What is THIS all about?

Thanks for coming to my Blog! I am a Daughter of a King, Daughter, Sister, Wife, Mother of five, MomInLaw of four, and Gram of four. Designing and creating feeds something inside of me! This blog will be sharing about my faith, my family, my life, my creations and collections. I am on a journey to learn balance and will be sharing about that as well. Enjoy!

Saturday, June 15, 2013

Cafe ...dun, dun, dun.....MURDER!

Our Dinner Theater ~ Part 1
As the guests were arriving, my friend Marcella began taking pictures for me, I was changing from my decorating casual clothes into something a bit dressier! This is what greeted people as they walked into the Student Center, aka. cafeteria, and whatever else they need it for. We do have an auditorium, but this was the perfect place for this production. When the school was built, this was the cafeteria, the gym, the stage, where they held the dances, you name it, it's seen it! I designed the sign on Picmonkey, (I LOVE that place!) and sent it to Office Depot to have it printed and sent to us. It got there just a few days before the play. You probably don't remember, but we were on our way home from our Daughter*3's College Graduation, and we had to stop at the craft store to pic up the red mat board...it was kinda crazy. It had to be put together the next day before the play. All the other signs I was able to print off and put on a heavy black paper for the signs.
The tables and their centerpieces. We attempted to mimic a version of a french cafe in the US, which is where the play is supposed to have taken place. So, all the guests were "sitting"in the cafe with the cast. I had the red table cloths and I was glad to hear from Liz in Lalaland that red and white were the colors in a French Cafe. We borrowed white table cloths and placed red and white checked paper over the top of those to add more color to the room, and to make it less formal than it would have looked with just the  solid colored cloths. The doilies, I had for years and the flowers and vases were less than $1! I made the menus, writing most of it in French, with the help of Lululiz. She had great patience with me and we had a hilarious time skyping and figuring out exactly how to say what I wanted to say! Each table had a number. We ended up with 16 tables with six people at each table. 


This is the head table where all the cast were seated in the cafe. We put up a backdrop that somewhat matched the look of the tables so that the regular stage, which was not being used, would be somewhat covered....you can only do so much in a high school cafeteria! We wanted lights, but these were a little heavy, but I was 20 miles from home when I realized I did not have the right lights...bummer!
The left part of the backdrop was a painted bridge that the students painted as a part of the scene. Didn't they do a great job???? I was impressed!









This podium was where the Cast Cafe guests arrived to be seated and from which, the Maitre'd addressed the audience. The sign, which is hard to read says that Chef Franc was the chef at...dun...dun.....dun..... CAFE MURDER!!!!!
And every time "Cafe Murder" was said by a member of the cast, there was a wicked evil laugh...it was funny!









This is my baker's rack, as well as everything on it, that we also hauled in my car.  (I have a Mary Poppins Carpet Bag Car!) This was an effort to give the feel of a restaurant. The sign reads,"La Bathroom". Yes, the bathroom was part of the play. I did not write it in french because I didn't know if people would know that "la salle de bain" was French for "The Bathroom". Even the fake ficus trees were in the car! of course we did make two trips with the car, and hubby had to also bring a pickup load. He shakes his head, wondering how in the world decorating for a play fits into any one's definition of fun. But, our daughter*4 played the part of the Maitre'd so he knew he would be helping with MY fun! (Right now he is camping and fishing for a few days with his brother and his nephews. They ride their cycles up to where they fish, and come down in the evening to cook, eat and "pick-up Camp". Yeah, another definition of fun!)
More Pictures to come of the actual dinner and play. It was such a wonderful meal and fun play!
See you soon!
Hearts,
Betsy

3 comments:

  1. Wow! It looks great! Was your car like those little cars that the clowns just keep coming out of only it was stage props instead of clowns:?) How fun.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Betsy, All the preparations must have been a lot of fun as well as the play itsself. I love murder mysteries but never went to such a dinner theatre event.
    Hugs,
    Julia

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hello Betsy!
    You did an awesome job decorating! I bet Liz was a hoot...she seems like a real neat lady too!
    Hope you had a fun time doing the Cafe Murder bwahhhhaaaahhhaaaaaa!
    I can't sleep and its 3:30 in the morning, so I decided to jump over here and chat a bit. I must apologize for not visiting much much sooner! I always read your sweet comments and think of things to say back, then all of a sudden I am into another project. I tend to try to escape a lot bu pinning on Pinterest, and that really eats up a lot of time. My husband is good about it, and I am always showing him pics of coolmstuff so he doesn't complain...much!
    With all the goings on last month, I decided to try not to stress out this summer and to take back some time for myself and for others besides running all over the state trying to do graduations and dr appointments. We always have to drive so far that it takes forever to do a single thing.
    This month though, I have found myself flat in bed. I can't even sit up to drive! Soon all will be better, but having the computer problems on top of the health stuff just overloads again and makes for my Scarlet O'Hara attitude!!!
    I was so excited that I figured out how to post from my ipad...I had not tried that before. I just hope we can figure out the other problems. I am afraid I have managed to delete my yahoo email account though! Maybe all will turn out ok tomorrow...here's hoping!
    Thank you so much for all your comments. You are always so loyal to follow my blog!
    Hugs
    Doni

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for coming by and taking the time to comment.
Your comments warm my heart!