(Updated
1:30 p.m., Nov. 24)
Theatre school's Christmas play the perfect start
to to the holiday season
By Fred Sherwin
Orléans Online
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Santa
presents a sleigh belll to the main character
in "The Christmas Story" which is the third
act in the Ottawa School of Theatre Christmas
play "The Mrs and the Elves". Fred Sherwin/Photo
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Forget
about your Walmart and Giant Tiger Christmas displays
in October. The holiday season only truly begins with
the Ottawa School of Theatre's annual Christmas play.This
year the Theatre School's artistic director chose to combine
three Christmas stories into one play -- "The Mrs.
and the Elves". The
production opens with Mrs. Claus agreeing to read the
elves three different bedtime stories. The
first story is the Dylan Thomas work, "A Child's
Christmas in Wales" about one man's nostalgic reminisence
of Christmas when he was just a boy. The
story is narrated by Bruce Deachman and brought to life
by members of cast with accompaniment provided by Mathieu
Corrigan on the fiddle..
The
second story is called "Christmas at Moley's"
which is an adaptation of the short story "Dulce Domum"
from the children's novel "The WInd in the Willows"
about several animal characters including a Ratty and
a Moley who meet and befriend each other.
In
"Christmas at Moley's", the mole decides to
return home with Ratty's help at Christmastime and finds
his old abode in need of a good cleaning. The two friends
are played by Randy Bellini an Ian Stauffer. The
third story is "The Christmas Train", which
most people would recognize as an adaptation of the novel,
"The Polar Express", by Chris Van Allsburg,
which was turned into a popular animated movie of the
same name.. In
"The Christmas Train", a young boy wakes up
in the middle of the night by the sound of a train which
stops to pick him up. The train is filled with chidren
heading to the North Pole to witness Santa's departure
and the awarding of the first toy. When
Santa asks the boy what he would like for Christmas, the
youngster asks for a sleigh bell which Santa takes from
the harness of one of the reindeer. The bell is special
in that only those people who believe in Santa and the
spirit of Christmas can hear it ring.
When
the young man returns home and shows the bell to his parents
they assume it's broken because it won't make any noise
-- except for our hero and his sister.
"The
Mrs. and the Elves" is family entertainment at its
very best. The kids will love it because of the stories
and the characters, and their parents will like it because
the stories offer them a reminder of their own youth.
The
play will be held on Friday, Nov. 24 at 7 p.m. in the
Richcraft Theatre at the Shenkman Arts Centre. Two matinee
performances will also be staged at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday,
Nov. 25 and Saturday, June 30.
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"The
Christmas Train" is the third of three
bedtime stories Mrs. Claus reads to the elves
in the Ottawa School of Theatre's Christmas
production of "The Mrs and the Elves".
Fred Sherwin/Photo
(This
story was made possible thanks to the generous support of
our local business partners.)
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