The ballet is not a social convention!

[greek_jester]

Apparently you get classes of students coming to the Stratford (Ontario) Festival, and the teachers trying to keep them from laughing at the dirty jokes, because those kids are being so immature and seeing filth in places where it doesn't exist. (And the Festival definitely includes the dirty jokes).

And those teachers obviously need to go back to school. They've forgotten that Shakespeare, no matter what his reputation is nowadays, was writing the Hollyoaks or Sex in the City of his time. It was mass entertainment - dirty jokes & scandal definitely included - while referencing current events.

[mikoyan29]

There's a lot of people in Canada at least who think "Shakespeare = high culture" and therefore it must be clean. Apparently you get classes of students coming to the Stratford (Ontario) Festival, and the teachers trying to keep them from laughing at the dirty jokes, because those kids are being so immature and seeing filth in places where it doesn't exist. (And the Festival definitely includes the dirty jokes).

Obviously they never saw Porky's II....

[Andara Bledin]

Parents bring kids to things like this because they want to "culture" them. The fact they miss is that 90% of these kids are too far into video games and television to give a crap about culture till they grow up themselves and decide which part of the spectrum they are on themselves.

Being into "video games and tv" does nothing to prevent kids from also being into theater and culture.

Hubs took me to see Richard III for our anniversary last year. Definitely not a good show to take the kiddo to. Strangely, I saw several kids who were around 10 in the audience and they all were taken out of the theater in tears.

My brother and I could have handled that at that age. Then again, we weren't normal kids. We used to sneak out of bed to watch our parents watching "I, Claudius." Mom had to chase us back to bed more than once.

And those teachers obviously need to go back to school. They've forgotten that Shakespeare, no matter what his reputation is nowadays, was writing the Hollyoaks or Sex in the City of his time. It was mass entertainment - dirty jokes & scandal definitely included - while referencing current events.

My favorite of all of these would be several exchanges in "Taming of the Shrew" between Petruchio and Katherina. (did you know there's a '76 version with Marc Singer as Petruchio? O.o )

^-.-^

[Flying Grype]

I love it when people laugh at the right moments in Shakespeare.

My sibs and I got to see The Phantom of the Opera on stage in Toronto when we were kids. I can't remember how old we were. My brother was definitely younger than 10. The show made him cry at the end, he loved the Phantom.

But again, we listened to musicals on tape and CD at home aaaaaallll the time. And in the car. We got our rocks off singing along at home, and we were quiet when we finally saw the huge spectacle at the Pantages.

[Arcade Man D]

My grandma used to take me to the theater every so often. It was Little Theater, and usually a musical (Annie Get Your Gun, The Music Man), and I loved it. It was a real treat for me. But not all kids would appreciate it, and certain shows are too long / too dry / too wordy / etc. for kids to enjoy.

Ah, theater with the grandmother. After my grandfather passed, my grandmother kept getting 2 season tickets for the Merry-Go-Round Theater in the next county. And there were four shows per season, so she'd take each of us kids to one. My first was The Will Rogers Follies.

Other ones I saw there were The Music Man, and the musical adaptation of Disney's Beauty and the Beast.

[BookstoreEscapee]

My first Broadway show was in High School (age 14) - Me and My Girl

Went to the opera (The Marriage of Figaro) in college, which was pretty cool (even though it was in Italian and I only knew what was going on by reading the synopsis in the program). Not a huge opera fan but when I was actually there I enjoyed it.

[XCashier]

Ah, theater with the grandmother.

Indeed, it was a lovely time. I wish I could take my son to the theater, but I doubt he'd be able to sit still long enough to enjoy even a child-friendly production. :sigh:

[Treasure]

Being in Choir all through Jr High & High School, we went on field trips to stage shows all the time, and about a day or 2 in advance of the trip, our director would remind us of our expected behavior, and that there would be consequences @ school for any body who "acted the fool" while we were there. I saw Phantom, Fiddler on the Roof, and several others. I also remember going and seeing My Fair Lady w/ my bio-father when i was younger, and one year he also took me to see the Nutcracker, but that was fun for me, b/c i got to dress up in a fancy dress... I was always well behaved in those situations;
I loved seeing Riverdance when it came through a couple of years ago...


**btw - Celtic Thunder is a male vocal group, similar to Celtic Woman, some dance but mostly singing**


**** Celtic Thunder sounds like an all male review ala Thunder From Down Under****