Twas the Night before the Fine Arts Festival

And all through the Theatre

The Advanced Acting class scurried

To put on a Christmas Show!

Every year at the annual Fine Arts festival, the advanced acting class puts on a Christmas-themed mini production that is around 15 minutes long. Before this year, the show has been A Charlie Brown Christmas. However due to a lack of boys in the class, and the abundance of male roles in Charlie Brown, the class has chosen to perform their own student written adaptation of ‘Twas  The Night Before Christmas which will be performed in the lecture hall during the Fine Arts festival on Saturday, December 14 with two shows (12:30 p.m. and 1 p.m.).

“It’s different this year not doing Charlie Brown,” junior Michelle Leddon said. “But we just didn’t have the boys to do it. It’s been a very student run show. Cassidy Fuller and I have had a great time directing it and we definitely couldn’t have done it without Doug Laman’s script. It’s been exciting, new and different for us as a class.”

Leddon is one of the two student directors for the show. The entire production is run and created by students. They chose and cast the show, and then completely decide how the show should look and progress. The students are also in charge of all the technical work, including creating costumes props and scenery, and the lighting and sound effects.

Another new thing about the production this year is that the whole script was written by senior Doug Laman, a member of the class who will be portraying Santa in the play.

“Script writing is interesting because there is always an opportunity to put a bit of yourself in the script,” Laman said. “However there is a fine line, you have to be careful not to incorporate too much, or it sabotages the script. But overall I’ve enjoyed the experience with my fellow classmates, and having a lot of fun playing Santa.”

Every member of the class has a specific role (either as an actor or student director) and also assists with the tech work. Many iconic characters from the classic Christmas tale (i.e., Santa, The Narrators, sugarplum fairies, and The Mouse) appear in the tale, as well as Henry and Mary (two characters, listed as Man and Woman in the story) whom are brought to life by Laman with his own artistic touch. Sophomore Rachel Jackson is particularly enjoying her experience playing The Mouse.

“I love the show,” Jackson said. “It’s great getting to be a part of a show where you get to experience every part of theatre, like tech and acting for instance. Also it’s interesting being in a show where the girl to guy ratio is huge, we have about 10 girls and only 2 men. Overall it’s a lot of work in a very short time, but it’s also a lot of fun, it’s a great experience and I hope everyone will come out and see it.”