62 NEBRASKAland • MAY 2015
I
'm amazed anytime a person tells me they didn't know what to do with their free time.
Just the other day an adult was relaying how bored he was over the weekend. Bored.
Really? My first suggestion when someone mentions boredom is to encourage them to go
outside; my second is to see something they've never seen before in their life.
One afternoon last summer my family decided on the latter, as we bypassed the pool and
pond, and instead attended a melodrama at Eugene T. Mahoney State Park near Ashland. It
was there that we watched a play of sorts, one in which the actors overacted on purpose, and
the audience overbooed – on purpose, as well.
And we threw popcorn – a lot of it – every time the villain came on the stage. It went
against everything we teach in our own home – to chastise the entertainers so much that
we're throwing food at them – so it took a while for my daughter to get the courage to give a
full-speed pitch at the antagonist. But once she got her arm loose, it was a full-on interactive
experience that we will be once again attending this year.
If you're lucky, you'll drop in for an unconventional melodrama, too, during a stay at
Mahoney. And if you're really lucky, one of the actors may actually catch
one of the kernels, pop it in their mouth and never miss a single line of
dialogue.
Jeff Kurrus, Editor
April 1, 2015
POPCORN
VILLAIN
Throwing Popcorn
