Is this book familiar to you? Maybe so familiar that you can quote every one of the 130 words that are in it by memory because you read it so many times to your kids? Me, too! So when Happy Girl heard Stages Theater in Hopkins was going to do Good night Moon, the Musical, she made sure she tried out for a part. Much to her surprise, she was cast as The Bunny who just doesn't want to go to sleep. This first week of performances has been quite an adventure!
Last week at this time I was creatively cramming for the cast party. I'd already raided the store of the red, green, yellow, orange and blue vintage books to decorate the three 8 foot tables for the cast gifts and the food. But I needed to get cutting out a bunch of felt triangles for bunting as the punch of cute to bring the whole party together.
Two things made this project go quickly: a rotary cutter, and polka-dot grosgrain ribbon. I made a triangle pattern, and quickly cut out 19 of each color of felt. When sewing with a zig-zag stich, I was able to place the triangles with the polka dots, and not have to measure between each one. In a couple of hours, I had 6-4 1/2 foot lengths for the tables.
Instead of pinning them to the tablecloths, I ended up taping them to the railing behind the tables, for the party punch of color.
The "centerpiece" of the tables were three stacks of books with a telephone, the book itself, and a little house with glowing fake candles, and a bunny that held a banner saying, "goodnight".
For extra party fun, I picked up paper spheres from IKEA in different sizes, and attached them with chenille stems on the post between the tables. I added a couple of orange books to follow through with the book theme.
IKEA had a package of straws in our theme colors, so I popped them in some of my green ball jar glasses and tied some yellow ribbon around their necks. Who needs fresh flowers when you have straws?
One of the other moms made the centerpieces. She cut out a moon shape with bright-colored paper, and attatched a little hanging star. They were clipped to a dowel, and the base was wrapped in colorful tissue paper.
The kids usually get some kind of gift for all their hard work. They each received a cast photo in a frame and a pretty pen, so they could sign each other's frames. We displayed each of these on little plastic easels, among the stacks of colorful books.
It's a quick party; probably only lasts an hour and a half after opening night, but it was colorful, and felt special. It was a great time for the parents to meet each other, and the other cast members, too.
To add to the fun of the first week's performances, they also did some teaser performances at the Children's Museum, in St. Paul, and then appeared live on the noon-time airing of WCCO.
10 of the 36 performances are under our belt. It's such a sweet show! If you're interested in tickets, the show runs through Feb 16. Here's the link:
http://www.stagestheatre.org/upcoming-shows/02/19/2014/goodnight-moon-musical
My daughter took her 2 year old son to the play and he loved it! She and her son
had their picture taken with your daughter I believe, it was 2 bunnies. He talked about
it all the way home and woke up the next morning talking about it some more.
Posted by: Jolene Dorf | Sunday, February 01, 2015 at 07:30 PM
Jolene, I'm so glad they enjoyed the show! It's so cute to hear those little ones giggling at all the funny sound effects parts in the play: the snoring, the growling bears on the phone & the " I need a drink of water" drama. I've already seen it 4x & will see it another 4!
Posted by: Lora Bloomquist | Sunday, February 01, 2015 at 07:41 PM