Tidely Idly Puts to Sea

Got a real taste of local community theater today when we took the kids to a production of Burt Dow, Deep Water Man. The book itself is a classic by Robert McCloskey, an author with local ties who often included his neighbors and nearby landmarks in his stories.

As it turned out, this was pretty much a one man show, and I knew the fellow putting on the performance (he being married to the woman who owns the small business my wife works for). He was certainly appropriate for the role, and one of his strengths was nailing the distinctive accent and speech patterns of ole Burt. 

You can get good sense of what I mean in this animated version, which as it happens was narrated by another fellow with local ties. In fact he tells a nice anecdote about once meeting the author while working a gig at the very theater where we took in the show.

So it all felt very much like community theater in the classic tradition, as Burt might say.