Open Wardrobes

Well, I've taken a bit of a hiatus over the past month ever since the 24-hour play festival. But since then I've polished up Circus of Fate, plus finished up another new 10-minute piece (written for a project on the Playwrights Binge list) which gave me a total of 3 new 10-minute plays (including the revised NUTS!) to start sending out. Over the past month or so I've been submitting to a number of contests and theaters, including Lakeshore's 10-minute festival which I hope to finally make it in this year. And coming up this weekend is the start of NaNoWriMo (National Write a Novel in a Month month), so I expect to be less idle than I have been!


This weekend Kelly and I also attended the Start the Music! program at the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, along with my sister and her two little girls. I've been wanting for years to take our nieces to this and so I was excited to finally be able to do so. Start the Music! is aimed at the 3-6 age range (my nieces are 5 1/2 and 3 1/2, perfect). It starts with a variety of hands-on activities focused around a family of instruments (this weekend was the brass family) and a story (The Tortoise and the Hare). The girls made little tortoise and hare puppets, tried out a trumpet, and decorated their own horn. Following that was a 30-minute concert featuring a brass quintet (the SPCO's trumpet players Gary and Lynn, and horn player Paul, plus additional musicians on tuba and trombone) that was centered around the story of "The Tortoise and the Hare" with musical accompaniment. The musicians also played a variety of short pieces while they explained their instruments and how they worked. It was a delightful program and the girls had a great time (all the kids seemed to enjoy blowing their horns).


All of the SPCO's family-oriented programs are now free thanks to Target, but you have to sign up for a random drawing to receive tickets since the demand is so high (the next one is in January). However, a little known secret is that people who receive tickets sometimes call back to say they can't use them, and those tickets are then given away on a first-come, first-served basis. So if you're interested in this sort of program, keep an eye on the SPCO's website to register for the drawing and don't be shy about calling even if you don't receive tickets, you never know!