Wanting to be supportive and also curious to see what Sam's classmates were like, I volunteered to be a chaperone for a field trip to the theater.
It was a joy when Sam wanted to sit next to me on the bus. I really enjoyed the camaraderie as we traveled, and found his classmates to be funny and not quite as rowdy as I had expected!
Our destination was to this very old downtown theater used for live performances, modernized for the times but leaving its old fashioned elegance and beauty intact.
The place was spectacular with the very large stage, auditorium and elevated seating boxes along the walls. We were treated to about ten plays of famous short stories including Edgar Alan Poe's "The Tell Tale Heart" and "The Raven". We also saw "The Monkey's Paw" and "The Necklace" written by other authors. The acting was fantastic and I particularly noticed how the excellent special effects helped to keep the junior high students' attention. I was thoroughly entertained and thrilled to be reacquainted with these works of literature with which I was distantly familiar. The students had been studying them in school and this really must have augmented those lessons.
This theater is located in an old city and I got an absolute kick out of the meandering path we walked at a rapid, no nonsense clip through the alleyways between old buildings. We arrived at the theater just in time and left promptly and purposefully after the show to the arriving buses. It reminded me of some kind of secret agent movie where there isn't a minute to spare. We were hauling....! It seemed to have kept the group focused and discouraged foolishness.
I really enjoyed this outing and was so glad that I went. I saw some fantastic acting and had the pleasure of experiencing a beautiful old theater in a city that I had never really been in. I also made the acquaintance of some of the young people that Sam goes to school with and can now put a face to the names he mentions.
The best part was spending an exciting day with my son and seeing him be his best self in a group of his peers.
