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Amphitheater

Amphitheater

We have on a new amphitheater at Slidell’s Camp Salmen Nature Park on beautiful Bayou Liberty.  

First off, didn’t I mean to write “ampi-theater”, like it’s pronounced? I tried, but spell check kept red-lining it until I got it right. Well then, what the heck is an amphitheater anyway, isn’t it some sort of Roman thing where they fought gladiators to the death or sent early Christians to the lions? No. And yes. A little research reveals those sordid events took place in what we now call stadiums, or in the plural, stadia, where the audience sits all around the action. In an amphitheater the audience sits in a semi-circle on one side, but everyone gets a good view. The Greeks, who came before the Romans, were into tragedy, comedy and satyr on stage and used amphitheaters for their theatre.

You’ll notice our amphitheater will be excellent for that – theatrical events plus a plethora (meaning: a bunch) of other things – weddings, award ceremonies, preach’in, family reunions, poetry readings, music, educating and watching regattas on the bayou, to name just a few. I’m counting on the public’s creative imaginations to come up with a few new ideas.

The amphitheater has three long rows of seats for around 150 people and is nestled among shady oaks, overlooking the bayou in a crook of the bluff. It looks a lot like the amphitheater the Boy Scouts had at old Camp Salmen because it was built in the exact same spot. There recently was a Grand Opening and Dedication for this and the nearby Kid’s Connection Playground (more about that later) in April.

Me, I plan on using the facility for what it seems best used for: sitting in the shade, gazing up at the Spanish moss hanging from the ancient live oaks and watching the symphony of life in the bayou.

Looking upstream…

Looking downstream…

The stage…

  1. Camp Salmen Nature Park logo…

 

Last modified on Wednesday, 07 October 2015 21:00