Last Saturday, my daughter and I enjoyed the ArtsPower touring musical production of Laura Ingalls Wilder: Growing Up on the Prairie at the Macomb Center for the Performing Arts in Clinton Township, Michigan. I must first say that I went in with an open mind. I was not expecting it to follow the Little House books exactly, but I was hoping it would come close.
The set was simple, but clever. They arranged the props (that stayed the same and always on stage) a little differently for each scene. There were only four actors – Pa, Ma, Mary (who also played a small part as Nellie Owens), and Laura…unless you count the bundle they called Baby Carrie who made an appearance toward the end. They played a little with the timeline, but followed the Ingalls family to Independence, Walnut Grove and De Smet (and Burr Oak was mentioned in a song). The mention of Burr Oak and Nellie’s last name being Owens leads me to believe that someone who knew Laura beyond the Little House books had their hand in this. It was not even an hour long, but in that 55 minutes, Laura evolved from a young girl into a young woman who would someday become a writer.
You know what I enjoyed the most though? I saw lots of little Lauras (and probably Marys too) with their sunbonnets hanging down their backs. I saw families and a handful of men. I saw boys with their grandmother. I saw grown women like my daughter and me. And we were there for one reason – we all love Laura. Those little girls weren’t going to pick apart the details. They were there because they’d read Laura’s stories and they wanted more.
Laura’s legacy lives on. That reason alone made me enjoy this little musical more than anything.