halloween in connecticut

 i drove up to connecticut to spend halloween with my sister. she had purchased tickets to see billy elliot at the goodspeed opera house in east haddam. it was a beautiful, blustery day and as i was driving, the wind would whip the leaves from the trees and they would scatter in front of the car over the road, along the parkway.

 the gelston house, next to the opera house. it's very pretty inside and i've always wanted to eat here.

 support the miners! billy elliot takes place in northeast england during the 1984-5 miners' strike in county durham. it was fun to see, though i found i preferred act ii over act i. act i was a little loud with lots of shouting and even children screaming . . act ii began on a softer note and dealt more with billy's learning how to dance and the home environment of the family. the final dance number was the best, and i wish there had been more of that in the first act.

 my sister's friend anna, my sister kathy, and i.

 the opera house is on the connecticut river . . 

 back at home . . getting ready for the trick or treaters . . 

 it was an incredibly windy halloween, with the gusts knocking tree branches against the house and startling us.

 i thought it was nice how many of the parents dressed up with their children.

chanda with the little girl she babysits for. chanda was a character from a show she watches, and the little girl was dumbledore from the harry potter books. this photo was sent to me by the little girl's mom. chanda wasn't with me in connecticut. (the photo was taken at the cafe in which chanda works.)

 my nephew (who lives in florida) also dressed up for halloween. he was joseph roulin, from van gogh's painting of his postman in arles in 1888/9 . . 

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we woke the next morning, friday, to no power! the wind had knocked down so many lines and many towns in connecticut, rhode island and massachusetts were without power. we went in the morning to the local supermarket and got some hot water for tea, which we had with the brioche i had brought the day before. (for halloween dinner my sister had made butternut squash soup, which was so delicious to have on a cold  evening.) we ran several errands around town . . staying in warm places . . and then decided to have dinner at a restaurant in a neighboring town that had power again.


 one of my sister's trees came down also. i think it was a hemlock. she said it was one they needed to have taken down anyway, as it was dying.


 at the restaurant . . i loved how the sun shone in so bright . .

 the food was very delicious (we were quite hungry!)

 we ended up wanting the same two entrees, so we shared the plates:

 shrimp with walnuts and a sweet sauce, and duck with carrots and mushrooms. the duck was incredibly tender.

 

 isn't it a pretty place? that evening when we got home, we sat in candlelight for a few hours, and then suddenly the lights came back on. we watched a few episodes of the tv show frazier before going to sleep. (we both find it hilariously funny.)

 next morning . . a pic with toby.

 the japanese maple tree, which i usually photograph in the fall, had lost all its leaves already . . 

 i only found some colorful leaves to photograph on the side of the house . .

and then i headed back home, stopping for coffee at the health food store in middletown.

at the goodspeed opera house

last night my sister mentioned that "hello dolly" was playing in east haddam at the goodspeed opera house. it's one of my favorite shows so i said, yes! let's try to get tickets! there were restricted seats available for a very good price so we split it . . and treated each other for our birthdays, and took m and c . . . . 

goodspeed's first performance was in 1877 with the presentation of two farces and a musical. it also housed a passenger boat terminal, professional offices, and a general store. it was a busy place! eventually it fell into disuse and was revived and renovated in the 1960's.

it's a very small stage, so of course the ensemble was also small, and you could see how they were enjoying playing many roles. they were all fabulous dancers, and the dance numbers were excellently staged considering the small space.

ashley brown, of mary poppins fame (she originated the broadway role) played the part of irene molloy. she has the loveliest voice and sent shivers down my spine during several high notes . . here you can see us sitting in the last row of the balcony. we couldn't see extreme stage right, which did not detract from the performance at all. no one had purchased the seats in front of us, so we moved forward to the front balcony row during intermission . . which is really the mezzanine since the theatre is so small. klea blackhurst played dolly, and she was wonderful. she even waved to us at the end during bows when the audience gave a standing ovation to the cast. i think you can see a clip of it here if you have flash player (i'm using the computer at the sturbridge joshua hyde public library and they need to update their flash player . . ). i also enjoyed tony sheldon as horace vandergelder (he recently received a tony nomination for best actor for his performance as "priscilla, queen of the desert"). actually, everyone was very good . . and you could tell they were all having a great time.

posing on the steps of the gelston house . . a fancy restaurant next door to the theatre, whose posh restroom we used after the show . . 

 

the view from the theatre's balcony bar . . where two of us had espresso gelato! (morgana and i were actually feeling a little under the weather . . and thought it prudent not to have all that sugar . . )

on the balcony before the show . . do you think morgana is looking a little pouty? we both were feeling achy and a little dizzy . . but didn't want to miss out on the show. i'm writing all this wednesday morning and am feeling better now. it's good we had a sturbridge break . . morgana is much better today, also, she has dye pots again! and games in the morning. "games" entails overseeing the fishing . . not one of her favorite activities since you need to unhook the little fish after the children catch them. she's gotten very good at it . . out of necessity partially . . but also because she's good at things like that. thursday is the day she's looking forward to, as she'll have freeman farm all day. friday will be her last day . . and she'll be on dye pots again! it's hard work in the hot sun in the morning. the afternoon is shady.