Kidsummer: August 1997
by Alexandra Farolan
August 4. Carousel Theatre's A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare
“Shh! It’s starting!” The pretty fairies are dancing about on the stage. Now they're whispering excitedly, “One, two, three four five!” Happily, they hop and dance off the stage.
Athens is where this magical story starts. Chanting away, Theseus and his team rejoice as they win the tennis tournament against Hippolyta’s team. What is also happening is that Hippolyta and Theseus are getting married. But then, Egeus the father of Hermia comes to Theseus’s court. Egeus wants Hermia to marry Demetrius, but you see, Hermia is in love with Lysander. Theseus threatens to put Hermia in a convent or even to death if she does not obey her father. So Lysander and Hermia plan to flee to the woods.
Meanwhile, Peter Quince gathers up a few actors to make a play called “The Tragedy of Pyramus and Thisbe”. They plan to act it at Theseus and Hippolyta’s wedding.
Oberon, the King of the fairies, who lives in Fairyland, is having arguments with the Queen named Titania. So King Oberon tells Puck, his messenger, to get a certain flower. What will happen is when he squeezes out the flower juice, you fall in love with the first creature you see when you wake up. Oberon then tells Puck to put the flower love juice into Demetrius’s eyes so he could restore his friendship with Helena. But then Puck makes a mistake thinking that Lysander is Demetrius. So when Lysander wakes up, he falls in love with Helena!
Peter Quince, meanwhile, with his troupe of actors, meet to rehearse their play. But then, Puck decides to have a little fun with the actors. So he turns Bottom into an ass! And he scares everybody away. Then suddenly, Titania, whom Puck also squeezed the flower juice, wakes up and falls deeply in love with Bottom.
Oberon now has to put the potion into Demetrius’s eyes. Now both Lysander and Demetrius are in love with Helena. (Helena thinks they are taunting her). Puck then takes the spell away from Lysander so he will love Hermia again. Titania still loves Bottom because she is still under the spell. So Puck takes away the spell away from her. And when Titania wakes up again, she sees Oberon and falls in love with him. There's a triple wedding for the three couples (Titania and Oberon, Lysander and Hermia, Theseus and Helena) and Peter Quince performs his play at their wedding.
And everything is well again, and everyone lives happily ever after.
The End
Personally, I think that was a great and funny play my family and I saw. My rate for it would be nine out of ten. The thing I really liked about the play were the fairy costumes. The costumes were cut-up rags and light scarves, old clothes that were painted, face glitter, and lots more. Jennifer Paterson (who plays Hippolyta and Titania) did a good job. And David Clements! (He played Egeus and Bottom) is such a great actor! The different parts he played were so funny! I think this play would be good for ages eight and up.
August 12. Vancouver Art Gallery
On the first floor there were paintings and poems by Henri Mattise because he was a painter and a poet. Some of his paintings were: Horse, Rider, Clown (but I could only see the horse), The Swimmer In The Tank (I could only see the swimmer), The Wolf, The Lagoon (it just looked like shapes), and lots more! I can’t remember any of his poems. There was also a gift shop on the first floor, with painting books, pens, pencils, and some other stuff. The kinds of activities they had for the first floor was painting stuff, and movies.
The second floor was about Angels and Saints. There were cool sculptures of Jesus, Mary, and the Angels, and statues of when Jesus is dying on the cross with Mary on His left side crying sadly and John the Baptist on the right side, bowing his head in pity. There was also this huge Tabernacle I saw that was made out of basswood (it looked like it was covered with gold). Across from the Tabernacle was Faith and Hope. They were two girls carrying a cross for faith and an anchor for hope.
The third floor was mostly about Emily Carr. She did lots of paintings of trees. My favorite painting of Emily Carr, was “Baby Tree”. The painting showed a small tree. It was really cute!
The activity for the third floor was chalk painting or something. There was also this cool sculpture called “Mother and Daughter”. But it was just like a circle, or it was just like two hands and that was it. But it was cool.
The fourth floor was “Modern Painting”. There was black and white pictures, circle pictures, abstract art, and lots of other cool paintings. The activity on the fourth floor was to paint anything you wanted, or you could make things out of household items like a totem pole or something. There were also pictures like “White Christmas”, where it showed a house and some bare trees covered with snow. That painting was one of my favorites. The fourth floor was so fascinating.
This was a really a neat gallery because you could learn a lot of stuff from the painters, sculptures and poets. And the small kids could just look at the pictures if they didn’t know how to read!
August 26. Splashdown Park
Brrr. It sure was cold at the top! (I was going on the Bluehole for my first water slide). Guess where I was? I was at the funnest, coolest, water park, Splash Down!!
There are eight very fun water slides and five kiddie water slides. The best water slide is the Blackhole. In the Blackhole it’s all dark with these mini lights and you won’t know if you’re going to go around, straight, or go straight down, it’s, like, so cool! The Bluehole is like the Blackhole except you know where you’re going. There’s also this other cool water slide (I feel guilty for not remembering the name) where there’s a mini fountain and you go down, it’s steep and wild it was a really neat slide. And the other slides are just plain fun. There is also a hot tub, but don’t waste all your time in there (you might get tired and doze off). You could bring your little siblings, babies, toddlers, and small children with you because there are small, kiddie, slides, too! And a little pool for little children! I recommend this awesome water park for one and up. This a great place to cool off and to be with your family/friends in the summer!