His First Theatre Experience

Two weekends ago, the entire family went to the well-loved production The Very Hungry Caterpillar & Other Eric Carle Favourites by the Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia, featuring 3 of the author's books. This being Nigel's very first theatre experience, he enjoyed himself tremendously. Perched on this booster seat, he sat through the entire production quietly with his eyes fixed intently on the puppets. I simply loved productions which are targeted at children as their main audience. No one will raise their brows should the children get noisy. And boy, it did get really noisy when the children all shouted the names of the various animals during the The Mixed-Up Chameleon segment. I loved the Q&A session at the end where it was explained to us how the play was produced. It was really interesting especially the part where they explained how they created the effect of the chameleon shooting out its long sticky tongue to catch the fly. This is Sarah's second time watching this. Her first being 3 years ago. Unfortunately she has forgotten about this play, and I can see that she enjoyed herself this time round.

The following weekend, we were at the Esplanade for another play, Rocky The Baby Panda by PlayTime! This is one part of a series of plays by PlayTime! It was highly reviewed in the newspaper some time ago, which was why I bought the tickets. Well, I guess I had gotten my expectations too high, as although it was quite an enjoyable production, I felt somewhat disappointed. These series are targeted at the 2 to 4 age group, so it was understandable when Sarah proclaimed it was too childish for him. The little boy enjoyed the play, although he was quite reserved and did not participate in the audience activities.

When was Sarah was younger, she was quite the frequent theatre-goer, be it ballet performances or dramas and plays. Now that I know that the little boy is able to sit through an entire production, we will definitely be back at the theatres more often.