A MELODRAMA (a sensational dramatic piece with exaggerated characters and exciting events intended to appeal to the emotions) has been a popular and fun Fur Rondy event for 32 years. Members of Alaska Sound Celebration, Alaska's premier women's a cappella chorus, write and produce the play, build sets , make costumes and perform in the show.
BB, friend Terri and I attend a Sunday evening performance. The show is held in the theater at 49th State Brewery.
This year's melodrama is 'Peaceful....Well It Was!' A villain with evil intent comes to the town of Peaceful. The heroine and her grandmother are in mortal danger. And of course a hero arrives to save the day.
The audience is encouraged to participate with these suggestions; hiss when the villain appears, ahh for the heroine and choo-choo for the train. Before the show starts members make their way amongst the audience selling popcorn...and they sell LOTS of it. Once the show starts I find out why. The audience isn't buying popcorn to eat...but to throw! Heavy showers of popcorn are thrown at the villain; often heavy enough that the actor pauses and waits for it to stop. (Actually, his pause seems to egg the popcorn throwers on!). The audience also enjoys randomly throwing popcorn at other audience members. When we stand up during intermission and after the show popcorn falls off of us. The floor is carpeted with popcorn when we leave
We stay at 49th State for a late dinner. 49th State is where I discovered halibut last summer. I enjoy my dinner of halibut fish and chips. BB and Terri are healthy and have salads.
Since we are out late BB and I decide to go Aurora Hunting before heading home. We strike gold! While driving out to Woronzof Point we comment on the traffic. There is a steady stream of cars on the road. We pass by Airport Park and notice the full parking lot. We don't even try to park at the Point, but turn around to park beside Northern Lights Blvd on the hill above the Point. This is when we see the lights! We view them from the Coastal Trail on the hill above the road. We realize we missed the majority of this display, but they are still active enough to be worth seeing. They fade away after 15 or 20 minutes. Back in the car we check the Aurora Alerts site and the predictions are 100% for seeing them on the horizon and overhead. We wait. Nothing. We leave to see if we can view them from Lynn Ary Park. We see the parking lot lights at Lynn Ary and think the Park isn't a good spot for viewing. We are winding our way through the neighborhood back to the main road when BB exclaims 'They're out! Look up!' I stop the car at the first intersection and we hop out. The Aurora is amazing! Spectacular! It is all over the sky! Here we are, 12:30 at night, viewing the lights, quietly ohing and awing and hoping the neighbors don't call the police on us.
Apparently this Aurora display was exceptional. It is all over the morning's news. The pictures in this Anchorage Daily News article are worth looking at.
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