Shakespeare Festival, Meeting The Phantom of the Opera, and a BLM

I mentioned that Foster has been gone WAY too much lately, so in order to make time go a bit faster, and spend some much needed time with my aunt, I headed out to Pennsylvania with my mom to attend the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival.

My aunt has been an actress for YEARS. She has starred in her fair share of stage performances, but has also played rolls on numerous Law and Order episodes, along with an extra roll on Revolutionary Road. I love any opportunity I get to see her perform. When I noticed she was going to be in the PSF's "Pride and Prejudice", I HAD to go and see her. Not only is P&P one of my favorite books, but I LOVE the movie starring Keira Knightly. I was even more delighted to find out she would be playing one of my favorite characters in the book, Mrs. Bennett, the mother.

She was BRILLIANT!!!! Actually, brilliant doesn't even seem to cut it. She was MADE for the role! Mrs. Bennett is a slightly obsessive, borderline crazy mom who is more than a little adamant about marrying off all of her girls to wealthy men. She truly embodied the character, and I loved watching every minute of her on the stage. Apparently so did the rest of the audience, because as her and "Mr. Bennett came out for curtain call, the crowd went nuts!

My beautiful aunt's head shot!

She is the woman in the middle sitting down surrounded by her daughters and husband.

My mom and I saw P&P twice and were also able to see Hamlet. My aunt was in that also, but unfortunately her role was a LOT smaller, and she was only on stage for a few minutes the entire performance. Although she was missing from the stage, I still thoroughly enjoyed the play.

On Saturday night, my aunt informed us to be on the look out for her friends Brad and Barbara. She described them and told us they were in theater as well. My mom and I ran into them, and started idle chit chat as we waited for my aunt to emerge from backstage. The man asked me about my favorite shows I had seen, "My all time favorite was Phantom of the Opera! Hands down!!"

"When did you see it and where?" he asked.

"I believe it was around 2005/2006 in Columbus, Ohio." I replied.

"Well, if it was one of those years, I was the actor playing the Phantom."

I was dumbfounded! I was soooo excited to be meeting this incredible actor. I could listen to him talk all day, and trust me, if indeed that was him on stage, I could listen to him sing every moment of my life. The interesting thing, is after spending the evening with him and his wife, they are both successful in their trade, and they are the most humble people I have met in a long time.

I spent 3 amazing days with my aunt and my mom, and I am so glad I was able to go. It may look like I will get to see her on the "big screen" soon as well! The contract is not finalized, but it looks like she may be in a small budget horror film! I am so proud of her!

On the way home, I was blessed enough to meet up for lunch with one of my best Baby Loss Moms/Rainbow Mommies. Foster and I met up with her and her husband last winter in D.C.. Since her town was only about 10 minutes off the highway we were traveling, I could not pass up the opportunity to see her. Unfortunately, we were only able to meet up for about 1.5 hours, but every minute was worth it!

It was a great weekend, and definitely a great way to make the time go by faster, because unfortunately the time FLEW by!