Starry Eyed

PLAY PARK:  Saturday evening we made our way to Blanche Lavizzo Park in what has become an annual pilgrimage. It used to be to watch Star Trek episodes acted out, but last year they shifted universes to Star Wars. This summer's offering was "The Empire Strikes Back." Basically every scene, every line, oh-so-creatively done!

As always, the low-budget but big-imagination sets were fantastically done. Below is how they recreated the opening scene, with an Imperial Star Destroyer taking the stage.

The Imperial minions were throwing mini starships. CJ caught one. This is what is said (a famous quote from the movie).

 Pretty early into the script, a wampa gives Luke a real hard time. Love how they recreated that!

 And then there is the scene where the Rebel Alliance is fighting the Imperial Walkers.

 Tactically flying around them, they were able to take the legs out from underneath them. 

 The performance was very dynamic. Often cast members were posted up in the midst of the audience. 

The production's "little things" were so much appreciated - like Luke enjoying a bag of Dick's on Degobah.

Yoda was a big fan of the burgers and fries.

There were epic battles.

And Luke was a little worse for the wear, having to get an artificial hand installed. 

There were some heartfelt goodbyes during the show, as well. 

 Poor Han. Hope the carbonite doesn't kill him!

The show runs the first four weekends in August. The reason we went on opening night was it coincided with celebrating Grandpa R's birthday. In addition to serving up dinner for nine in the park (pastrami sandwiches and potato salad) Annabelle and I made some Star Wars cookies for dessert. Most of them went to the cast after the show.

All in all, it was such big fun. Hats off to Hello Earth for providing such fun (and free!) entertainment each summer.

BTW - this R2D2 costume was the inspiration for Annabelle's Halloween costume last year, right down to the roller skates.