When I was a kid I loved the children’s book series “Frog and Toad”.  I read a ton but there are some books that just stick out in my mind more than others and this was one of them.  When The Dallas Children’s Theater listed they were doing a play of them this season I jumped to get tickets.  Ha!  No pun intended.  For the price of one evening at the opera we were able to buy four plays with our four year old.  I love that they have themes and this was jammy night (note mine is in Frog and Toad PJs!) and they also had some frogs and a toad from the zoo stop by.  It was great fun and the look of delight on my little one’s face was priceless.  My husband, who usually takes very expensive naps (during the opera) declared he had a better time than if we had gone to the Winspear (Opera House).  During intermission Maris got the plush frog and toad I had always wished they would have made when I was a kid.  And she made a little bracelet that spelled her name.  My husband I think had almost as much fun as she and I did and he had never even read the books.  The theater is still an old fashioned escape.  It is different from movies which are manipulated and it requires imagination and also the slowing down of time.  I hope to instill a love of the theater my daughter.  She said she had “the best time ever!”  As addicted as I admittedly am to my iPhone, I am glad they are vigilant about forbidding the use of filming and taking pictures during the performance; they offer darling photo ops like the one I took here.  She got her play poster autographed and I chuckled when I read “Frog” and “Toad” as their signatures.  It is framed and hanging next to the first play we took her to see which was “Fancy Nancy.”  Actress Vanessa Redgrave said:

“Of course we all come to the theatre with baggage.  The baggage of our daily lives, the baggage of our problems, the baggage of our tragedies, the baggage of being tired.  It doesn’t matter what age you are.  But if our hearts get opened and released — well that is what theatre can do, and does sometimes, and everyone is thankful when that happens.”

I believe that is what happened for the three of us.  We all came with the baggage of being tired.  But Frog and Toad opened our hearts and we left much lighter for having gone.  It was certainly a trip worth taking.