Narnia

Em was the understudy for Susan in Chronicles of Narnia, a wood nymph the rest of the time, but fortunately they had an understudy show.



It's a really good move for community theater, both because you have your bases covered if the person who got a main roll gets sick or whatever, but because everyone gets to do more in the show. I think they had four people in main roles who weren't played by their understudy at the matinee.





And really, these folks (not just Em) must have worked their fool butts off learning multiple roles because it didn't come off as if everyone where subbing, it played like these were all the primary cast.





Em's family took up the whole front row and then some (her Mom and one Grandma were in another area of the theater).



I read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe back in maybe junior high, of course. Might have been for a class, might have been for the hell of it, I really don't recall. I enjoyed it, but I didn't get drawn in like some of my peers, reading the whole series (indeed, that may be the indication that it was assigned reading, I may have read just what was required without getting hooked on the larger series).



I didn't realize that there was actually a campaign to get kiddos out of London and into the country to protect them from the Nazi bombings. I had the impression that these four kids must have been wealthy if they had someone in the country to go to.



I do remember something about Churchill knowing one of the big bombings was coming from the Nazi code having been broken, and then not wanting to tip his hand that he knew what they were going to do. Talk about the kind of decision that ages you right there in your shoes.



Anyway, the mythology of Narnia is potent stuff, you don't need the bombing of London to give it a canvas.



I guess part of the appeal is similar to the Hobbit/LOTR series: here is a world where good an evil are clear and pretty obvious, and good has a shot at winning in the end. That's something people feel a need to hear, especially when so much evidence of the senses is to the contrary.



They closed the curtain call with a hilarious dance piece, basically just playing a piece of hip-hop/pop music and letting everyone just get up and boogie.