starlight and airplanes

Tonight, Trent and I went to see The Sound of Music with our friend Cathie and her daughters. Alex, the son of the couple who run the Kroc Center, was playing Kurt. I loved watching the Julie Andrews version as a kid, and still know all the words to Trent's slightly malicious but good-natured delight. It was a terrific production, and Alex was great on stage.

The play was at the Starlight Theater, and as you can imagine in San Diego, it was indeed outdoor and under the stars. It was also under the flight path. Countless planes flew overhead during the performance. During musical numbers, the cast sang though the noise, but otherwise the entire stage froze action and waited until the plane was no longer heard. It made for a rather disjunctive viewing experience, although memorable.

Cathie said that every few years a suggestion is made that the theater move to a new location, or be enclosed, but there is a fair sized following who find charm in the interupting planes. I wondered how the actors felt, performing in front of an audience that doesn't mind these large continuity problems. As you can imagine, this is one of those moments when it comes into clear focus that I live in Southern California, which I suspect at times is another planet altogether.