Cinderella, blue ponchos, and Artpark in upstate New York

Overview of Niagara Falls, American side with a bit of Canadian falls around
the corner.  Niagara is only 5 miles from Lewiston, home of Artpark.

      I couldn't resist the opportunity to see my granddaughter Katie, a theater arts major, play Cinderella's stepsister and to visit an area of the USA I'd never seen.  So, my husband and my daughter and family met in the tiny town of Lewiston in Upstate New York at Artpark.  This venue hosts world renowned performers in concerts and musicals every week, June to September.  Some of this summer's performers:  Foreigner, Sheryl Crow, Sting, and Bob Dylan.  

    Katie's performance was in Rogers & Hammerstein's "Cinderella" complete with a 21 piece orchestra, fabulous costumes and sets borrowed from the New York City Opera.  We saw the play twice and loved it both times. For us, of course, Katie made it grand.  She graduates next June from Elon and I'm looking forward to traveling anywhere to see her perform.

It was frowned upon  to take photos from the audience, so I do not have many

of the play.  I did take this no flash photo.  It is the scene where Cinderella 

crashes the ball and meets the prince.   

The two stepsisters complain about Cinderella.  Katie is in the pink gown.

This photo is from "The Sentinel," a Lewiston area newspaper.  See other

photos of the play from "The Sentinel" on their website under PICS(takes a 

few minutes to load the site).

While we were in the area, we visited Niagara Falls and the Eire Canal, which none of us had seen.  

Here we are all dressed up in the blue ponchos given to us by the boat,

"Maid of the Mist" before we head out to get as close to the falls as possible.

That small square object in the stream leading from the falls is "Maid of 

the Mist," the boat we were in to see an up close look at Horseshoe Falls,

the Canadian side of Niagara.  It was fabulous and  very wet even with

those blue ponchos.

This is the boat.  All that blue looked hilarious to me.  From a distance it

looked like a boatload of Smurfs.

This is one of the locks of the Erie Canal.  I had to remember

the song I learned in the 5th grade, "I've got a mule her name

is Sal, 15 miles on the Erie Canal."  In the early days, mules

pulled the boats from the little road to the side of the canal.

The actors in "Cinderella" were provided a lovely room complete

with fireplace in this hotel overlooking the Niagara River. Katie

couldn't believe she was paid to stay in a lovely room and sing and

dance all day, an actor's dream.

While we were there, Center Street in Lewiston was closed to traffic for an 

exhibit and sale of arts wares.

     Overall, it was a great trip.  The only downside was the depressed condition of the town of Niagara and Erie.  All of their industry and jobs have been moved abroad.  That will be a discussion for another blog entry.