From plays to pirates

By Patrick Fisher, Staff Writer

If you were out and about last weekend, chances are you might have caught a glimpse of me at one or more events. It's a busy time of the year as there are various activities taking place.

There was a quilt show, archery tournament, the annual Barten Breakfast and the New Prague Area Figure Skating Club's spring show. Of course there were other events during the week.

One was talking with the young actors from New Prague High School's spring play, An Inconvenient Squirrel. From what I've seen from practices it offers a lot of fun and the students were enjoying it. One practice had some bloopers that had the cast chuckling. I'm not surprised that the show is funny as Joe Scrimshaw, a Twin Cities theatre artist, wrote it. I've seen shows he's written or acted in with his brother, Joshua. The two have done a variety of productions, some at the Twin Cities annual Fringe Festival. If you've never heard of it, the Fringe Festival is a collection of short plays, dance theater and even the occasional musical. It ranges from the serious to the comedic and is held in the fall.

Another event I went to was at the Science Museum. It currently has the display Real Pirates that details the lives of actual pirates. It includes items from the Whydah, an actual pirate ship. There are also re-enactors of the crew plus a few others like Blackbeard, historical figures who have had more than their fair share of fictional stories told about them.

Spring

Tuesday, March 20, was the first day of Spring, although we seemed to have gone to early summer. While I don't mind the slightly warmer weather, I think we could use a little more rain. The ground is dry and it definitely needs more moisture.

Also, consider me among those that are worried about what summer is really going to be like. I would prefer some mild temperatures and rain, but it sounds like we're in a drought, so I'm expecting hot dry days.

We'll just have to wait and see, although as mentioned last week, March sometimes offers surprises for weather.