[Beth]: In the year or so that we have been in San Diego, Jared and I have covered most of the major tourist attractions: Zoo, Wild Animal Park, Balboa Park, etc. However, we have yet to fully explore one of our passions: theater. While Jared is the actual actor, I love being in the audience (what's an actor without a fan section, right?) This past weekend we went down to Balboa Park to the Starlight Theater. A week or so ago, we bought tickets on Groupon.
Quick aside, if you haven't gotten on the Groupon fad, it is definitely time. Especially if you are female. :-) Each day, the groupon website brings you a deal for your city, often at a very discounted price. For example, we got $40 theater tickets for $20.
We took a picnic to the park and enjoyed beautiful weather, tasty food and wine, and wonderful conversation.
The play of the evening was Hello, Dolly. For all of our theater-mongering (ha ha!), neither Jared nor I had seen Hello, Dolly. Jared has sung some of the numbers in his musical career, and we are familiar with several other of the songs thanks to Wall-E. But it was a fabulous evening. The Starlight Theater is a mid-sized amphitheater within Balboa Park. What makes it unique from probably any other amphitheater anywhere is its proximity to the San Diego airport. In fact, the theater is in the direct flight path of planes about to land; and the airport is only about two miles away. So the planes overhead create quite a roar every ten minutes or so. In response to this phenomenon, the theater company has devised a clever system to work around the planes. They have a watchman (or watchwoman, I suppose) and a serious of warning lights in green, yellow, and red. When the watchman spies a plane approaching, the yellow light is turned on to warn the actors. Once the plane gets close to the theater, the red light is illuminated. And all the action stops. The actors freeze, the orchestra pauses, and the audience glances skyward as the plane passes by. Then the green light comes on, and the action resumes. The actors and orchestra handled the interruptions quite well, and it made for unusually entertaining theater. We had a lovely evening and must admit we have had "It Takes a Woman" in our heads for the past four days.
More on our theater goings up next...
