Saturday the seventh was a busy day in Riordan household. Actually, it was much busier than anyone who has households (in the plural) has a right to, but we keep being blessed with social outings anyway. Mer came up with a scheme that gives us a little spending money (basically, any money left over from buying groceries can be used for fun things), and she took me out all day.

We started with a gift-certificate-funded lunch at the Olive Garden. Mer likes the Olive Garden because she can get the unlimited soup, and she likes the hearty soups and breadsticks that they serve. I got soup and a pizza, which I was restrained with and only hate half of (Mer and I split the rest a few days later).

We then headed to Akron, to St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, to see a musical called The Law of Love. It was a musical version of The Good Samaritan story form the Gospel of Luke, and they did a pretty nice job. There was a CVCA student in the production (playing Jesus!) whom Mer and I both know and are fond of, so that was a treat. I approved of the musical. The music was good, and they told the story in an interesting but not preachy way. Too often (in my opinion) when stories from the Bible get retold they come across as stiff on one end or patronizing on the other. The Law of Love managed to avoid either of these extremes. While I do not think it was world-class theater, it was very good amateur-level theater, and I enjoyed the entire production. There were several magnificent singers: our student who played Jesus, a baritone playing a lawyer, and a wonderful black woman playing the Good Samaritan were all excellent. As a nice bonus, the play was a benefit for a community help organization that helps the home-bound, and the event was made up of actors of many Protestant denominations and Catholic churches. It was nice to see churches coming together like that to help the needy.

We went back home briefly for supper, and then we headed to Woodridge High School, which is one of the public schools in our area (only about 5 miles away). We hooked up with our friends Dubbs and Nate to see the school’s production of Into the Woods, which I had never seen. Mer had seen the musical years ago in New York, but was really looking forward to seeing it again. Dubbs had taught as a long-term sub at Woodridge for two years before coming to CVCA, so that was how Mer found out about the production.

The actors/singers and the pit were both excellent. I think they did a really fine job. Sadly, there were some things working against them. The play was put on in the “auditeria” – a combination cafeteria and auditorium. This means the tables were pushed out of the way and we were left sitting on either hard chairs or folding chairs (we were early enough to get hard chairs). Into the Woods is almost three hours long, so sitting on a hard chair like that starts to get to you after awhile. Another issue the kids faced was that the pit orchestra was typically too loud for some of the singers; sometimes you could not hear the vocals. This tied into the last problem: the sound system was flaky. The microphones cut out on all the students at some point, and there were several characters whose microphones never worked at all. Even when the mikes worked, they were not always adjusted well – the lead singer playing the Witch overpowered her microphone several times so that her amplified voice got distorted. It was a shame – the kids were really trying their best and doing fairly well, but it is hard to follow along when the sound keeps cutting in and out. Still, I am glad to have seen the play, if only for cultural literacy purposes.

We all filed out fairly late, and so Mer and I went home and went to bed. After all, we had had a very busy day.