Review of The Hypocrites’ Pirates of Penzance at Chopin Theatre

Once upon a time I went to a show and it was called Pirates of Penzance. It was about pirates and there was a modern major general. It was about a girl named Mabel and daughters of a very model major general. And he was very model-major-general-like. If you don’t know what a general is, you can learn it from me, ADA GREY! There are lots of different kinds of generals. Like a war general who tells you what to do in a war. In A White Christmas there is one general. He was a war general. A modern major general--he is an up-to-date general--his work was to keep people safe because he was keeping his daughters very safe, but then the pirates wanted to marry them so he couldn’t.

The audience was walking around on the stage, and it was really cool. At first I felt a little scared that I got to walk around. And I got to hold up a towel during one of the songs. I felt cute because I was holding up a towel that actually had the British flag on it; I felt super-duper cute and some complimented me on holding the towel. All the grown-ups, I think, since they have lived longer, they have walked around on the stage before because they weren’t scared at all.

It wasn’t what I expected from the person who directed the Comedy of Errors (Sean Graney). I expected it to have more funnier parts that weren’t really in Pirates of Penzance. There were some funny parts but Comedy of Errors had more funny parts. Something that there was a girl with a flipper and she was named Ruth and she was a pirate. She did not have a flipper in the original Pirates of Penzance. I am positive even though I have not seen the operetta.

Christine Stulik played Mabel and she also played Ruth. Ruth wanted to 

marry the young pirate whose name was Frederic. And I think he was still a teenager and she was 46. And she wanted to marry him, but she couldn’t because she was too old for him. Ruth’s part wasn’t that big. And I think it wasn’t that big because we didn’t get to see all of it. Mabel had glasses and was the oldest daughter of the modern major general. And her sisters were younger and all the same age. One of them was a pirate and one was a modern major general’s daughter, but they were both played by the same person. And they were exactly different. One of them was more high-pitched and the other one was more pirate-pitched. It was a little confusing when I first saw Mabel. The performance that she did was great because like her performance made me think that she was not the same person in those costumes.

The Modern Major General’s daughters (Becky Poole, Emily Casey, and Nikki Klix) had their dresses that looked like bathing suits and a bathing suit cap. And that was cool. There were pink and white flowers on their dress and hat. They had to pretend to marry pirates. They sang the modern major general and said “Yes he is! Yes he is!” Or “Yes you are! Yes you are!” They played some music. They played the violin, they played the accordion, and they played the ukulele. Their dancing and singing was kind of like hula dancers and policemen and rock stars and brides. They did a good job doing it.

There was this person called the Pirate King and he was a captain of the ship. And it had a song that told everybody about how he was a pirate king. And his part he wore a sailor’s hat that was hilarious and very short shorts. They were cool. There was a song that had a paradox in it, and I remember a tiny bit of the song, and I’ll sing it: “A paradox, a paradox, a one ingenious paradox.” The paradox was that he had only had five birthdays, but he was not five years old. He was twenty or nineteen or something like that. I learned what a paradox is from my a-genius mom. And my mom is also fuh-larious. (Ed. Note: aw, shucks.) The pirate king was played by Robert McLean. He did a terrific job because he acted like there was actually an ingenious paradox. There was not in real life, but he was faking very good.

Zeke Sulkes played the young pirate whose name was Frederic. Zeke had a cool costume. The costume was shorts with a tie and pirates don’t usually wear ties! His singing was really good. Like how when he was singing an emotion--like a sad one in that song where he said he had to say how he couldn’t be with Mabel--it really felt like he was singing like it was really happening. And I felt like it was really happening too. I don’t know if that was what they really wanted do, but I thought that that was a great idea to do it if that is what they wanted. Zeke was also in The Dirty Cowboy and that was a good play too. In both ones he was both playing good guys. The Dirty Cowboy was all about getting himself clean, but this one was more about love I guess.

Ryan Bourque, Doug Pawlik, and Shawn Pfautsch, they played pirates. When they played their instruments they did a good job because I think they had been practicing for a while. They had to try not to drop the instrument as they danced while they played. I think they were good dancers while playing. The pirates wanted to be rich, but at the end they really wanted to marry the girls--but not to be rich but because they loved them I guess.

The Modern Major General was Matt Kahler. He did a good job because when he sang he really sounded pretty funny. And I love that--when people sing funny. There was a song called “The Modern Major General” and he was singing about how he was a modern major general. It was real rocking, and it was real funny. It was really fast. I think it would have been very hard for him to sing so fast--but that is only a hypothesis.

I think this play should be for ages 5 and up because there is some stuff about killing but I think 5 year olds will be old enough for that. People that like pirates, hula dances, singing, and fast-singing hilariousness would like this play. The play was great because it was really funny, and I like funny things. It was more fun than just a play that you just got to sit down at. The people that go to see this should be prepared for threatening to die (not to themselves but just to a character). They should love it because it is a great play.


Photos: Paul Metreyeon

Re-piew of a Preview of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark

I saw a preview of Spider-Man so I am calling this a Re-piew. It is not a review, it is a Re-piew. A preview is that they haven’t made the whole show yet. It was in NEW YORK CITY!

Once upon a time I went to a preview, and it was called Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. It was fighting at some parts and not fighting at parts. And sometimes confusing, and sometimes scary, and sometimes weird. I liked the funny parts and I liked the confusing parts quite a bit. The music was good--almost all the people were singing during the music. It was kind of rocking and kind of sad-ish.

Spider-Man was played by Reeve Carney. I met him afterwards, and I got his autograph. It was awesome. I think he did a really good job playing Spider-Man. He did a good job swinging, and he wasn’t scared. And a good job grabbing things and a good job talking like something bad was actually happening. What his emotion was in the play made me feel the emotion. Peter Parker was the secret identity of Spider-Man. The person that played Spider-Man also played Peter Parker. I liked the character of Peter Parker quite a bit because he doesn’t always have to have a good time because he is a super hero. Ones that are treated nicer--then they can be happy all the time. Usually super heroes are treated nicely in their secret identity, but Peter Parker isn’t. Batman is very rich, but he has had a very sad life, and his parents died, and he hates Christmas because his parents died on Christmas. And Batman is kind of like Peter Parker a little bit because his parents died at a very young age and Peter Parker’s uncle died when he was very young for his uncle to die.

Arachne (America Olivo) was like Arachne from the story of Arachne. It is a Greek story, a spider story, and a told story. She was a spider and she turned into a human at the end. She wanted life and freedom. She is in Peter Parker’s dreams. They wanted to put her in the play because they wanted to show Peter Parker’s dreams. It makes it like he is in love with Arachne but he is actually not in the story. That was not very clear to the audience. Her songs and dancing were cool, and she robbed a shoe store. I liked how she robbed the shoe store.

The Green Goblin (Patrick Page) was scary in his costume, and he had a mask or face-paint. I think it was face paint because then how could you see his mouth move? And he had spikes on the outside of his costume on his shoulders. They were like shoulder spikes. It was pretty awesome. He did a good job playing the Green Goblin. Everyone clapped after his song which was very funny because it was about destroying New York. And then he said “Thank you, thank you very much” even that nobody in the play was actually supposed to be listening--which was so hilarious.

Mary Jane (Jennifer Damiano) sang some songs with Peter Parker. For one song they were actually singing the same thing that everybody else on stage was singing. It was called “No More”--they were singing about that their life was so hard. Her performance was awesome, but her part that was made was not as good as she was acting--like she was doing a better job playing that than the part was.

J. Jonah Jameson was played by Michael Mulheren. J. Jonah Jameson was against Spider-Man. I have no idea why he was against Spider-Man. But he should be against the Green Goblin, but he had no problems with the Green Goblin. He thought the Green Goblin was the hero and Spider-Man was the villain because Spider-Man was destroying things so he could save people. It was awesome because he acted like he hated Spider-Man, but the actor actually likes Spider-Man quite a bit because why would he ask to be in the musical if he really hates Spider-Man?

These are some of my favorite scenes. There was this scene where Peter Parker was fighting with the kids that didn’t like him after he got his super powers. So he like came in and like punched two back and they were like hovering in the air in the back with their mouths open like aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh! There was like a part in the scene where at the end everyone was hovering in the back like aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh! And Flash Thompson ran away because he was very scared because he didn’t expect Peter Parker to have all these super powers. It was kind of funny. Peter Parker was strong and it was cool. I didn’t think they would be hovering in the back like aaaahh!

There was this part where Spider-Man was fighting with Green Goblin, and he was flying around in circles, and Green Goblin scratched at the people at the top, and we were at the top, and it was very very scary. And then when Spider-Man came off from flying and webbing everywhere, and then when he was walking to go through the door, a kid who was sitting in the balcony chased after Spider-Man. It was very weird.

Peter Parker was bouncing off the walls in the song and scene called “Bouncing Off the Walls.” It was very cool. The scene was cool, and he was like bouncing off the walls, and his house looked like it was falling apart. Some people were holding on to his house so it looked like it was falling apart. He woke up and then he just started bouncing off the walls because he had his super powers. I wish I was in that scene because it was so AWESOME. And I’ll sing the lyrics: “Bouncing off the wa-aa-aalls! Bouncing off the wa-aa-aalls! Bouncing off the wa-aa-aalls! Bouncing off the wa-aa-aalls! Bouncing off the wa-aa-aalls! Bouncing off the wa-aa-aalls!” They actually do it more than six times--more than one hundred, like a trillion. I said it six times so you would be prepared to be annoyed.

There were some scary things that were in the play. There were villain projections that were very scary. I think that they wanted children to come see it, but they made it too scary for children. The ugly pageant was great. The ugly pageant was whoever was the ugliest of the villains winned the ugly pageant. They should have done more stuff like that because the projections were scarier than the ugly pageant.

It was confusing that it looked like Peter Parker was marrying Arachne instead of Mary Jane because he asked Mary Jane to marry him. But then it looked like he was marrying Arachne. It was very confusing because everybody thought Arachne was only in his dreams.

I think this should be for ages 8 and up. It was very scary. You would have to go on a very long plane trip to get there, so be prepared to be bored for a second on the trip to New York and to be bored for some of the play, but most of it will not be boring luckily. People that like Spider-Man and super heroes and villains and violence and kissing would like this play. I think people should go see it because it is fun and hilarious in some parts, and be prepared to be scratched by the Green Goblin if you are in the balcony. ( And watch out for super villains.)

Review of The Nutcracker at the House Theatre of Chicago

Once upon a time I went to a show. It was called The Nutcracker, and it wasn’t a ballet at all. I thought that that was weird because The Nutcracker is usually a ballet. I think it was good that they got it to not be a ballet because the ballet has all these weird stuff, like dancing snowflakes and sugar plum fairies, and this didn’t have as much weird stuff--except for the Nutcracker being Fritz. But the play was not called Fritz, it was called The Nutcracker.

Clara (Carla Kessler) was the main character in the show. And Fritz (Chance Bone) was her brother, but he died in the war, but he came back to life because Uncle Drosselmeyer put a spell on him. He turned him into a nutcracker. At least everybody thought that it happened but really he didn’t.

Clara got to dance a lot, and she got to sing most of the songs. That was cool. There were also all these songs like “Baking Cookies.” They were cool and more rocking than I thought they would be. The Nutcracker was also Fritz and that was cool because it is not in the ballet. When he came back to life it was awesome because it was a trick--everybody thought that he was really back to life. He was standing by a doorway, and then he became Fritz by standing still. Then he moves his body a bit--he moves his arms like a nutcracker, back and forth--and then he realized that he was human. Clara and The Nutcracker’s performances were great.

There were all these rats who all had British accents. The rats were always trying to get the Nutcracker and Clara and the dolls. And the dolls names were Monkey (Mike Smith), Hugo (Joey Steakley), and Phoebe (Trista Smith). And all of them were in trouble because the rats didn’t like light. So then they try to hang up all these light bulbs but then it doesn’t work. The mom (Carolyn Defrin) and the dad (Jake Minton) and Uncle Drosselmeyer (Blake Montgomery) were all playing rats because like in Wizard of Oz all the people there were actually in her dream.

There was a scene with the Mom-Rat where she was eating chinese noodles. She just came out on stage eating noodles, and they dropped on the floor, and then she ate them off the floor. That is just soo yucky. I think she ate the noodles off the floor because she was playing a rat and rats eat stuff off the floor. She is good at doing yucky stuff even though sometimes she doesn’t want to do them. She knows how to act very well. In Wilson Wants it All she ALSO played a MOM! She played moms in both plays that I saw. I think she has played moms a lot of times because she tells her children what to do and stuff like “you shouldn’t go there, you broke up with that guy” and “it is all your imagination. There is really no rats in the wall.”

The dad also played a rat, but he was not the rat that ate noodles off the floor. He was the rat that got stabbed. The rats had red glasses. The eyes are real glowing red when they turn into big rats. Him as a rat was cool because both the parents were rats. It was scary and so kind of weird--the guy that plays a father playing a rat too. His performance was awesome. Uncle Drosselmeyer was the great uncle of Clara. They seemed surprised to see him. The actor was funny in his part. He was funny when he was the rat too--he was kind of scary when he was playing the rat too.

There was this cookie-baking scene. Then they were going to save Christmas by making Christmas cookies that everybody thought were the best. I didn’t get to taste them to know that they were the best because we were sitting in the back row. People in the front and second row got to have cookies. And if we go see it again, then maybe I could get cookies. They were singing, and then they had to go, and they left Hugo, and then the Monkey said, “Stay here while we go and get something and you entertain all these nice people. “ And

then Hugo sings “Baking Cookies,” and then they come back. And the second that he started singing they just came back--that was funny. Hugo was the guy with a light bulb on his head. I thought he was hilarious. There was this monkey whose name was Monkey and he was French. He had a french accent and he wore a beret. And he was fu-larious. If you don’t know what fu-larious means you can learn it from me--ADA GREY! Fu-larious means “funny and hilarious both at the same time.” Phoebe was a doll, and she was the only girl doll. Her back had a pull string. She said things like “Let’s have a party!” and “Let’s bake cookies!” and “I’m afraid of the dark.” and “Everybody’s good at something!” She is so funny I want to have her as my own doll.

I think this play should be for ages 6 and up because there is a lot of killing and The Nutcracker dies, but then they just bury him in the snow so he can at least come back to life sometimes. I think he will come back to life because if he is The Nutcracker and he was Fritz and he died and came back to life then he could do it again. I think people who like fighting and rats and toys and cookies would like this play. People should go see it because it is funny and delightful.

Review of The Iliad at A Red Orchid Theatre

Once upon a time in our solar system there was a war. And it was the scariest war--and that is what The Iliad was about. It was called the Trojan War. Paris took a girl from Menelaus, but the girl wanted to go. A war happened in that country because Paris took her. It was actually a play directed by Steve Wilson at A Red Orchid Theatre. There were boy characters but they were played by girls, and all the female parts were played by Barbies.

At the very beginning, Paris (Nicole Rudakova) and Menelaus (Paola Lehman) were sitting down with a Barbie. They brushed her hair. They didn't share nicely either. I didn’t know that it was Paris and Menelaus. I thought it was just plain girls. I learned that they were not just girls in the middle of the play because I realized those two actors were playing characters and that Paris started the war--kind of a silly war because they are fighting over a girl.

There were two scenes where a Barbie head rose out of the water--it was Achilles’ mother. I liked those scenes. They were so calming and sweet, though the Barbie head was weird. One of the scenes Achilles (Jaiden Fallo-Sauter) needed help from his mother. He needed help so she told him what to do. She was nice to him.

There is a scene with Calchas (Kara Ryan) and Agamemnon (Najwa Joy Brown) and Agamemnon had to trade a girl but he said “Ok, but I’ll need a new girl in exchange for this old girl.” Calchas is telling him what to do about the girl. He wants one of Achilles’ girls, and then Achilles said “You can have one of the girls.” Achilles feels sad because he liked the girl. He stays away from Agamemnon. He didn’t want to fight in the war because he didn’t want to help Agamemnon.

There was an armor scene where Achilles gave Patroclus (Elenna Sindler) his armor so he could go fight. Nestor (Marissa Meo) told Patroclus to go get Achilles’ armor. The Trojans thought Achilles was there because who would usually be wearing Achilles armor? Achilles! I liked how Achilles put the armor on Patroclus. They liked each other--I could tell by how he put on his armor. Hector (Aria Szalai-Raymond) killed Patroclus and then Achilles killed Hector because he killed his friend. When Achilles saw Patroclus was dead he was sad and angry both at the same time.

Scamandrius (Katie Jordan) wanted Hector, his father, to not go to war. Hector said no because he had to work for his country. I felt sorry for the kid because he couldn’t spend as much time with his dad. Hector couldn’t help his wife because he would be in war. I thought Hector felt sad about having to go to war. Hector said “I like to be hated more than loved.” I think he said that because he felt more comfortable in the war than he did at home in his nice warm bed. Maybe he was fighting the war when he was very young, before he got married.

King Priam was played by Melanie Neilan. I liked the Barbie scene that she was in. She did the voices of the Barbies as well. It was funny because King Priam was talking to the Barbies and comforting them. Well, they were actually his wife and daughter-in-law. His wife does a good job comforting Helen. When he talked to the Barbie and he said “Stop crying!” in an angry voice it was funny because I sometimes like funny stuff that is kind of a little mean. But it wasn’t real people at least.

There were these fights that were like real fights but they weren’t--luckily. Almost everybody in the play had a fight because almost everybody in the play actually died. There was a scene where Ajax (Eden Strong) and Odysseus (Madison Pullman) led the war and they had a big battle-fight. They thought it was all good now, but then they had a big battle-fight because Pandarus (Isabella Mugliari) shot Menelaus with an arrow.

At the end Paris was going to shoot a guy--Achilles. His mom told Achilles that his life was almost over anyway.

The costumes were cool. Ajax’s costume was like a fighting costume and had a lot of parts to it. A shirt, a helmet, and some pants. I thought that there weren’t costumes to begin with--because they looked like regular clothes. But some of them were not regular clothes. No. Not at all. Nobody wears a belt with belts on it or a helmet or a robe with a crazy crown now. It made the costumes better because it made them a little cooler.

The director I actually saw in another play (Comedy of Errors) where he actually got stabbed. I think it helped him in this play very much because he was used to seeing people stabbed. It was funny how he chose Barbies to be the girls. Because he didn’t want to disappoint the girls--because some of the girls might want to play girls--that’s why he got Barbies. The girls that wanted to play girls got to play boys, but he didn’t disappoint any of them because none of them got to play girls because they were not Barbies. I think he did a very good job teaching them how to sword fight and how to read their lines. The words that grownups usually use when they are in a play--those are some words that they might need to know before the play actually happens.

You have to like fighting and heroes and wars and Barbies to like this play. I liked the play because I like all those things! I don’t like real wars, but I like fake ones. I like fighting because I like Batman. It should be for ages 4 and up because I think 4 year olds will be able to handle fights. When I was three, I saw my Dad fight and I cried because he died in the play. But when I was 4 I saw some other fights and I was okay.

Review of K. (The Hypocrites at The Chopin Theatre)

Once upon a time I went to a show called K., and it was about a guy who was arrested but he didn’t know why.

At the beginning these guys came out with matches. It was mysterious. And then the alarm clock rang, and then K (Brennan Buhl) was fast asleep, and then he got up--like he got up out of bed--and did his exercises like er er er er er. And then Mrs. Grubach (Tien Doman) came with his breakfast, and then that scene kept going over again--like er er er er er. He went really fast and got his robe and went outside, so he didn’t have to do that scene again. And Greg Allen, the director, was also in something where there was a guy in a lady suit in a rocking chair that went back and forth, and there was this horrible song that she danced in her rocking chair to. And she would say “more,” and it would never stop because then the song started again when she said “more.” That was The Complete Lost Works of Samuel Beckett.... It tells me that Greg likes funny scenes that go over and over and over and over and over again. I thought the whole play was going to be Mrs. Grubach bringing him breakfast for 120 years. I thought that that was really crazy.

Two guys (Erik Schroeder and Dan Granata) that were both playing guys that were each a policeman--they were both named Franz--they were pointing at K, but then he moved and was trying to shoot them. And then he like held his face back and then tried to shoot, but the gun didn’t work. And then when the policemen realized that K was moving around, they pulled him back into the circle. That was a funny scene. Even that there was shooting in it, it was really funny.

So then K got onto something and the voice said “GET ONTO THE PLINTH.” And K said “pli-i-nth?” when he got on. It was funny because it was like he was like “pli-i-inth” like he didn’t know a single thing that was going on.

It was sometimes serious and sometimes funny. After the intermission it got seriouser. It was more about how upset he was. The priest (Ed Dzialo) told K a story about a guard and a man that wanted to get in these places. K chooses that it is time for him to go to jail. He will just have to go with it. They pull out their guns at the end. I knew that was in jail because he was tied up. He doesn’t die in it because I think he just got a hole in his head not in his heart. That is how I know he didn’t die.

There was a part where K was taken off his clothes by the policemen. And then while he was naked he sang “Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday, Joseph K, Happy Birthday to me.” I even saw almost the whole scene. I thought it would be kind of scary and sad, but actually it was hilarious. I knew that he was in real big trouble for no apparent reason by his clothes being tooken off by the policemen. I was sad for him. It was kind of sad and kind of hilarious.

There was this part where there was a guy with a whip (Clifton Frei) and he went aaah aaaah ahhh I am the Whipperrrrr. It was HILARIOUS (all in capitals, please). The whipper’s costume was a lady’s apron to be funny--that’s why they did it. He was whipping everybody. It was kind of funny because at the end of the scene the Whipper was still going on and you could see his shadow behind the curtains. And then he screamed like AAAAAHhhhh.

The girl characters were awesome. There was one female actress in the whole entire play. There were three girls and like 17 boys. There were a lot of characters, but some actors playe

d some parts that were different people. There is usually a girl in every play. I like girls because I am a girl myself. I always want to have girls in plays. At the end of Miss Burstner’s scene, K said “Will I see you again?” and Miss Burstner said, “Not as this character.” It was funny because there was just this girl who was playing all these different girl parts, but she played a lot of parts, but then she told another character that she wouldn’t be in the rest of the play.

Titorelli (Clint Sheffer) was a painter and he kept giving K presents but K couldn’t get the thing that he wanted--the positive acquittal. They were weird presents--paintings but he was just holding up a picture frame. Titorelli said there wasn’t anything in the pictures anyway. When they came they whispered “Titorelli.” He said, “I am the great Titorelli,” and then the guys in the white masks whispered “Titorelli.”

The door dances were where they made these doors go around. It was fun. And they kept running around, and K kept going through every door, and he couldn’t find his way out of them. They moved around so he could get confused about which door to go in.

Greg Allen was the director and he did the play. When we knew that he was doing a play we decided to go see it. I wanted to see this play because my Dad was in it a few years ago and I knew the director. I knew it was going to be a good play because I saw the director in another play, The Complete Lost Works of Samuel Beckett, and it was hilarious. Both plays were really awesome.

People who like romance and policemen and people getting hurt would like this play. It is about this guy trying to figure out why he is arrested. He feels bad and confused. I think this play should be for ages 17 and up because Mom had to cover my eyes at one single part because they were being rude to Block (Sean Patrick Fawcett). If the moms know that there is going to be some sad and bad things happening, like people getting naked and having bad things happen to them, then they could cover their children’s eyes up and it would be for 6 and up.

See you later at my next review. Bye!


Photos: Paul Metreyeon

Review of Feast at Albany Park Theater Project

Once upon a week ago I went to a play, and it was called Feast because it is about food. The play was funny at some parts and sometimes not. It was fun but weird because I have never seen a play like it before. The kids wrote the stories; they acted on a stage that had a great set. It was awesome.

The card scene was very very funny because there was this girl that was doing an assignment for a card that her mom needed. She got the word citizen kind of right and kind of wrong. There was a shopping cart girl--she rolled around in the cart and told everyone how much she loved the food there. She loved the ice cream. There was a guy that cared about how people thought about him. He said that students thought he was wealthier than he really was because he had very good clothing. He didn’t like to use the Link card in front of other people because then everyone would know that he was poor.

The doll scene was very scary for me because it was like they were alive dolls with white faces. It was stuck in my head like it was in a haunted house. It was so spooky. They told all these bad stories that were bad for girls because it was about bad things happening to girls. This girl was giving some Biryani to her new husband. She was thinking about being careful. She thought he would like it, but then he said nothing. It made me feel kind of sad for the girl.

The Cow scene was very funny because there were all these noises. They made noises. They used a cowbell, a microphone, their voices. They had a plastic bag that they crunkled up. And they had had a broom--sh sh sh sh. They ate the apples. It was about taking care of a cow so they could send it to the market. Somebody could buy it; then they could eat. It made the boy feel terrible, but then he got another cow.

The Tamale scene was about these two people that were poor so they selled tamales. Then a stranger came along and she showed them a special way to make tamales. That girl blew this sparkly stuff out of her hand, like she was blowing fire off her hand. There were cheese and chiles that were the only things I remember about the ingredients. They just were dancing and singing all the ingredients. That is what I would have in my tamales.

There was this guy that loved the candy, and at the beginning he was eating chocolate and his master said “No you must not eat the chocolate,” with an accent, please. And the end he was eating candy, and the master said “I can hear you eating the candy!” With an accent, please, again.

The lights, they sometimes shined on the actors in all these different colors like in the doll scene. The set looked like just food when we came in. It looked like a food store. There were like these steps--each shelf was higher so it was like steps. There was a basket that was with the rice but I thought that this girl couldn’t find the basket, so she just pretended that she had a basket and did the same thing on the ground

The show was funny because it had some kid-funny and some grown-up-funny things that I kind of understood. People that like food would like this show. They talked about all kinds of food: tamales, cereal, coffee, biryani. They were not all from the same countries. They even talked about ice cream. Yum. There was food from different countries because then people would want to try these foods. Except cereal and ice cream because almost everybody in the United States has had cereal and ice cream. It makes you want to go to those places sometimes--like India or the Philippines. This show should be for ages six and up because if I saw it when I was six then I think it should be for ages six and up.

Review of State of the Union at Strawdog Theater Company

Once a week ago I went to a play called State of Union and it was good. It was a great show. I liked it a lot. The play was about somebody that was running for president. But he didn’t want to be president. It was about a union, and it was in the state.

Michael Dailey, he plays Grant. He was very funny at parts; sometimes he wasn’t. At the beginning he didn’t want to be president and he was telling everybody. That was a serious time. The guy that was married to the girl that was drinking with Grant’s wife gave him some stuff that he could do when he was president on a card and Grant said “Could you please throw these away.” It was funny.

Kristina Johnson played Kay, Grant’s girlfriend. That character was one of my favorite characters because I just thought she was smart and cool and fancy. I thought she had some good ideas about him being president. She published newspapers for work. Her costume was very very pretty, like the black and white dress she wore until it got stained; then it didn’t look as pretty--but it was still very pretty.

Kendra Thulin, she played Mary. She was Grant’s wife. She played a good part--she did a good job pretending to be angry. She did a good job because I think she was cast very good; she was a good choice as the character. She had to pretend to be drunk. She had to pretend that someone was her husband, and I thought she did a good job of that because it really wasn’t her husband. It was very cool how fast she talked.
Andy Lawfer played Spike who was Grant’s assistant, and it was funny how he tried to eat Grant’s hamburger. Then Grant’s wife said “don’t you dare” and he said “okay, I can starve.” It was HILARIOUS (all in capitals, please). So he had a pencil behind each ear, and he was looking for a pencil, and he found one, but not from his head. It was funny.

BF Helman he played the agent to the president. He was trying to find someone to be president because Franklin Roosevelt was dead. He kept talking on the telephone in the middle of a conversation about Grant. He just kept going on and off and on and off--it was funny. He was kind of a good guy and kind of a bad guy in the play.

Kate Harris, she played Mrs. Alexander. She was so very funny because of the accent that she had. There was a funny scene that she was in. Her husband made her so many drinks that all those drinks made her get more drinks. Once he brought her 4 so he didn’t have to go back so much. Jim Heatherly played Judge Jefferson Davis Alexander who was the husband of that girl I was just talking about. He gave Grant the letter, and that’s the one that he threw away. Both of them did an awesome performance.

Annie Munch, she did a good job playing all the servants. She didn’t have a very big part, but I still think she did a good job. She played all the maids except for the boy ones. I could tell that they were different because one of them wore a hat and one of them didn’t. She was also the food maid that brought them food. And that’s when the wife said “Don’t you dare, Spike.” Pat Whalen played another of the servants. He brought in the radio. It was really funny how he said, “lots of people want radios today.”

Rob Skrocki, he played the Senator. He was at the party with the girlfriend and the woman the wife talked to. Brant Russell played Hardy. Hardy was so funny because he said, “Nobody told me not to dress.” He was the only one who was dressed up fancy. The friend Sam (John Zinn) came in at the party and it was scary when the wife found out that the girlfriend was in Detroit at the same time she was. Samantha Gleisten played Mrs. Draper. When she went looking for her wrap the wife said, “Would you like some help?” And she said, “No, I’m just going.” I think maybe she missed her husband or her children.

The set was cool because of the arches. The arches were so cool. The set had a couch and some teacups, and I actually got to pretend to drink from one of the teacups when they were practicing for the show. I think all the places they went were almost the same, but that was okay because it was just a set. They went places that you would go awhile ago--I mean like in the time that Eleanor Roosevelt was alive. The person that made the set (Marianna Csaszar) did a good job because they took away the desk because you would not have a desk everywhere you go.

The costumes were cool because they looked like that kind of time period when Amelia Earhart was alive. Joanna Melville was the costume designer and she made good costumes because when she made them she must have thought about the time period that this was in. My favorite girl’s costume was the black one that the girlfriend was wearing. I thought the costume designer did a good job at making it look like it was stained when the wife spilled a drink on her. And I loved the one that the wife wore when she first came in. I liked Spike’s and Grant’s costumes--my favorite one was the white one.

Geoff Button was the director and I think he did a good job casting everybody. I think Michael helped him. Michael is my friend who I helped do his work while my dad was rehearsing. The director did a good job directing because he made the story very clear for grownups and some of it for kids.

I felt good to see the show. I was glad that some people that I knew were in it, and some people that I didn’t know were in it, because I thought that then I could meet some new people and see some people I had known before. People that like romance and presidents would like this play. Tell kids that if they want to come see the play, “Well, you might not understand all of this.” That’s okay because not even some grownups understood all of it. And tell them there will be some kissing too.

Review of Comedy of Errors at Court Theatre

Once upon a time I went to a show called Comedy of Errors. It was very very very very funny. The play is awesome. Shakespeare wrote the play. It didn’t sound exactly like the Shakespeare play, but it did have stuff that was in the Shakespeare play. Those other funny parts that were not from the Shakespeare play were from the director’s head. Sean Graney’s head, which was the director. Shakespeare’s head also had some ideas, and they shared those ideas together even though Shakespeare is dead now.

The set was filled with paintings that were all doors so they could peek through them at the end. I thought it looked kind of dirty; it had like trash everywhere. It was funny because it had Coke cans and McDonald’s boxes and leftover Subway sandwiches. Those weren’t there in that time, in the time that Shakespeare wrote this play. That was an exaggeration. The set was very very cool.

The costumes were really cool because they didn’t look exactly like the time, but they kind of did. The

back of the dresses of Adriana and Luciana were kind of like Shakespeare’s time, like you could see some of their backs. They looked kind of like fancy dresses--from Shakespeare’s time and from our time. Some of the actors put their clothes on very quickly so they could run out on stage as a different character. The quick changes were cool. The people that were at the end that came and had a bow and were all dressed in black--they were the changers. I think they did an awesome job. They did it so quickly! I just thought of an idea that I could make a machine. My idea was that they could have a machine that put their clothes on for them. So then they could change their clothes even quicker. They could just like run out on stage with different clothes on, and it would keep putting on their clothes as they run.

I’ve seen Alex Goodrich in plays before. I’ve seen him in Emperor’s New Clothes, Midsummer Night’s Dream and Barrel of Monkeys. All the plays I’ve seen him in were awesome. This was an awesome play that he was in. I know that it won’t be the last play I will see him in. Comedy of Errors was the soonest play that I saw him in. The Dromio that is visiting is the brother to the Dromio that lives here. He did a clothes changing where he was the person that was kind of like a priate--he was wearing a pirate kind of shirt--and then he ran on stage in the tuxedo. He was the Dromio that visited first and in two seconds he was a different Dromio. He was awesome. He was so funny. Where he went to Rope Depot--that was a funny part. He is very good at acting. One of my favorite scenes was the one where his master talked into the microphone. The guy that he was recording (his master) just talked right into a recording thing, and then Dromio shut it off. Then at some point he showed it to the ladies, and they were so very angry about it, and it was so very funny. When the other guy said don’t lose the money, Dromio gave it to a poor person or a peddler. He tried to give it to the audience, and he called the audience peddlers because he was pointing to us. He wore this white abbey dress with a paper abbey hat when he was Emelia. Emelia was the father’s wife. It was so very very funny. I didn’t think he was really a girl but he did very good at it.

Elizabeth Ledo, she played three parts. She played a newspaper boy and the sister AND Dromio’s wife. She maked them all seem different which is a good thing to say about a person. She had all these funny lines as all the characters. The one where she drank the Coke can when her sister asked for one--that was funny. Antipholus, he falls in love with the sister Luciana. It was awesomely awesome because it was kind of funny how she like backed away ev

ery time he came close to her. She backed, backed, backed up, and then she finally ran into the house. Dromio’s wife was so funny. She had like Groucho glasses only without the mustache. She talked kind of funny. I’ve never heard anyone who sounded lik

e her before. It was very weird.

Erik Hellman, he played both Antipholuses, and he also played the father of all the kids. The Antipholuses were different because of their voices, but their hair and body were still the same. One went around with teenagers, the other didn’t. They had different outfits but still looked a lot alike. He sounded like Chico from the Marx Brothers with the bad Italian accent when he was the one that lived there. The one that went around with teenagers went to jail. It was so funny. He did all those funny stuff like talked into the recorder. How he made Dromio do all the work was kind of funny and kind of mean. He was just talking to the wrong Dromio like the whole time. He slapped him instead of his real servant! He is serious and funny both at the same time. He is funny because he was being serious. It was seriously funny.

Kurt Ehrmann, he played Angelo and Dr. Pinch and the Courtezan. The Courtezan was so funny because he tortured them with his shiny underwear. He tortured them with his tights and his wig. Dr. Pinch was the doctor and he was also tooken to jail. He was like a wizard doctor and he had a deep voice and he didn’t make any sense at all. Angelo was so very funny. He tried to get the gold necklace and he stabbed his best friend by accident.

Stacy Stoltz, she played Adriana. She was so funny because she asked for a Coke and her sister drunk it because she was not being clear. She was just like, “You are not going to drink that are you?” She was mad because her husband wouldn’t come home to eat. She treated her husband badly because he wouldn’t come home to dinner and she asked him ten thousand times to do it. She was very good at acting, but I haven’t seen her in anything, but she was very good. The character with the animal was so funny and she was a bad guy--an angry merchantess. She needed the chain but she never got it.

Steve Wilson, he played a guy that got stabbed and a duke. He had to wear a fake mustache to play a duke. It was so funny how he got stabbed. At the end of the show it was ten hours ago since he got stabbed, and he was still alive, and he still had the sword in his belly. He says “that’s okay,” but then he started sobbing. It looked like he stayed alive, but he had the sword in his belly for his whole life. He did a good job doing acting.

People who like silly things but dramatic things would like this play. They treated everybody badly, but it was funny. I think this play should be ages six and up because I was six when I saw it. You should really go to this play because you would like it even if you don’t like Shakespeare because it is not all the way Shakespeare. After you see this, I think you might like Shakespeare more.

Review of Daredevil Hamlet at The Neo-Futurarium

Once upon a time, I went to a play called Daredevil Hamlet. It was one of the greatest plays this year. You can play ball with the actors at the beginning. I don’t know what kind of ball it was, but it is some kind of ball. I want to play if I go again.

My favorite dance was the one where they danced in their underwear with skulls on them. It was just so hilarious. It was in the scene that they were talking about Yorick—so I think that was supposed to be about Yorick. Hamlet is sad because Yorick is dead. Maybe they did that funny dance to cheer up Hamlet.

My favorite trick was the one where John held his breath underwater for it felt like a whole hour. He was dressed up as Ophelia because she is actually supposed to be dead in the play because she drowns.

At some point in the play a guy went on a baby’s tricycle and went up the ramp. And it was hilarious because he wasn’t actually doing it by himself. He was getting pushed up and they also lifted him up. It was their version of the part where Hamlet is forced to go on a ship. That’s just my opinion.

The guy who played Robin Hood and the King was from Barrel of Monkeys. If you guys don’t know what Barrel of Monkeys is, you can learn it from me, ADA GREY! Barrel of Monkeys is a show and I have been to at least six of them.

John I saw in The Complete Lost Works of Samuel Beckett…. The Complete Lost Works was in the day, and this was in the night. When you get out of a play that is very long at night then I have to go home and go to bed. The daytime play when I get home I can do stuff like play with my Dad and do funny stories with my dolls and all that stuff. But both days were good. Both were great plays. I thought John was one of the funniest actors in this play.

Brennan was very very hilarious. He was one of the most hilarious people in the play as well as John. Once he came out in a bathing suit and a little kid’s floatie. It was so hilarious, I almost laughed my head off. True story. It almost came off.

Heather came out—I think she was supposed to be in the play. It was so hilarious how she just came out and I didn’t really notice her until I heard her. She yelled a lot. You don’t want to marry someone if they have killed your first husband. I don’t think that she thinks that the king killed her first husband. Why was she carrying each member across the stage? Truly, I don’t know.

Ryan played Hamlet. He was a very good actor. All the actors were good, but he could say all his lines in feeling like I can. “To be or not to be, that is the question,” was my favorite speech because it just had so much feeling in it. Like a feeling that he knew what happened (that his father died after Yorick) and he is not going to let it happen to anyone else, but it does, and then he is sad.

The scene where Hamlet dies is the scariest. They had a swordfight. A big big swordfight. The queen drunk a cup with poison in it, so she died. The other ones got stabbed. Some of them got stabbed with their swords, some of them got stabbed with other swords. Horatio says this speech to Hamlet when he is dying. And then he does another a speech when he is dead. The dying speech is in the play Hamlet. But the dead speech is not in Hamlet. I thought they were both awesome. They were both just so dramatic. Jay was a great actor too. He could do feeling very well.

The wrestling was hilarious because some of it was kind of like in Hamlet and some of it wasn’t. 40 thousand brothers part was in the play Hamlet. The wrestling wasn’t in the play—with a coach and stuff and these numbers. I hoped that Hamlet would win it, but Laertes won it because he was her brother and Hamlet was just a guy who was in love with her.

Yorick was a very cute skull who was also a fake skull. He was very cute because he looked exactly like a skull, and skulls are cute sometimes except when they are trying to eat people. I wish that I could be closer to Yorick so I could see what he looked like close up. He looked like he was a smart guy.

It was like Shakespeare and not like Shakespeare because it was hilariouser than Shakespeare’s play was. And Hamlet is supposed to be more and more and more dramatic. It was the same because it was kind of dramatic too. The language of the play was mean and soft. I think doing Shakespeare and their own words was a great idea for the play because it made it funnier and easier to understand and harder—both at the same time. There are iambic pentameters in the play.

If you don’t know what iambic pentameter is, you can learn it from me, ADA GREY! Iambic pentameter is something with 10 syllables. So I put up one finger and then “If MU-sic BE the FOOD of LOVE play ON.” And then you should put up one finger for each syllable. You should try it at home on your fingers sometime. “To be or not to be” doesn’t work, so don’t try it if you want iambic pentameter.

I think this play is for ages 4 and up. I think people who like dramatic stuff and monsters—because there is a ghost in it—would like it. And people who are hilarious and like hilarious things would like it. People should go from all around the world, even people from other countries.