Friday, November 18, 2016

10 Days of Thanksgiving: Day 7 - Performing Arts

Today I am thankful that I live in a city with such a vibrant performing arts community. 

I feel very fortunate to live in a city with so many different performing arts venues.  We have so many theaters, some of which are beautiful, historic buildings. It's been said that Minneapolis is 2nd to New York in terms of theater seats per capita, although this has been challenged by other cities, such as Cleveland.  But it's fair to say that we have many theaters!

When I lived in Charlotte, it made me realize that I was taking Minneapolis's theater scene for granted. That's not to say that there weren't opportunities to take in live theater when I lived in Charlotte; there were just far fewer opportunities and a smaller selection of shows.  So when I moved back to Minneapolis, I vowed to do a better job of going to shows.  I think I've done a pretty good job of doing this as I've gone to a number of plays and concerts since moving back, and I've also gone to speaking events.  Most recently, I saw Colson Whitehead, author of The Underground Railroad, at an event hosted by MPR and our local newspaper.

Tonight, I'm going to Stephen Sondheim's musical, The Company, with 2 girlfriends. In case you haven't heard of this, the synopsis is:  "On the night of his 35th birthday, confirmed bachelor, Robert, contemplated his unmarried state. Over the course of a series of dinners, drinks and even a wedding, his friends explain the pros and cons of taking on a spouse. The habitually single Robert is forced to question his adamant retention of bachelorhood during a hilarious array of interactions."  The girlfriends I'm going with are also in their mid-30s and unmarried so I think we'll be able to relate to the subject-matter pretty well.  ;)

Besides attending this show, I already know that I am going to 2 other events in the first quarter of 2017 - one with Phil, which is his Christmas present, and one with his mom, Joan, which is her Christmas present.  I'm so glad I came up with awesome "experience" type gifts to give them both this year!

What are you thankful for today?

6 comments:

Gracie said...

I enjoy live theater and live music, although this year we didn't renew our season tickets to the symphony because of my class schedule. We did enjoy several live theater performances, though, including an ongoing "soap opera" a little troop puts on to hilarious effect (it's on it's fifth season of silliness). This post also reminded me, as we near Christmas, that tickets are a good gift for the hard-to-shop-for!

Stephany said...

We have a pretty cool theater scene here in the Tampa Bay Area, but I don't take advantage of it at all! I wish I did... but it's hard to find people to go with! Sigh.

I wish we had more author events in this area, but authors don't venture down to central Florida too often, sadly.

Jeanie said...

Well, you know I love the arts! I hope you enjoyed Company. By that last song, I'm often in tears!

OK -- this is silly. But today I am thankful that my heat works! Golly, it got cold fast!

Marlys said...

I just saw your Friday comment and that day I was thankful that I was hunkered down at the lake, doing what I love - baking and cooking in preparation for Thanksgiving! It was a nasty day outside!

Amber said...

What a cool thing to be thankful for! I love live performances but don't get out to them as often as I should and live in a pretty small town now, but I have been impressed with the number of performances I've already seen offered here for the size of the town!

Jolene - EverydayFoodie said...

My city is quite artsy, and there are a lot of performing arts-type things (and live music shows) around here. I love going to see live performances of any kind!