Day out

On Saturday I spent the day in my nearest "big city" - Toronto.

We (my mom, sister & I) were a bit early so we spent a few minutes taking pictures of seagull families & feet while we sat by the fountain in front of city hall.

Then off to the Four Seasons Centre (the city's opera house) for a backstage tour.

It's a beautiful building.  While we waited for our tour to start I took pictures.  Of the great architectural features.

Two views of the glass staircase.

The lobby.

And then my sister & I did a little photo-shoot on the grand staircase. Because when you come for a performance it's covered in people so you can't do things like this.

Well you could but there would be lots of people in the photo as well as some giving you strange looks.

At this point our mother was pretending she didn't know us.  We aren't the only ones who think the stairs make a great place for a photo - here is the National Ballet Orchestra having their picture taken on the same stairs (photo taken post performance in June).

I didn't take any pictures of backstage but it was really interesting to see the non-public spaces in the building and hear more about the thought that went into the design.

Next we were off to see a show in the most unusual theatre I've been to!  It's basically a tent.

And this is the star of the show!

A vintage steam engine named Vicky.  Here she is on stage.

The show was The Railway Children based on the book by E. Nesbitt.  The staging was really interesting, it was a railway platform with seats on both sides and the actors performing in the middle.  As well as the train, there were "mini stages" that rolled along the tracks as part of the scenery.

All in all a great day of theatre!