same scene where they have killed Caesar, Mark Antony (Diana Coates) comes in. Mark Antony is on Caesar's side. He comes over to everybody and says, "I will shake your bloody hands and I am not angry with you," even though he is very angry with them. This is how you can tell he is angry with them: because he says he is not going to say anything mean about them in his speech, and then he says a lot of mean stuff and they say they are going to go and burn Brutus's house. He says "This is Caesar's friend Brutus's stab and this is how big it was and you should go kill him." He starts his speech in a nice way and says that "Brutus is an honorable man." But then after Brutus is totally out of earshot, he starts saying all this mean stuff about them. So honorable, a word that usually means very good, has now turned into a word that means, "I hate you very badly and I really want to burn down your house." I think the woman who played Antony was amazing. She did a great job in making me really think at first that she really thought Brutus was an honorable man. And that is the whole trick of things.
There is a scene where Cassius and Brutus have an argument about how Brutus wanted money from Cassius and Cassius didn't want to give it to him. They have a really big fight, but not a fight with swords or guns or poison or any kind of thing that would hurt each other. They are having a mouth fight and then it really shows that they said that they were brothers, and brothers have fights as well. It is hard when your friend wants something and you don't really want to give it to them, even though they're your friend. Brutus has this certain soldier, Lucius (Ashley Fox), and he really likes him, and I think that is why he wants the money--so he can pay Lucius. And for this war he asked Lucius go out and he got badly hurt, and he loved Lucius a lot, even though he was basically his servant.
One of my favorite scenes was the big battle because I am a big battle fan but not a big bloody battle fan and this didn't have any blood in it, so I liked that. I like stabbing in plays but not in real life. I don't really like it when there is fake blood because sometimes fake blood can look very realistic even though it is usually just corn syrup and food coloring. All the fighting, choreographed by Libby Beyreis, was so amazing. All of them (including Catherine Dvorak, Kim Fukawa, and Jennifer Mickelson) were so in time with each other. All of them seemed like they were actually fighting and they were determined to win this battle.
People who would like this show are people who like Shakespeare, Rome, and women fighting. People should go and see this show because it is funny, you will love all the actors, and it has really good fights. Friends, Romans, Countrymen, go and see this play. It is very good!
Photos: Steven Townshend
Once upon a time I went to a show and it was called Kill Shakespeare. It was by Anthony Del Col and Conor McCreery. And the art was by Andy Belanger. It was directed by Anderson Lawfer. It is projections (designed by Michelle Underwood) of the comic book and people talking behind you. If you just read a comic book you won't hear actors acting out these characters. You will hear either nothing or you would hear yourself playing twenty different characters. It feels more realistic because the projections are bigger than just small pictures in a book and the voices are so amazing that it feels like you are in the story. The story is about Hamlet (Ryan Bosque), Juliet (Nikki Klix), Falstaff (Steve Herson), Romeo (Conor Burke), and Othello (James Anthony Zoccoli) trying to save William Shakespeare (Brian Amidei) from Iago (Caleb Probst), Lady Macbeth (Kate Harris), and Richard III (BF Helman). They want to kill him because they think he is some kind of evil god. Falstaff, Juliet, Hamlet, Romeo and Othello think that he is a good god and he wants to help them because he is their creator.
Something that I think, if you take a kid to this, you should totally remind them about is a guy gets his eyes popped out with a sword. And also if you let them watch King Lear, pause it and then skip 3 minutes. That also has the same contents. This is what happens in Kill Shakespeare. This is the process. Richard III grabs a sword, sticks it into one of his soldier's eyes, pops one out, and you hear a horrible screaming sound coming from behind you. And that I think might be one of the scariest things I have ever seen in my life. I still liked it though because it gave me an idea of what King Lear when I watch that part will be like.
One of the fun things about Kill Shakespeare, if you are a Shakespeare nerd like I am, is that you can look for different Shakespeare quotes. Like I noticed very very many that those characters didn't say in their actual plays. Like one time Hamlet does Juliet's balcony speech "Thou knowst the mask of night is on my face" to Juliet! So it is kind of reversed but not reversed. It is not Romeo to Juliet; it is Hamlet to Juliet. And Hamlet and Romeo both like Juliet. And then when you think about it, you kind of want Hamlet to get married to Juliet. Or maybe, after you think about it two days, you want Romeo to go to Juliet because they've been in love for longer. And it is so hard to choose because you like both of those characters and you've known Hamlet for longer in Kill Shakespeare but you know the story of Romeo and Juliet and how much they wanted to be together.
So here is a little question for you that I would like you to answer for yourself. I have not decided yet what in the world is going on. Why does everybody make out with Lady Macbeth?! In two different scenes Lady Macbeth is talking to somebody while they are making out or is about to make out with them. These two people are Richard III (which I don't understand) and the other, surprisingly, is not Macbeth. It is Iago. I'll tell you my three theories. One is that she's pretty. Two is that she likes them and they fell in love with her after she started making out with them. Three is that she was a wife of somebody who had a lot of money and now she has that money and they want to get that money. I don't think they really actually love her at first sight because she was already married.
The fight scenes were exciting but also terrifying. Like one time somebody who was really drunk just broke a bottle and shoved it into somebody. That was kind of gross. Something cool in the big war scene was when the witches turned against Richard III when they were with him at the very beginning. You could follow what was happening in the battles because the pictures told so much of the story that you really got an idea of what was happening.
There is lots of blood, fighting, and witches. But the witches sometimes could be funny. Like sometimes they said verses from Macbeth, but they added little twists in. Falstaff was another source of humor because he was from a comedy, Merry Wives of Windsor, and also he is very chubby and he says he is a renowned cook even though I'm not sure if he even cooks even good because Hamlet throws up right when he smells the food. And another funny thing was when Falstaff started talking normal to Hamlet when he had almost been killed and he was just talking about different kinds of food and his friends and how pretty Juliet was and how he had a great idea of what they should do (which was dress up like ladies to get into the pub).
People who would like this show are people who like big battles, mismatched speeches, and Hamlet and Juliet being in love. People should see this show because it is funny and scary and it has some of your very favorite characters from Shakespeare.
Photos: Tom McGrath
There was this song that was called "Don't Patronize the Irish" and in this song there were a bunch of co-workers and they all were talking about how you shouldn't patronize the Irish. But the funny thing about it is that Betjeman (Jason Grimm), the same person was another coworker, so he just changed his costume on stage: just put on the bowler hat and a coat, and of course he had to get his teddy bear. As they say, "Don't patronize the Irish," they are patronizing the Irish by saying that they drink too much and dancing a jig, which makes it kind of crazy and silly. But then when you think about it, you think, "Wait a second, this song makes more sense because they could mean, 'Don't patronize the Irish in front of the Irish.'"
The thing that I thought was funny about Scott Danielson when he was playing a co-worker is that he kept yelling out stuff because the headphones were so good that he couldn't hear himself talk. So he thought nobody else could! Then he kept yelling out rhymes about what they were talking about, and then if they changed the subject he would start yelling about that.
There was this one scene where Mr. Faraday came over to Philomena's house and was asking her, "was she the secret agent?" I thought that scene was interesting because people played furniture. One person played a chair (Jason Grimm) where sat down on just chair legs that had a board on them and put his arms out like arm rests. A woman played a lamp (Christina Hall) and wore a lampshade on her head. Then she would just stand there until Mr. Faraday said "Philomena" and then all the furniture would move. Like one time the lamp moved all the way across the room. And also the cupboard (Scott Danielson) opened and closed its doors whenever they said "Philomena." It was funny because of course furniture don't move.
There was this really really awesome song that was also really really really creepy. It was sung by Agent Green (Christina Hall) and she sang about betrayal. Not the play Betrayal, the actual thing that actually hurts people and makes them feel depressed. But she is not depressed; she wasn't the one being betrayed; she is betraying all the guys that people thought she liked. She is also betraying her country. It was so catchy, but I am not on her side at all! I thought her singing was amazing! I think she should have her own band! I liked the character at first, but then I hated her. Not like her acting turned bad, but the character turned awful.
There was a funny element of the show which was where the musicians (Hilary Holbrook, Kristina Lee, Mike Przygoda, and Curtis Williams) interacted with the people in the show. Like one time Betjeman came over to the musicians and said, "Sorry, got to run" and the girls went "Aw!" because they kind of didn't want him to leave because I think the girls had a crush on Betjeman. It is cool to have the band members in the show because they can make the show more funny because people don't expect that the band members won't just be band members and have nothing to do with the play. It is kind of a surprise and then it gets you even more interested in what is going on in the show.
So there is this song about Pat, and Pat is like the mystery of the play: Who is Pat? I'm not going to tell you because that is the main question of the story, like I just told you. It is not only a song, but it also has a mad scientist laughing. Schrodinger (Eric Paskey) is also known as the crazy mad scientist. Earlier in the show he sang a song about how in the day he loved science but in the night he hated science and only wanted to go out with the ladies. And that has to do with the scene because here he starts saying that he likes Agent Green. Philomena was waiting for Mr. Faraday and she was part of the song too. And while they were singing she was part of the song by going "lalalalalalalalala." I liked this because it felt like she was also in the room and she kind of knew what was happening. I liked how all the lights turned on and it seemed so colorful but also so terrifying. This was also the scene with my favorite creepy song "Betrayal," which I talked about earlier, which made the whole scene even cooler.
People who would like this show are people who like hilarity, awesome songs, and patronizing the Irish. This is a show I think is good for only some kids; you will have to warn them about some content, like romance that kids shouldn't know about yet, and you will also have to warn them about some swear words. I think this is perfect for adults and teenagers; I don't they would have any problems. People should go see this show because it is basically a combination of all different kinds of plays like drama, romance, comedy, mystery, and musicals. This show is fantastic!
Photos: Chris Ocken
Once upon a time I went to a show and it was called Augusta and Noble. And it was about a girl (Gabriela Mayorga) whose parents (Ivan Vega and Isabel Quintero) used to live in Mexico and her name was Gabi. She is trying to find out where she comes from; she has to ask her mom bunches of questions for school, but she learns it from her dreams. Her dreams tell her about how her mother and father got over to Chicago which was an illegal way. The story was about how the father might never come back in real life because if the police find him they will say, "hey, you are supposed to be in Mexico. What are you doing over here?" Then they will go and take the wife and then they might not even take the kids with them because they are American citizens. The play makes you think about what it is like to move to a different country. The playwright Carlos Murillo was trying to show you that people should be able to cross from country to country for a better life. 
