Frugal Friday: Give My Regards

 

photo: microscopiq.com

A girlfriend of mine was in a production of Little Women at my alma mater last night. I’ll be honest: I wasn’t super thrilled about going, since I’m still coughing and sputtering like a broken down car, but after reading Anne’s post about being the kind of friend who shows up, I dragged my sorry self downtown.

 

And I’m really glad I did.

 

Our tickets were actually comped (thanks, E!) but it occurred to me that even if they hadn’t been, supporting college (and high school, and community) theater is one of the easiest and least expensive ways out there to get your culture on. Tickets are generally less than twelve bucks, a total steal compared to Broadway or a national tour, and the staging and performances are often (if not always) professional-quality. The costumes in last night’s show were particularly fabulous.

 

I’m a total theater geek (and so is Leprechaun, although you’d never know it to look at him and he’d deny it if you asked), but the cost is often prohibitive, and the stuff that comes through here on the big tours isn’t always stuff I’m dying to see (Dora the Explorer, anyone?). But small-scale theater is nothing if not interesting, unpredictable, and live—for about the same cost as a movie ticket.

 

We went for dinner before the show, at a family-style Italian place all decked out for Christmas, and by the time the play was over I was feeling positively festive.  Said Leprechaun on the way home: “That was a good thing to do.”

 

Yeah, it was.

 

Happy Friday, you guys.