Playing Chess on Sesame Street

by Jonathan Lowery • April 18th, 2008

Whew!

Just finished a week of shows at the Strong National Museum of Play here in Rochester. Although the week started out rough with me getting over a strong showing from my allergies, the onset of warm, sunny days and greatly reduced stress levels (e.g. quitting my day job) helped swing the week into the positive.

Of course that doesn’t mean easy. Two shows a day and three on Friday, eleven total in five days. Admittedly, they were shorter than our normal set but getting warmed up and ready for each show took up the slack there. PUSH must be on the up and up because the job’s getting harder every month.

A highlight of the week was the fact that we got free passes to the museum during the run. The place is just amazing. Besides the National Toy Hall of Fame there are some awesome exhibits. There’s ‘Reading Adventureland’ that has interconnected ‘houses’ devoted to almost every genre of children’s literature you can imagine. Tucked inside each house you can find almost every book you read as a child - which is only the start of the coolness. Then there’s the ‘Field of Play’ section that has everything from air cannons to DDR to a sideways room tucked inside.

The current traveling exhibit tucked in is called “Grossology” which takes every impolite or disgusting body function and just goes there (except THAT one - it’s still a kids’ museum!). It features such wonders as ‘Urine - The Game’ and a life-size version of ‘Operation’. There’s also a giant faucet, ‘Nigel Nose It All’, that drips snot and ‘Burp Man’ with a visible digestive track belching. Oh, and I won’t tell you about ‘Toot, Toot’, ‘Vomit Center’ or ‘Y U Stink’.

The crowning joy, however was the last afternoon when I got to sit down on Sesame Street and play a game of chess with DJ Stevenson. Just too cool. Surrounded by the old rough brick architecture, chalk drawings and good old-fashioned PBS education just made the week for me. “Sunny day, sweeping the clouds away…”