A cool retreat from summer heat
By Patrick Kelley
Originally published 02:11 p.m., June 10, 2008
Updated 02:11 p.m., June 10, 2008
SUMMER is a time of travel, but maybe not so much this year. On long trips, a day’s worth of gasoline for the family sedan costs more than the night at a motel when the day’s travel is over. Airlines are cutting flights and pumping up the price of tickets and “extras” — food, drink and baggage.
But there’s is still plenty to do around Emporia that doesn’t cost much. Many families will spend summer evenings sitting in the bleachers watching kids’ baseball games. The several lakes nearby will probably see a lot of traffic from people seeking to escape the heat radiating from asphalt and bask in the cooling breezes across the water.
For rock-bottom inexpensive summer entertainment, there is always the backyard barbecue, followed by a retreat to the air-conditioned house and a DVD of a family movie.
But for a civilized evening of special summer fun, it is difficult to beat the ESU Summer Theatre. Every summer since 1955, the university has produced a bill of solid entertainment — serious plays now and again, but mostly light comedies and musicals — to train its students in the crafts of theater.
This summer’s bill is all light, as it should be in such trying times. The first show will open Wednesday night — “Some Enchanted Evening: The Songs of Rodgers & Hammerstein.” It promises to offer an evening of pretty music and nostalgia.
That will be followed in two weeks by a fine old American play, “Bell, Book and Candle,” a romantic comedy with a big dose of magic.
The third show will be “The Complete History of America, Abridged,” a zany, high-speed romp through the nation’s past from the fertile, if not quite balanced, minds of the Reduced Shakespeare Company.
The season will end with a modern musical love story, “I Love You Because.”
What better way to spend a summer evening than sitting in a cool theater being entertained by live human beings? There will be no car chases, no gory murders and no computer-generated effects — just comedy and music.
Also, there will be no chiggers and no mosquitos, no sunburn and no heat stroke.
Now that’s real relaxation.
To reserve tickets for the summer shows, call the theater box office at 341-6378.
gazette_reader (anonymous) says...
ESU Summer Theatre is one of the best things Emporia has to offer. We look forward to it every year!
June 11, 2008 at 4 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )