The trip today was to see Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse at the Magical Theatre Company in Barberton, Ohio.
Our enjoyment of the play itself was great. All of the children in our group absolutely loved it. I agreed. It was fun, witty, well-acted and seemed to blend together a number of Kevin Henkes stories into one flawlessly. My almost 2-year-old daughter sat mesmerized by the show on the stage for almost the entire time, which says a lot about its being attention-grabbing. The large groups of schoolchildren also were well-behaved throughout the performance.
My personal favorite moment was a very brief presentation by the young "rodents" about the history of cheese, which was extremely funny and well-written and concluded with the theory that the moon, rather than being made of green cheese, must be made of some type of mild cheddar or colby.
My least favorite moment occurred offstage, when one of the staff came to tell us that our group was taking up too many seats. It seems that my extremely frustrating phone call on Monday to order 2 more tickets had produced only frustration instead of the requested 2 tickets. Apparently, placing us in the back row wasn't enough.
I have never had more trouble organizing anything than I have with the Magical Theatre Company regarding this play. This is my first experience with this company, and it has made quite a first impression. When I originally called, the person I talked to told me that this performance didn't exist; then, when she found it, she sold me tickets for the Tuesday performance and told me that refunds were allowed in case someone in my party couldn't come.
As it turned out, Tuesday was already sold out, I had to change my date, refunds are not allowed, and this person had apparently only been working there for 2 days when she took my order. When others in my group called to buy more tickets, they were treated very curtly, and one was told that she was not allowed to order more tickets. In all, I was on the phone with them 5 times, each call more aggravating than the last.
Would I recommend it? Although we were not treated welcomingly, I can't say certainly that there is a home school bias. I do know of other HSers who have been there with no problems in past years. If you don't mind a hassle, the play was wonderful.
**As a ridiculous exclamation point on the end of a very frustrating sentence, the Magical Theatre Co. sent me a bill. They have decided to charge me for not only the 2 tickets I ordered 3 days before the performance, but also for the 3 tickets a friend of mine ordered and paid for a week before the performance. Because she joined our group, they apparently have put it on my tab and can't seem to understand how someone else could have possibly paid for her own tickets. As Winnie the Pooh would say, "Oh, bother!"
I will be calling or writing them in a futile attempt to explain their mistake. I don't expect much.
