Casa Manana's Winnie the Pooh

Road trip today to Fort Worth for Casa Manana's Children’s performance of Disney's Winnie-the-Pooh! Sissy loves Winnie-the-Pooh, when she was young we joked that she was Eeyore and her little friend Alicia was Tigger! Frankie sported her favorite Eeyore shirt and Pooh Corner hat for the day’s festivities!

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There we several familiar Disney tunes, like “Winnie the Pooh” and “The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers.” My favorite tune was when they ended with a snippet of Kenny Loggins’ “House at Pooh Corner” that was my first solo competition song in seventh grade! It is also the lullaby I sang to all three of the kids when they didn't feel well or had trouble sleeping. After the show we took our rumbly tumblies to Dairy Queen for lunch unfortunately they were out of honey!

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Jonathan said, “. . .See how my eyes brightened
when I tasted a little of this honey.
I Samuel 14:29

Casa Manana's Rapunzel! Rapunzel! A Very Hairy Fairy Tale

The obligatory pose in front of the Casa marque!

If you are familiar with any of Casa Manana's Children's productions you know there is a spin on every story and Rapunzel!: A Very Hairy Fairy Tale is no exception.

 

This was a fun musical production of Rapunzel complete with the evil Queen named Lady Za Za (not to be confused with Lady Gaga).  In this tale Sir Roderick searches for a noble quest along with his hair dresser side kick Edgar who searches for the perfect head of hair to coif.

 

It was filled with lots of silliness, this Rapunzel was definitely not the swash-buckling Rapunzel of Disney's recent Tangled, but still very enjoyable.  And of course, after any Casa play we enjoy lunch out with friends, bonus!

 

My personal favorite long-haired, tangled Bible story:

Now Absalom happened to meet David’s men.
He was riding his mule, and as the mule went under the
thick branches of a large oak, Absalom’s hair got caught
in the tree. He was left hanging in midair,
while the mule he was riding kept on going. 
2 Samuel 18:9

Casa Manana's 'Twas the Night Before Christmas

The best thing about the Casa Manana's children's performance is the twist their writers put on traditional stories.  Today we enjoyed Casa Manana's Twas the Night Before Christmas.  In this tale with her daddy off to war, Molly is having trouble finding her Christmas spirit. Determined to make it a Christmas to remember, Molly's mother takes her on a magical treasure hunt where they encounter dancing elves, a rocking Santa Claus and many other characters throughout the night only to awake to a special Christmas surprise.

 

The performance included a score of beloved Christmas songs such as "Jingle Bells," "O Little Town of Bethlehem," "God Rest ye Merry Gentlemen," "Blue Christmas" and more.  Such a darling tale and as always the acting and singing were amazing! 

 

Of course, not to be left out, I should include that it was made even more enjoyable because we attended with 60+ friends from PEACH. 

Therefore do not let anyone judge you

by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival,

 a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day

Colossians 2:16

Casa Manana's Alice in Wonderland

Caleb, Richard & Blake F.

Blake F., Abs, & Ryan

Today we took a wild ride down the rabbit hole with our PEACH home school friends to  Disney's Alice in Wonderland Jr. at Casa Mañana. The show is faithful to the 1951 Lewis Carroll classics, The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, with a couple of exceptions: How did "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" from Song of the South and "Everybody Wants to Be a Cat" from The Aristocats make their way into Alice's story?

Alice has her ups and downs (and way ups) thanks to little bottles of potion and magic cookies. While on her journey, she meets Wonderland's familiar residents, the Cheshire Cat, the Caterpillar, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, the wacky and outrageous Mad Hatter, the Queen of Hearts, and all manner of singing, dancing, talking mushrooms, door knockers, flowers, animals and playing cards.

As always, Casa Mañana offers the best in children’s live theater in the Metroplex.  They are ever creative in their story interpretations, but always family friendly!  The kids loved the Mad Hatter, and have been quoting several of his lines since the performance.  We even Netflixed Johnny Depp’s version, just for fun!

On of the funniest character in today's performance was the Tweedles, Dee and Dum.  It was one actor with split wardrobe and personality!  Very funny! 

 Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.

James 1:8

Casa Manana's Oliver!

the kids & the Gungans

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This month we have been reading Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist.  It is five hundred plus pages of doom and gloom.   Dickens mocks the hypocrisies of his time by surrounding the novel's serious themes with sarcasm and dark humor.  Today we headed to Fort Worth to see Casa Manana Childrens Theater’s musical adaptation of the novel called Oliver! 

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As always it was very well done.  Casa Manana has the best children’s theater around.  Turning this tragic tale into a musical did lighten up the darkness factor.  Poor Oliver endures hardships, injury, sickness, incredible poverty and cruelty.  Oliver remains pure-hearted; he steers away from evil when those around him give in to it and in proper fairy-tale fashion, he eventually receives his reward. 

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The book is better and far more suspenseful but the play would be a great introduction to Dickens tale and the effects of industrialism on 19th-century England.

I am poor and needy; may the Lord think of me.

You are my help and my deliverer;

you are my God, do not delay.

Psalms 40:17

Casa Manana's Wizard of Oz

Today we took in a live-action stage version of the famed 1939 Baum classic with Casa Manana's production. This version comes complete with all the singing and dancing, little people talking about roads of yellow brick and Dorothy, of course. Casa Manana knows how to put on a show and "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" is still likely to make you cry. We'll all want to chime in with the Scarecrow, Lion and Tin Man and wishes to only have a... Venture off to see The Wizard.

The actor portraying the Lion absolutely nailed the mannerisms of his on-screen counterpart. The show had wonderful pyrotronics and visual effects. Casa Manana usually takes some odd twist on there stories, but on The Wizard of Oz the director stayed true to the traditional story and it was fabulous! I love the fun twists, but this is one of those stories that could not be improved on in any way!

My mouth is filled with your praise
Psalm 71:8

Casa Manana's Peter Pan

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I don’t wanna grow up . . . is the theme of the classical tale of Peter Pan. Casa Manana’s Childrens Theater did a fantastic rendition of the Tony award winning live show. The performance had all of the magic anticipated including flying children, a flickering Tinkerbell, a flamboyant captain hook and even TigerLilly! It was one of Casa’s best performances! Following the performance we joined the Gungans at Dairy Queen for lunch!

Casa Manana's Cinderella

Casa Manana's performance today of Cinderella was fabulous. The performance was Rogers and Hammerstein's classical version. Great humor, amazing singing, even a carriage coming thru the audience! The step sisters were so funny!

We were joined by 30 or so homeschool friends from our homeschool group, that always make these events more fun! If your anywhere near Ft. Worth, Casa Manana's plays are always a hit!

Casa Manana's Alamo: The Musical

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If you've followed the blog at all, you know you will find endless baseball, softball and church posts, along with several posts per year to the Dallas Museum of Art and Casa Manana. Casa Manana is a theater in Fort Worth, that has a wonderful children's program. Generally they do unique spins on classical tales. One of their most popular performances is the one we saw today, Alamo: the Musical. Being February 23, and the significance that has in the events at the Alamo, it was especially moving. We took 51 of our homeschool friends from Plano and Denton and had a wonderful time. In these rough political times it was a sobering reminder of a time when 'Faith of Our Fathers' and the fight for freedom meant extreme measures. Brilliant!

Casa Manana's Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Christmas time means time for another great musical at Casa Manana. This year in their production of Santa Claus is Coming to town, Christmas is in trouble! When the greedy toy company DeBiggy Toys International gets a judge to outlaw Santa Claus, a rag-tag band of singing, dancing children are the only ones who can save Christmas. The adventure zips from the North Pole to Acapulco and back again in this clever, fun-loving musical. The big finale included snow falling down on the audience!!!!

Casa Manana's Miss Nelson is Missing!

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This is the story of a beautiful, sweet teacher who has one of the most terrible classes ever. Everyone is mean, acts up and nobody ever listens to her. Miss Nelson knows that something has to be done.

One day, when she doesn't arrive to class, the children are so happy. They think they have driven her away forever. They are all smiles and grins.....until....

They meet Miss. Viola Swamp, an ugly and mean teacher who looks like the Wicked Witch. She puts them to work, yells at them, and makes them do tons and TONS of homework. Desperate and worried, the children turn to a detective in order to solve the whereabouts of Miss Nelson.

The story is fun and gives a good moral lesson at the same time. The kids especially enjoyed the literary reference to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, because we have just finished reading that book. The play was darling, Casa Manana always put on fabulous performances! Abigail said that I 'sometimes sound like Ms. Swamp, even though I look like Ms. Nelson!' hmmm

Casa Manana's Alamo - the Musical

This was the big Alamo - the Musical school performance at Casa Manana. The story is told from the Texians perspective with the storyteller being a child survivor. It was a very moving production. The Casa coordinator always make sure our homeschool group has that best seats in the house. The theater was pack with over 1,000 children today!

Remember the Alamo

What would a blog be without some reference to John Wayne? Well since I'm married to Jon and my Dad is Wayne, it was only a matter of time. And besides that Grandaddy's CB handle was Alamo, for those of you born after the 70's, that's like his avitar.

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On Tuesday we are going to Ft. Worth's Casa Manana to watch a live performance of the Alamo. In history we are in Middle Egypt, that is a loooonnnggg way from the events at the Alamo.

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To catch the kids up quickly, so the play would have meaning for them I pulled out some books and we watched John Wayne's movie the Alamo. In it's day this was a monumental movie because it was one of the very few that John Wayne's character died.

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When Jon came home from work he said, "Why don't we drive to San Antonio and take them to see the Alamo!" So here we are, five of us in a hotel room, plus Padme' just outside of Austin, on our way to San Antonio.

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We took Frankie to see the Alamo when she was six but that has been 18 years ago. You gotta' love home schooling. I think next time I'll tell Jon that we are studying the statehood of Hawaii!