27 Mar, 2007
Going out, dressing up
Posted by andrea tomkins in: Easy ways to make kids happy|Ottawa
I don’t mean to go all hoity-hoity on you, but I like Things of Culture: film, art, music, literature, the theatre. It’s important to me that our kids become culturally well-rounded individuals. I don’t want to raise a couple of doobs who think Survivor is the best thing on television, that all movies should star Tim Allen, and classy music is what you hear at Disney on Ice.
We do what we can to encourage open-minded thinking (I’m remembering here the times I’ve tried explaining some of the abstract/contemporary art at the National Gallery), but also try to expose them to different sorts of things around town things that are, well, a little different.
That why I jumped at the opportunity to take them to a screening of the Wizard of Oz at the NAC.
Years ago, when I was still living at home, my parents attended a production of Aida at the Skydome in Toronto. Aida is an opera. Skydome is a venue for sports. As traditional theatre-goers they found themselves faced with a rather interesting dilemma. How should they dress for this event? Does one dress for the production (also, considering the time of day) or for the venue?
In my parents case, they dressed up. Nothing surprising there. These are people who dressed up to go to the mall, which, for my mom, meant a skirt, blouse, high heels and a matching ensemble of accessories.
Fast forward to last Saturday night. I wasn’t sure what to wear to the NAC. And how to dress the kids? The NAC is a downtown theatre. The event was an 8 p.m. screening of a film accompanied by a full orchestra. Again, dress for the venue, or the event?
Like my mother before me, I dressed up rather than down. In my mind this is the Right Thing. I was in black skirt and heels. The girls wore skirts and dress shoes. Mark wore dark pants and a nice sweater. I think we were appropriately attired. I know we did the Right Thing. In fact, we looked pretty darn smart. I know this for sure because of the number of approving glances we received from elderly members. (If you’ve been to the NAC you know it’s a regular hangout of the blue rinse set.)
If you’ve ever been to the NAC you also know that there is always a wild cross-section of people who attend these kinds of events along with an equally weird variety of wardrobe choices. At the Wizard of Oz I saw almost everything ranging from track pants up to the latest from Holt’s, including bare midriffs, jeans, and running shoes. I saw kids on both sides of the “dress up or dress normal” argument. I loved seeing little people in shirts and ties, and little girls in pretty dresses. As for the kids who looked like they came straight from a playdate, well, I couldn’t help but wonder. Why didn’t the parents dress them up a bit? Or perhaps it’s just me, living an outdated fantasy of the 1950s? It’s interesting that the best-dressed people were almost always on the other side of 55 … well-heeled and equally well lacquered. What do you think?
Anyway, yes. Enough about that. The Wizard of Oz was great. I love that movie. I think I may have seen it 50 times in my life but I could never get tired of it. It was a great choice of film. The NAC orchestra sat underneath the big screen and played all the music during the film. It was very good, although in some parts they drowned out the audio of the film, but we all know it so well that it hardly matters.
The girls loved it, although I noticed Sarah plugging her ears at the witchiest parts.
I do hope the NAC brings it back again, or at least something like it. I think it gave the girls a really good appreciation of what the music is, how it works, and how difficult it is to make a good job of it.
