“Miracle on 34th Street” continues at the Fireside through Dec. I’m not in the habit of promoting commercial ventures but this Christmas season I wanted to share my experience. For example, 10-year-old Gracelyn Skrepenski played Susan Walker perfectly. Even the child actors seemed to give flawless performances. I've always thought of Gwenn as Kris Kringle but I have to at least give the Fireside’s Bill Nabel equal billing when I think of him now. The Fireside says it offers “world class professional theater” and I have to agree. The Fireside Dinner Theatre is a professional theater employing members of the Actors’ Equity Association and the musical they performed was delightful. Some of you may have seen the 1994 remake of the movie although I haven’t. It also featured a young Natalie Wood as Susan Walker, the daughter of one of the principal characters. Edmund Gwenn, who played Kris Kringle in that movie, won an Academy Award for best supporting actor. Also, this production was a musical, and the 1947 “Miracle on 34th Street” movie I’m familiar with isn’t. I didn’t know quite what to expect since the Fireside is a theater in the round. I do enjoy the occasional high school play and we have seen several Highland musicals in the past few years that I would describe as “captivating.” However, this was our first trip to the Fireside. We attended the holiday dinner theater at Cannova’s last year and thoroughly enjoyed it. That’s when we joined a bus trip to the Fireside Theatre in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, - about 90 miles away - to see their dinner theater production of “Miracle on 34th Street.” My wife and I had our own encounter with Santa last month. Maybe he stops here so often because it’s been a lot warmer than up north. Maybe he has a lot of elves and brownies helping him. I’m also impressed that he can make so many public appearances and can still get all his work done at the North Pole, but then that’s why he’s Santa Claus. One of the places he’s visited is the Freeport Public Library. He has been coming to town - asking good little boys and girls what they want for Christmas. Now that’s an easy request to meet! Maybe she still had visions of Halloween still dancing in her head.Īnd speaking of easy, it’s pretty easy to bump into Santa this time of year. Maybe he could have been giving out Halloween candy since that holiday was a lot closer than Christmas.Īnd when it comes to candy, our two-year-old granddaughter recently told us over the phone what she wants for Christmas. I think he would have been wearing shorts. I almost expected to bump into Santa in that section of the store. Okay, there are no Halloween or Thanksgiving trees but when they appear that early, they should be. At first I was hoping they were Halloween trees or maybe Thanksgiving trees but no, they were Christmas trees. I know Christmas shopping comes earlier and earlier because my wife and I were walking through a Freeport store in September when we saw it: a display of fully lit artificial Christmas trees for sale. We look forward to a return visit in the future.Christmas is only 16 days away now. Kris’s I was very easy to communicate with, and did everything she could to make us feel welcomed. We were in town to celebrate my father in laws 93rd birthday, and appreciated the ramps into the house from the garage, as he uses a walker, and one of us uses a scooter for mobility. The house was very comfortable for just hanging out and visiting. We enjoyed the natural beauty of the place as well lots of birds outside the windows, as well as two great blue herons that visited the pond frequently squirrels, chipmunks, a groundhog, and even a fawn that wandered past one morning. Two large living rooms with lots of seating, dining table that accommodated 8 easily, with an island that held another four-five. Kitchen was well equipped, as was the rest of the house. The house was exceptionally comfortable, with many welcoming touches. Kristine’s place exceeded our expectations! The location was great for us - fifteen minutes or less to Janesville.
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