In April, we attended a performance of "Jack and the Beanstalk" at the North Canton Playhouse, which is located inside Hoover High School. I would like to give you a first-hand description of the performance, but it so happened that I spent all but the first 5 minutes out in the hallway on the phone selling my piano.
What I did witness was very funny and exciting. The play was not contained by the borders of the stage. As soon as my phone rang, the characters were traipsing around the auditorium through the aisles and right behind me. I felt rude enough talking on the phone near the other audience members. It was incredibly rude to do so with the actors immediately behind me. My 20 month old came with me, and my 8 year old stayed to watch. She loved it, and so did the many other children in the packed auditorium, as evidenced by the roars of laughter and cheers. After the performance, there was an opportunity to meet the performers onstage and have a picture taken with them. We opted out of this but might not next time.
I had planned to arrive early since I was meeting 2 other moms there, but it did not happen. My directions were completely wrong. Apparently, MapQuest has a major issue differentiating between Canton and North Canton. It gave me directions to a residential neighborhood in Canton. I drove around there for a few minutes, searching in vain for something that resembled a high school, then I called a friend who I knew would be home and could look it up on her computer. She gave me their phone number, but also tried to talk me through directions, which again ended up being incorrect (not her fault). I did call the Playhouse, and the girl I spoke with was extremely apologetic.
She said that although they have requested that MapQuest discontinue giving the wrong directions, nothing has changed. She quickly got me on the right road, and I arrived at the theatre about 5 minutes late. Unfortunately, one of the moms I was to meet also had the wrong directions, spent time on her phone with her husband at home trying to find the right ones, and called me to get help. She was about 10 to 15 minutes behind me in the whole wrong directions cycle, and ended up arriving at the performance about 25 minutes late.
The best part of this story was how the NC Playhouse dealt with her inconvenience. They immediately offered to replace the tickets for our entire group (!!), even though most of us had not missed the performance. We are all able to attend another performance at their expense. Although we have not yet taken advantage of their generosity, I am quite impressed. This is professional customer service at its best.
Tickets cost only $3.00 each (school group rate), prepaid, and you don't want to wait until the last minute or they will sell out.
All in all, it was a good experience for us all. We definitely learned to double check MapQuest, and had no other problems with the performance. I highly recommend it.
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