The Badlands Opera Company staged Into The Woods last weekend at the local college auditorium. It was a fantastic and absolutely professional production. Costuming, special effects, and tech were superb. The cast was comprised of all local folks, and their voices were fabulous. The director/ Cinderella’s Prince was a 30 something local man who had made good as a theatre professor in another state. This was his directorial debut. About half of the cast are members of our Lutheran Church.
The oldest member of the cast was our church organist. She played Jack in the Beanstalk’s mother. She is a feisty 76 year old with a huge soprano voice, wonderful acting skills, and a sharp tongue. Most of the other leads were in their mid to late 30’s, and I realized I have watched many of them grow up through church and school productions. We were at the infant baptisms of the Baker and the Witch! Cinderella’s parents are wonderful ranch people who I have known for years and worked with when they were foster/adopt parents. We sat with them at the Friday night opening and talked and joked. It was wonderful. Little Red Riding Hood’s dad is Husband’s real life barber!
When we got home from the performance I took a look around our home, a pretty modest home for the most part, and saw the family mementos and possessions we have, and thought about the relationships we have built over the decades, and I considered how priceless they all are. They wouldn’t be priceless in the marketplace, but they are irreplaceable to us.
What are the things and memories and relationships that are priceless to you? What is your favorite scene from Into The Woods?
Trail Baboon 
The other night, Husband was reading through some of his old journals from when he was on the “hippie farm” in early ’70s, and he shared some key entries with me. There were even a couple of poems – these are truly priceless, and we tabbed some of the pages…
Renee – it occurs to me that when you move back to Minnesota, it’s going to be a tug to leave some of your relationships.
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Rise and Shine, Baboons
I found, like almost everyone here, that when TLGMS left us, that I had valued that, so much so that there are few words to describe the attachment. I also miss the music and format of its Big Sister Show, Prairie Home Companion, despite the fact that its host had such exploitive attitudes and behavior towards women. That I do not miss. But things are often a mixed bag.
I remember our Steve once writing that aging is represented by a series of losses. I understand his perspective about that now and I miss his writing here. However I still have so much I value. I love where I live, long winter or not. Relationships are the most prized to me. Family relationships over time have been so uneven and disappointing in big ways, that I built a family of friends. And then there is gardening. Love that. And the dog. Love this dog.
Renee, I think Barb is correct. When you remove yourself back to Minnesota, you may be “homesick” for awhile.
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I truly think I will be fine after we move. I will cherish the memories, and I don’t think I will view it as a loss.
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HI-
I was talking about this ‘stuff’ recently. When my friend Gary passed away, he left me all his theater stuff to deal with. Books and papers, photos, designs, drawings. He was such an amazing designer, and did beautiful drawings. But … who cares, you know? He didn’t have any family, and I gave away what I could to people that knew him, and added books to the college library, and his alma mater… and then? Every now and then I throw more stuff away. And I apologize to him every time.
And the china from our parents? (I know, we’ve already had this conversation) but yes, we surround ourselves with stuff that is priceless to us. Every Sunday I visit my friend Dolores who just turned 95. She wonders why she’s still here. She says every night she tells God she’s ready to go and she doesn’t understand why she’s still here. I tell her she’s here to amuse me. Because she has the best stories and we make each other laugh. She’s priceless to me.
Into the Woods: Such a fun show. We often say to each other, “Well that’s another story. Nevermind. Anyway-”
And I say ‘Excited AND scared’.
Stephen Sondheim and his wit and his LYRICS!! “While her withers wither with her” !!
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Ben
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Just read a quote from Mariann Edgar Buddy, “a decade seems like a long time looking ahead and far less so looking back”
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I agree!
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I think this is exactly why time seems to take forever to go by for kids and is racing by for us as we get older.
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I’ve seen Into the Woods done outdoors by a community theater and it was really fun.
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I realize that what I’m about to say basically makes me a heretic, but I don’t have a favorite scene from Into the Woods because I don’t care for Into the Woods very much. Stephen Sondheim is not my favorite. I know I’m practically alone in this opinion.
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Nope. It never reached me emotionally either.
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JacAnon
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GASP!
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Well. I’ve neer actually seen Into the Woods. I’ve heard the title, that’s about it.
I regard a lot of things as priceless, although no one else agrees. I like pickng up an old record album, and sliding the vinyl disk out of the sleeve and holding it by the edges and spinning it around to side 2. Some things take you back in time.
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Currenty, my cherished memories are about the Twins World Series wins!
I’ve got a “homer hankie.”
All the first pages of the Trib and the Fargo Forum
Signed baseballs (fake)
Thank goodness for Youtube affirming the two greatest World Series of all time.
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By the way, the Twins just got their first win of the season and I got to see it on TV. It could be history/memory making. 25 in a row? That’s why baseball is so great with memory-making.
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The law firm I worked for were the legal counsel for the Twins. I don’t recall how many tickets we had to each of the home games of the 1987 World Series, but we must have had a fair number as I managed to claim two tickets to the two last home games. I don’t think I’ve ever been anywhere as noisy as the Metrodome was on those two nights, but oh, what fun to be in the stands and rooting for the Twins to win. I must have a homer hankie around here somewhere.
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I saw Into the Woods at Theater Latté Da quite a few years ago, and loved it. It’s been long enough that I don’t remember many details, but I do recall that I was impressed by the quality of individual cast members. I also loved the show itself.
OT – Crawford won the election for the vacant seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, despite Musk’s attempt to buy the seat for her opponent. Go Wisconsin.
Tonight, Cory Booker set a new record for longest speech in the US Senate, surpassing Strom Thurmond’s 24 hours and 18 minute’s speech in opposition to the Civil Rights Act in 1957. Booker spoke for more than 25 hours.
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We saw that production at Latte Da. Trees were made of wooden snow fence, and Milky White was sort of an assortment of junk making up the cow. A very clever production.
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You probably have a much greater appreciation of this than I do, Ben, but one of the things that consistently blows me away are the creative solutions our smaller theater companies, who lack the funding and other resources of some of their more well heeled compatriots, find to staging really satisfying productions. If I had my life to do over again, I’d definitely be involved in community theater in some fashion. Alas, I missed that this time around.
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