Ok, I had to share this. A couple of weeks ago at the dinner table I was telling the girls that I was planning to take them to see A Midsummer Night's Dream on the Outdoor Stage (performed by our company at work). Now, let me back up a little bit to set this story up. Back in March of this year I took them to see the same play performed by ShakespeareLIVE! (a touring group that performs plays in various locations from January to June). They enjoyed the show and had some good laughs during the play. Backing up even further, their only experience with this particular play had been through the Disney TV show "The Suite Life of Zach & Cody" (the boys are involved in a school production of Midsummer). Ok, so back to the dinner-table conversation (my point was to show that they aren't Shakespeare experts...duh!). Again, I told them that I would be taking them to the outdoor production of the play and I asked them if they remembered anything about the previous play they'd seen. Granted, we saw it back in March and here we were in June. Maggie spoke and said "I remember the boy and the girl chasing each other around and fighting about being in love with each other." I was stunned...so I decided to go out on a limb and asked, "Yeah? Do you happen to remember any of their names?" Maggie replied, "Well...[pause] I remember Hermia...and I remember Lysander." Trying desperately to hide my total amazement, I composed another question: "That's really good Maggie. Do you remember any of the other characters? Do you remember the fairies?" Without missing a beat she responded, "Oh yeah, I remember Puck. And I remember he rubbed the yellow flower in one of the boy's eyes and it caused some kind of problem, so then he rubbed the purple flower in his eye later and everything turned out ok. And I remember the guy with the donkey head, too. He made me laugh." I think I passed out at this point. I don't really remember the rest of our conversation after that, but I do recall being amazed at how much young minds absorb. It reminded me of my childhood and the fact that my mom took me to plays when I was about Maggie and Ruby's age. I hope they get as much or more out of the experience, and if this conversation is any indication I would say they have.

We all went to see A Midsummer Night's Dream on Sunday, July 8. It was a gorgeous night and the girls really loved it. Ruby giggled almost the whole time, and Maggie had some big laughs, too. I don't know what they'll see next, but I hope they will always want to enjoy theatre and all of the arts in some way. Hey, why don't you go see a play? Go...now...really!