Enchens,
You mentioned you saw a theater production of Ferdinand the Bull when you were offering gardening advice. We visited that book when we first discovered The Story of Ping, Mike Mulligan and the Steam Shovel and some of the stories from my childhood. We actually revisited it last year when my son was on a reading marathon. The story still held our attention. What was it like as a play, bullfights and all?
Linda

By Enchens on Sunday, May 10, 2009 - 03:28 am:

Well, actually, except for the fact that it was set in Spain, and that there was a bull named Ferdinand who liked flowers, and that there was supposed to be a bullfight, the play was quite different from the book.

It was about a duke who wanted his son to be a great bullfighter, but the son wanted to be a flamenco dancer. The son agrees to do what his father asks, so they seek a bull worthy of entering the arena. A pig, Ferdinand's friend, tells the duke she knows of such a bull and is promised riches and fame in return for convincing Ferdinand to agree to the bullfight. The day of the bullfight, Ferdinand refuses to fight, and he and the duke's son go round and round avoiding each other. The routine looked like a dance and the two begin to do the flamenco. That's when the son has the courage to face his father, the duke, and tells him he will be a flamenco dancer. Duke gives in, the end.

There was a lot of Spanish vocabulary used, lots of audience participation, cool dance routines, and beautiful Spanish guitar music. The costumes were simple, but believable. We loved it!