Day 7: Feliz Navidad Darlings! I'm happy to talk about the THEATRE once more. This time, we will be talking about Christmas Panto.
So let's go into definition and then go into all the performances. So Panto is short for Pantomine (a comedic play primarily for children and families to enjoy a presentational play with musical sing a long, slapstick, and the occasional pop culture jab. Also audience participation is a MUST!) and primarily is more enjoyed in England but America sometimes has Panto performances. For Example, Pasadena is doing an American Panto of Beauty and the Beast.
In fact many Panto Performances are mostly based on Fairy Tales. Snow White, Aladdin, Sleeping Beauty, Peter Pan, you get the picture. Now for some of the main aspects are pretty funny. First, your main male character is usually portrayed by a woman. (Many performances of Aladdin use this as well as a future trope I will talk about now. Also there is the Pantomime Dame, a man in drag usually who goes around being the "Queen" of the performance. (You have Widow Twankey from Aladdin, The Evil Queen of Snow White sometimes, and the Evil Witch of Sleeping Beauty are such examples. Remember, we can't do DISNEY STORIES BECAUSE THEY'LL SUE! DON'T THINK ABOUT IT!) You got musical numbers, audiences cheering at heroes and booing at villains. Actors throwing things out to the audience. It's chaotic but funny.
There are some Panto performances on YouTube you can check out to understand the style and enjoy the performances.
Day 8: The Nutcracker.
No Christmas is ever complete without The Nutcracker Ballet made famous by Tchaikovsky. This two act performance follows Clara as she gets a gift from Uncle Drosselmeyer and goes on a magical journey with her reanimated Nutcracker and goes to a land of chocolate and sweets.
This Ballet has been the staple of Christmas stage entertainment for many years though its funny to hear that Tchaikovsky absolutely dislike this composition. And also some people have claimed that The Nutcracker is killing ballet as an art form due to mostly people visiting this performance other than other ballet performances.
But still, the story is full of the whimsy and wonder and the spectacle of the performance is what keeps it fresh for all people as well as being a good ballet to introduce people to ballet. In fact, my sister, brother and I went together as part of my sisters, girl scout troop to visit a live performance and I still have my nutcracker from that performance that we got as souvenirs. Truly a fun performance though I was suprisingly more invested than people have given me credit for at the time.
So Darlings, what are your favorite theater performances?
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