My Experience With... Alice in Wonderland (Rachael Peatross edition)

Let me start off by saying that I am not an acclaimed / renowned critic or reviewer. However, I'm going to do a play review anyway.

So there. ^_^

Sometimes you don't need to look too far to get some good entertainment. Sometimes it's right around your neighborhood. For me, it was a small Christian school in North Carolina.


My friend Rachel is pretty good with drama (the theatrical kind, you internet smart alecks), and she's had her fair share of directing plays. She recently directed Alice in Wonderland, a version she wrote herself, combining elements of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Saw There. I was personally excited to see it, and went with some friends this past weekend. I was not disappointed in the least.


Firstly, I walked in, and the "stage" was more of the middle of the floor, with the chairs set  like it was the Globe Theatre. I personally like this kind of setting, as it connects the audience to the characters, and vise versa. Secondly, this was a play with most of the characters played by middle schoolers.

And.

They.

ROCKED IT.


I don't know what Rachel did with this bunch, but they were all really great in their roles, and their improv had me in stitches. I wish I could say something about every last one of these characters, but I'll put down which ones I remember the most.

Alice - The actress was pretty good in this role, as a young girl who pretty much was ready to roll with the punches that was Wonderland.

Mad Hatter - The only thing that stood out more than his great acting ability would probably be his height. His matter-of-factness about his madness made him a really memorable character.

March Hare - Okay, I will admit that she was my favorite character. She was just a bundle of energy, and I loved it! I can only imagine that she took her madness to the same extreme that a trombone player would take fortissimo.

Humpty Dumpty - Loved her air of arrogance throughout her performance! Nice change from cravat to scarf, by the way. :)

Reciter - I was floored by how well she had all of those lines memorized!

The Tweedles - Those two were amazingly hilarious... kinda had a Laurel/Hardy / Abbot/Costello thing going on.


Like I said, too many to actually write down here, but overall, this cast did an excellent job in their character roles.


The story itself contains its special mixtures of the original stories' structures, bits of comedy pertaining to contemporary life, dancing, puns, improv, even it's own sort of Pyramus and Thisbe! I would find this suitable for children at least 5 and above, making it a perfect family play.

Now, since last week was the *ahem* premiere of this play, I'm not sure that you will find a theatre near you that's hosting this play. You may need to contact Rachel herself about it. She'll talk to you about it further.


Well, hope you liked my first theatrical review! I hope to do more soon.


Now the question:

Have you seen a play written by a local? Have you written a play or your own version of a play? Please let me know your experience in the comments below! Ciao!

My Experience With... Signing an Autograph!

Wow! I hadn't even realized that I hadn't posted for the month of October! :( I try to crank out at least one or two per month.


Life can so get in the way of blogging if you let it... ;)


Anyway, I've mentioned (quite a few times) that I've been in the movie War Room, and I can be clearly seen. Here are the links, so I don't have to hyperlink them mid-sentence.

• War Room
• Meeting Pricilla Shirer

Since the movie came out, for almost a month people in my church have looked at me and either said, "Hey, I saw you in War Room!" or "Were you in that movie War, Room?" And of course, I said yes. It's still making my head spin that God gave me the opportunity to be on a feature film. Forever. That's the part that's really hard to grasp. Honest-to-goodness, I cannot thank God enough for the amazing experience.

That being said, I was in the library the other day, and a man who frequents it saw me at a computer. He asked me if I was in the movie. I told him yes. I'm pretty sure he was excited about it. He said he'd seen me several times before in the library, and just wanted to make sure it was the same woman. So yes, I did give out my first official autograph:

To my good friend, Stephen.
Jessie Berrie.

Y'know... I should've taken a picture of it. Oh, well. Just the thought of giving someone an autograph is cool in and of itself, let alone actually doing it. ^_^

Thanks, Stephen!

My Experience With... KaboomTM Foam-TasticTM (Fresh Scent) Powered by OxiCleanTM

One thing I definitely do enjoy is a nice, clean house. I'm not the best at doing that, but I'd like to think that I am getting better. I actually do like cleaning my bathroom, though. Not saying I'd like cleaning anybody else's bathroom, mind you.

Anyway, I first heard of it through the good ol' fashioned commercial that seems almost unrealistic. I mean, c'mon, even the commercial says this is elapsed time!

I'd also heard of OxiClean^TM, and its amazing wonders. I'm not sure how it is as a product alone, but I definitely want to give this line a shot; this should give you a hint as to how well this went down.

I purchased it at a Food Lion, for about $3-$4. I do not remember the exact price. That night, I was way too tired to clean my bathroom, so I just did a couple of test spots.

Some caveats: 1) When they said this stuff has a fresh scent... IT HAS A FRESH SCENT. Please... please... be sure to have a well-ventilated area, as this albeit good-smelling fresh scent will clean out your olfactory senses for a good half hour. 2) When you spray this stuff, a bunch of it will clump right below the nozzle, but a good shake will get it off in a pinch. 3) You should probably wear gloves during this process... my hands are alright (for now), but I didn't have my head on straight, and it probably wasn't the smartest thing to use it bare-handed. 4) DO NOT APPLY THIS TO A WET SURFACE. I'll explain why in a moment.

The first thing I did, as I said, was spray a couple of test spots. Bam. I had a couple of blue spots on my tub. I looked down at the clumping cleanser, then looked up and... where on earth did the blue go? That stuff turned white so quickly it was scary! My tub isn't disgusting, but it wasn't sparkling, either! I wiped the white spots gently with a wet sponge, and poured some water on it. It was... decent. I was moderately satisficed. I have one of those bathtubs that looks like someone slapped it on top of whatever was originally there (hey, the house came with that, and I am NOT about to explore under there), so some of it was smooth, and some of it was textured. The smooth part came out pretty well, but the texture still had some dirt. I dismissed it as “I-was-too-tired-therefore-I-could-not-make-the-best-judgement.” Glad I did, otherwise you wouldn't be reading this blog post!

After work the next day, I decided to get into my “dirty work” clothes and tackle that bathroom. I cleaned the commode (I'll tell you about the product I used there another time.), then sprayed down the shower with the Kaboom^TM stuff. I know I sprayed a ton of stuff, because my nose started to scream at me – or at least proverbially so. I wanted to have my entire bathtub covered in blue, but it kept turning white so quickly I couldn't keep up! Not to mention, it looked as though someone MS Painted the whole thing with a large spray-paint feature! It was the most ridiculous spectacle of chase since “Kill Bad Graphics Ghost”!

… That is, if you don't hold the “TAB” key. Cheaters. ;-)

But I digress. In any case, I did do an attempt at making a Scottish flag with spray and good timing. It was very awkward.

I left it alone for a few minutes (mainly to regroup my sinuses), then wiped as much as I could down. I realized that I could see previously cleaned spots at that time, so I figured then that the stuff was definitely working. After wiping, I gave my bathtub... a shower. No, really, I hosed the thing down with my shower head. It turned out so nicely, even the textured part was noticeably cleaner! The spray also made it extremely easy to wipe off soap and hair product gunk, etc., off of the tub! The only thing left was a faint ring, but I think a few more, longer-setting uses will take care of that, easily.

The reason I say do not apply to a wet surface is this: OxiClean^TM works with... Oxygen... right? I think the oxygen is what causes the stuff to turn from blue to white. If you apply it to a wet surface, you're applying it to a lot of oxygen.

Next, I took care of the sink – er – basin. Whatever. It turned out even better than the tub! (It's very smooth.) Considering all the junk I do to groom myself there, I couldn't even recognize my own basin! It looked NEW! NEW, I TELL YA!!!! And yes, the strong fresh scent did fade into a gentle breeze after awhile. I went out, then came back in, and my bathroom was SPARKLING. I could not believe it.

My apologies to the Kaboom^TM people for referring to it as “the stuff” a lot in the blog... you guys have an AMAZING product in your inventory... you just have a long name, and I'm too lazy to type out the entire thing over and over in my blog!

Was I impressed or satisfied? There are no words to describe my exuberance about this stuff. Would I recommend this? Oh yeah, you bet your sweet bippy... whatever that is.

It's become my new favorite cleanser (I even wanted to try the cleaning eraser, but I didn't have anything left to clean! Maybe the floor...?), I don't need that hard-to-clean powder anymore – effective as that is – and I will forever have room in my budget for it.

How about you? What's YOUR favorite bathroom cleanser?

P.S.: The website is kaboomkaboom.com. Is that the coolest domain name or what?!