Tag: live theatre

Take Your Mama to the Theatre!

On By Anna EastlandIn Arts and Entertainment, motherhood2 Comments

As Mother’s Day approaches, I’d like to recommend a lovely alternative to flowers and scented bath bombs, nice as those things are. For me, as a busy multitasking mom, the best gift is to escape all the swirling chaos and to just focus on one thing: namely a live performance. It could be a play, a musical, an opera, a symphony, or a concert. There’s something so special about spending a few hours totally present to the scene in front of you, without being pulled away by your phone, planning, cooking, cleaning etc. Also, watching other people express themselves creatively is just magical… especially if one of those people are your children!

So I’m really excited to go see my daughter perform in the funny and fantastic musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat with Smash Theatre. I saw it for the first time last weekend and was so impressed. It was a colourful kaleidoscope of song and dance, with great sets and impressive costumes, right down to the sparkly golden sneakers! Now I want some…

If you live in the lower mainland of BC, hope to see you there! Shows are this Friday evening, Saturday afternoon and evening, and the finale is a Sunday matinee.

Tickets can be found here: https://www.simpletix.com/e/joseph-and-the-amazing-technicolor-dreamco-tickets-164404.

For $30 for adults or $25 for kids, you are getting way more than your money’s worth for this very energetic, professional and enjoyable show! So come on, y’all, take your mama to the theatre!

My Unexpected Bucket List, 2023

On By Anna EastlandIn Arts and Entertainment, Family Life, Poetry, Writing8 Comments

Happy New Year, everyone! Perhaps many people are planning their fantastic bucket lists for 2024, but I’m not quite there yet. Let me first share some of the crazy little adventures I had in 2023, including various things I never planned to check off my to-do list!

1. Fishing a school of fishy crackers out of the toilet when the toddler dumped them there, or rather, to be more accurate, flushing them!

2. Getting pulled over by the police in a cab when rushing my daughter from the orthodontist back to Highschool, on the way to my younger children’s elementary school Christmas pageant. My poor cabbie looked like Santa with a giant beard, and I, sitting there all flushed with a “lunch on the go” Freshslice pizza box on my lap, begged the officer to take pity on him, as I had been telling him about my mad-dash day and probably distracting him from slowing down in the school zone…thank goodness he got off with just a warning! I missed my 5 year old singing “Winter Time is Here” but caught the other 3 kids’ acts…then went to the evening show to see it all again, on time this time. Phew!

3. Playing the part of a giant sassy crow in a Christmas play called “Suki’s Reindeer Wish” with my local literary arts guild.

4. Getting a Christmas poem published in an anthology of Christmas poetry called Harmonic Verse by Local Gems Press. https://www.localgemspoetrypress.com/harmonic-verse-preorders.html

5. Dressing as a pirate and narrating spooky stories for a Halloween show called “Killer Verse” with the same wild and wacky arts crew…

…and discovering that my toddler had painted the table with Nutella while I was at dress rehearsal. He later repeated said visual art performance with yogurt.

6. Drinking white wine while drinking in the beauty of my dear friend Jude Neale’s (https://judeneale.ca/) poetry at her book launch for her gorgeous new book of poetry, accompanied by the paintings of Nicholas Jennings, called Water Forgets Its Own Name.

7. Being given a surprise trip to Saskatoon by my husband, to spend 5 days with my soaking in life with my bestie, and having amazing Mexican food downtown there.

Well, that’s enough adventures for one night! I hope you all survived the madness of December, had a very Merry Christmas, and are enjoying some relaxing vacation time before the business of school starts up again. Happy New Year!