Hello, and thanks for taking a few minutes to read this latest post to the Hoosier Day Trip blog. I would like to start this post by apologizing for the lack of updates and post over the past month. It has been a busy month and I have had practically no extra time to write, let alone take many day trips, but hopefully that will change soon.
So in this post I wanted to examine an idea for a fun, affordable source of entertainment that many of you reading this will not have to travel out of your own town to find, and those who do will surely not have to travel far. It is something that , just a few months ago, I could not have imagined myself enjoying, much less promoting in a blog, and yet here I sit and write. I am talking about theatre. Specifically, local theatre.
I have never had much exposure to theatre, and to be honest, I always made the assumption that I just would not enjoy it. Growing up in Bloomington, I had been to a few plays at the Indiana University auditorium. My Dad worked for Indiana University , and my Mom had a job where she was around a lot of people associated with I.U, so periodically free tickets would come our way to events that some season ticket holders we knew didn’t care to attend. Hence, I attended a few of the less than stellar events at the university, and had to fight traffic and crowds to do it. Not a good first impression.
The high point in my early theatre experiences came in 1998. Upon visiting New York City for the first time we decided to go see Cats at the Winter Garden theatre. Not so much because we wanted too, but because we thought that was what you were SUPPOSE to do when you went to New York. The experience was neat , but expensive, and to this day the only thing I took away from it is, when I watch “The Peoples Court” and I see Harvey Levin interviewing people about the cases, he is standing in front of the quick tix kiosk where we bought our tickets.
So fast forward to 2011. In May my oldest daughter was in a performance of the play “Dear Edwina”. I had never heard of the play, and as I have already pointed out theatre WAS not really my thing, but if my daughter is in it OF COURSE I am going. I was AMAZED at the show I saw.
This show was put on by the dance school my daughters attend but was not limited to students of the school. The show that I saw was much more polished and professional in production than anything I expected. But there was a part of me that thought maybe, JUST MAYBE, I am a little biased because, well…MY beautiful daughter was one of the STARS.
That brings us to last night.
My youngest daughter is a Wizard of Oz FANATIC! She will be six this week and I assure you she has watched that movie more times in her life than I have (it still kind of scares me). The Bloomington Youth Theatre performed the Wizard of Oz this weekend at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater, and we decided to take our girls for Ellys’ birthday (my son didn’t want to go).
Once again I was blown away by the quality of the show. It was much more professional than I would have imagined. It was then that I realized maybe I had been missing out on some really great stuff here. These plays are really affordable, not much more than a movie really, and you are supporting locals. It’s a Win-Win.
The idea behind this blog post is not to promote Bloomington theatre, but local theatre in general. I know (hope) that not everyone reading this blog is from Bloomington. Check around in your local communities and see if there is a theatre group. I would bet there is, and if you live in a community without one check towns around you. I think you will be amazed at the level of entertainment you receive for the money. I am finding it personally rewarding to be entertained and know that my dollars are going to local groups. I feel this benefits the entire community by entertaining us, and funding groups to keep young people involved in great activities.
That’s going to do it for this Hoosier Day Trip post. This is an issue that I have only recently became this interested in, but I really think it is one worth checking out.
So thanks once again for reading, and I hope to see YOU on my next Hoosier Day Trip.
Andrew
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