She Said Yes: Children's Theatre

Monday night was my first yes-inspired event; it was an event which I'm not particularly sure I would have said "no" to, but may have found an excuse to not attend.

My friend C.'s family friend invited her to attend a performance put on by the Greylock Theatre Project, an organization that brings professional theatre-makers together with local children to get them involved in the arts, specifically, creating their own ten-minute-plays. C.'s family friend was directing one of the shorts and thought C. would love to come along, and in turn C. thought I'd love to come along, since we're both a little obsessed with children. The way she pitched it to me was "It's adults acting out plays that are written by little kids." How could I have said no, even if I wanted to?

The event was being held in Goodrich, our campus coffee bar, so C. and I made our way in along with parents, siblings, and friends of the playwrights. I'm not sure the same demographic that the Williamstown Theatre Festival attracts showed up at this particular performance. The theme for the night was "On Top of the World!: Plays With a View," and included six plays written by four 11-year-olds, one 10-year-old, and one nine-year-old. Sample titles included "Fancy & Houle Sneaking Out of the Farm," "The Pirate Treasure of Togetherness," and my particular favorite, "Stem." Stem was written by a hilarious 11-year-old girl, and the plot line was, essentially, that a beautiful flower that looked exactly like Leighton Meester didn't want to be picked by a crazed mad scientist who looked like a gray-haired Kramer. My favorite line was probably the following:

Leighton Meester Flower: "What is that you have?" [It was a beaker]
Kramer Scientist: "It's a beaker. It's a scientific method for doing science experiments, duh, so don't ask again!"

Oh, duh.

All-in-all, it was really probably the most I've laughed in awhile. Little kids are just so weird. I have no clue how they come up with the ridiculous things they say, but honestly I wish my mind still worked like that a little, since self-editing is the bain of all writing endeavors.

I'm pleased that my first yes-inspired event was a grand success, but I'm hoping for a juicy disaster. Those are always more fun to write about.

In other news, L. is on a plane right now, and of course I'm freaking out. It's going to be a long three hours.

Image from [Frugal Fe$tival]