Dinner and Theater

I was sick for a solid 5 days, but I want to get this down before I forget.

We went out to one of the FareStart Thursday Night Guest Chef nights. The chef was from Bengodi, and I thought the food was spectacular, and well-portioned. My DH thought everything needed salt, but was pleased, too, I think. I like going to FareStart(http://www.farestart.org/index.html) because I admire their contribution to the community by training people in the food service industry so that they can get jobs and get out of the cycle of homelessness. So it was good for the palate and soul at the same time.

Then we went to see Spring Awakenings at the Paramount Theater. The music had a Rent-like rock-and-roll sound that I liked, but the story was more like a tragic opera - incest, child abuse, a woman who'd rather see her daughter dead than pregnant, forcing her to have an abortion. Sound like a fun night out? It was a very strange experience, but the tickets were partially a donation to the Seattle Mens' Chorus, so I just bought them without researching the play. Not that it would have mattered. I'd have gone anyway. My poor DH! I think he really disliked it.

Sunday we saw some outstanding theater at the Seattle Rep - The Night Watcher. Charlayne Woodard is a marvelous storyteller. I think she gets better with every performance. This is the 3rd or 4th we've seen, and we've loved everything she's done. It's a cohesive performance of a series of stories about the children in her life, though she does not have any children of her own. In the discussion with Charlayne Woodard following the performance, she said that the question of why, even though she has such profound relationships with other children, why she chose not to have any of her own, was very important in the play's development. You can see that thread through the stories, and I think it does enrich the experience of this theater piece. It is one of the best things I've seen this year.

Next theater experience will be The Three Musketeers, also at the Seattle Rep. I love that story, and am looking forward to the show. Dangerous having high expectations, but I just can't help myself! We'll be heading there with friends, and I'm guessing we'll probably head somewhere for dinner, so there'll be more dinner/theater comments coming soon!

This picture is of our hotel in Ptuj, Slovenia.