Thursday, February 9, 2023
We went to the Fitzgerald Theater (ya know, F. Scott was a local boy) tonight, the same theater we saw The Princess Bride a few weeks ago. We don’t think we’ve been there in over 20 years, so that seemed odd and fun. The show was part of our Ordway series. The Ordway is a theater, so I am not sure why this show was at another theater. The guy came out and thanked a bunch of people and talked about how amazing it was to be back at the Fitzgerald after over 20 years. If you are a theater, why is it amazing to go to another theater? Also, since we haven’t been there for such a long time, were we at an Ordway show 20+ years ago when we were there? Mysteries!
Another mystery is why was there a dog on a shelf? We stepped from the lobby toward the theater. There is a hallway that runs between the two doors and I saw a very scraggly looking dog statue on an inset shelf in that hallway. I stepped back out for a second and when I came back, the statue had moved a bit. Then it was a real dog. I’m actually going to take a leap of faith and assume it was an actual dog the whole time. But why? And how? Mystery.
We saw the play A Soldier’s Play by Charles Fuller. It is about a murder of a black man at a mostly black army base in Louisiana. It was written in 1981 and set in 1944. I am thinking that when it was written, Charles Fuller was thinking, “and the racism that I am writing about is still going on,” because I was thinking tonight, “and the racism that they are showing is still going on.” The cast was spectacular – no mystery at all that it was a superb (wow, is that hard to spell) show.
Meet Vienna, the show dog of the Fitzgerald Theater (startribune.com)
So cute! So many questions; so many ideas. It looks like a long way to the floor–can he get down when he wants, or does he have to wait for his person? Or jump off on some nice-looking theater patron, and hope for the best? I’m imagining all the art museums I’ve seen with statues in niches, now with dogs in them instead. Animal shelters should do a virtual “pet museum” for their adoptable animals. Doing it for real would be an awesome fundraiser, but good luck keeping them all in place the whole time. Thanks for a great morning-starter!
I very wondered if he was stuck on the shelf. I wanted to linger to find out, but the show was seating. I think I will think dog whenever I see a niche for quite a while.