I guess you could say we have been immersed in Don Quixote over the past two months. It started when Chloe found out that was the play she would be doing. She wasn't all that excited about it at first. The next day I read this post on Soulemama's blog about how her kids had gotten excited about Don Quixote. What a coincidence! I told Chloe about it, she read it and got a bit more excited. Then, a few days later I was listening to NPR and heard about the Don Quixote mission to deflect asteroids.
Well, by this time I was sure that we were meant to immerse ourselves in Don Quixote at this time. Meanwhile, Chloe became more enamored of the play. Her director brought the movie soundtrack to rehearsals for the kids to listen to. Then we ordered the Peter O'Toole version from Netflix and watched that. Chloe's director also had the whole cast over to her house to watch the movie. Chloe started singing the songs at home. She got the Broadway musical soundtrack from the library, transferred it to her iPod and was singing the songs all the time. Then she got Ryan interested so he's been singing the songs as well. The coup de grace is Chloe getting the unabridged Don Quixote from the library and reading it. She's not done yet, but we have a renewal on the library loan and she's still reading. I myself have never read the whole thing, though I remember reading some of it in the original Spanish for my high school Spanish class.
This all culminated in the play last weekend. The kids were fantastic and we had a great time. Here's Chloe after the first performance. She played Aldonza/Dulcinea and the Barber. I think it's my favorite play so far that she has done. Bravo Chloe!
