Thursday, October 18, 2007

Saturday, September 27, 2007 Bye Bye Birdie

So I got an e-mail a few weeks ago from a friend at Huntington Beach Public Library that she was in the play Bye-Bye Birdie with the group "One More Productions" at the Garden Grove Festival Amphitheater.
What a fun experience! As long as I've lived in Orange County it's really pitiful I'd never been to this theater before.
Upon our arrival we were instantly enchanted by faerie lights hugging the trees and lacing the bushes when, after receiving our "will call" tickets at the window, we stepped inside the gate and found ourselves in a garden restaurant setting. We treated ourselves to some (extremely strong) coffee from the "Snack Shack" while we waited.

When the theater was ready for it's audience we found our front row seat (actually it was about the third row up but they kept the first few empty).
At 8:00 p.m. ... or perhaps a bit after, under a starry sky, our entertainment commenced. Damien Lorton, the play's Artistic Director, who was the same nice fellow to whom I spoke when I arranged for tickets, announced the play and commanded us to enjoy ourselves...which we did.


The set was cleverly reminiscent of a juke box.

Since I forgot my good camera was in the car, I'm afraid you've missed the entire first act (9 scenes) This is just after the intermission when they did the raffle gift giving. The gentleman in red is the afore- mentioned Damien.

Jenna Romano as Kim MacAfee and Adriana Sanchez as Rosie Alvarez.

What great expressions and choreography!


Jenna Romano (Kim MacAfee) and Eric Hindley as Harry MacAfee


Eric Hindley (Harry MacAfee), Kelli LeMaster as Doris MacAfee and Chase Del Rey as Randolph.

Sherry Domerego as Mae Peterson and Patrick Robert Kelly as Albert Peterson.


Jesse Geller as Hugo Peabody


Kelli LeMaster (Doris MacAfee) & Eric Hendley (Harry MacAfee)


Well shoot, I wasn't paying attention to all the character names so I could get this wrong, but I think this is Thom Chapman as Kenney Peabody and Kimberly McCoy as Janet Peabody, and I know the cool lady in the pink robe is Mary-Pat Gonzalez as Mrs. Merkle. (I know this because she's the friend I mentioned in the beginning as the reason Don and I went.)


Hee-heee! Did-ja catch that cole-cream face?




Ta-Daaaa!

My apologies to the rest of cast whose faces here I have not identified or whose pictures I didn't take. Kudos to the entire cast and crew who were ALL excellent!
It was a challenge to get reasonably sharp photographs because most of the time folks were moving too fast (i.e., moving, period.), like this fellow on the far right, Luke Yellin, who was dancing and singing up a storm as Conrad Birdie. I'm especially sad about this because his Aunt was seated beside us. Characters that have gone unidentified either by name or photo or both are: Nicole Cassesso as Ursula Merkle, Katrina Chizek as Penelope Ann and Gloria Rasputin, Ian McCarthy as Harvey Johnson, Andrea Dodson as Deborah Sue and Dance Captain, Laura Pasarow as Margie May, Amanda Lamb as Helen, Lauren Williamson as Patti Lynn, Noelle Carney as Nancy, Renee Manuele as Becky Lee, Alison Axelrad as Alice, Whitney Finel as Suzie, Sergio Mitre as Danny, Dan Wright as Billy, Scott Leslie as Frankie, Michael Ray Clark as Johnny, Randy Fletcher as Mayor, C.C. Deere as Mayor's Wife, Kinberly McCoy as Janet Peabody, and Lila Bassior as Mrs. Johnson. And I deeply apologize if I miss-identified anyone in the photographs above!

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

9-11-07 Qualcomm Stadium

Did I mention Don and I went to the first San Diego Chargers game of the season? Yep. Don's company has a sky box at Qualcomm Stadium and they were nice enough to let Don and I visit it. We got there early and parked in the "tailgate parking" area where our neighbors were some young folks from Chicago (the other team playing that day) .
It's sort of old news now, but here are a few photo's anyway:

Here's Don (center stage)
Neighbors to our right (Go Bears!):

Neighbors to our left (Go Chargers!) These gals were nice enough to help us erect our shade canopy:

Us on the left--Chicago neighbors on right.
A tram.

A team of young ladies making our Chicago friends feel welcome with a cheer for the Bears.

The sky box:

The cheerleaders:

The flag

The Eagle

The fans:

The media

The game



The friends



And to view the rest click on the word "Shutterfly" below--I hope it doesn't make you sign in. If it does, I apologize. It was easier with yahoo photo albums, but they were having such success with Flickr that they abandoned their albums and forced us out. I chose one of the options they suggested because they were offering to move all my albums there. I procrastinated until the 11th hour, so did not have time to investigate each option. A friend of mine uses snapfish and ever since I went to view her pictures I've been spamed by snapfish, so I knew I didn't want that one. They may all be the same in that regard though.
I'm hoping this little link will work---so give it a try and let me know: