Dance and Play at Christmas

Every year, when the dust settles, my philosophical self starts thinking about the craziness of the preceeding weeks. What, I hear you ask, could this dust settling be about? And it's not yet Christmas. I refer to the euphoria and madness of producing the stage show at the Dalhousie Institute every year. Read on. Leave your comments. Share the link.

We have a Christmas Carols Evening every year before Christmas.  It's a festival on its own. For several years now, I have been in the thick of things.  The stage performance is followed by the signature Barbecue dinner with choices of chicken, pork, beef and vegetables!  But "the play's the thing" as Shakespeare would have said. 

Over the last few years, excepting the pandemic years, we have produced some pretty interesting programmes which make up for the shortfall in perfection by an powerful outpouring of emotion. Here's a peek behind the scenes of some of the earlier productions.  And an inside view of how it all comes together.

Begin at the Beginning

Our Entertainment subcommittee sends out feelers to all those who wish to participate.  No age bars, no segregation based on size, gender, weight or colour!  Everyone is invited, as Samsung famously announced some years ago. We have had kids as young as 4 on stage. Younger than that and they'd probably be elevated to playing the baby Jesus in His mother's arms. If they can act or dance, they do.  If they find that difficult then they can always be a sheep or cow in Bethlehem's manger - we have had some enthusiastic animals bobbing to the music too.  But before you begin to think it's all about the Nativity, let me assure you that everything gets woven together in one "musical" production. Sometimes we start as late as ten days before the final day and have to manage all sorts of reasons for absence - exams are going on, mummy is taking me shopping, not feeling well, no Uber, JLT. But eventually everyone gets a role and the script is adjusted to accommodate them.

Let's begin with the script.  It's usually an enlightened idea by one or two persons which then gets discussed and spread across the team.  The dances evolve from the script, the speaking parts get written and rewritten and backgrounds, stage props and costumes just happen!  Here are stories of some of the scripts that were organically changed and metamorphosed till the hour before curtain up!

When Christmas Stole the Grinch was a simple lift from Dr Seuss, with a twist.  We had both a Grinch and Mrs Grinch who kept him in trim. We had an everyday, ordinary Brown family whose kids changed from self-centred, greedy kids to loving and caring kids who then changed Mrs Grinch for the better. The lines kept evolving as we found kids who could take specific roles. Solo singers were inserted into the script so that it looked like one seamless production. I recall that we had a child who was hearing impaired - she danced by following the others and no one offstage knew the difference. We had a mum who was a great classical dancer - we casted her as the Angel Gabriel who did a solo number on stage. This was also the first time we brought the Christmas Choir onstage to sing during the play and Mr Brown did a solo too, as part of the script.

Christmas in a BackPack was shamelessly based on Dora the Explorer.  Two kids, with mic headsets, talked us through the travels they experienced, pulling out destinations from a backpack!  We had the audience involved shouting "Backpack! Backpack!" every time the kids looked for help. Each destination had characters from those lands celebrating Christmas with dance and song. We went to Alaska, to Hawaii where hula dancers and the North Pole where Santa and Mrs Santa (we are an equal opportunity employer) jived to Boogie Woogie Santa. In Italy Dominic the Donkey strutted his stuff on stage. The Southern Hemisphere with its hot Christmas saw salsa from South America, Aussie Jingle Bells in Australia and some African beats.  To be fair, we probably chose our locations based on the music and dance sequences available.  But, everyone takes part - whatever ethnicity they can be converted into! 

A Pandemic Christmas - no, this was not a script, nor a play. We painstakingly compiled videos made by our member families and a few well-wishers too.  They sent in their videos which were suitably edited by Christabel at home. We then had an Online Christmas Carols evening, sans barbecue! You can watch the production here DI Christmas@Home 2020 

A Confused Fairytale Christmas this year was based on an idea I had, the script was written by my daughter, Christabel and the dances choreographed by Natalie Pote (who has choreographed all the dances ever since I can remember). The theme was loosely based on universal love - however, a little too universal for Prince Charming who goes around kissing princesses and running away to the Ghetto! Sleeping Beauty and Snowwhite both kiss-survivors team up with Cinderella to teach him a lesson. His Fairy Godmother takes things in hand for Charming as well as his sister, Tinkerbell who plans to elope to Neverland with Peter Pan (that boy will never grow up). Our littlest ones were the Seven Dwarves who moonlight as Santa's Elves and even his Reindeer, since Rudy and his gang decide to work from home on Christmas. The Nativity enacted on stage, with carols being sung by the choir, convinces the fairy tale characters that life is not all tall tales and stories, but there is true love to be found in helping others - the reason for the season!

Backstage and Props

These three examples will give you an idea of how completely different people from all walks of life can come together to make a production meaningful. But what really makes it different is that individual people take the responsibility and see it through - we have two of the young girls (Aanya and Rhea) who grew up on the same stage and now manage the backstage, lighting, sound and music without any inputs other than the script - which might just change till the last moment (wink).

And then there are the props - backpacks, pickaxes, hula skirts, angel wings, tiaras, .. you name it the team has it covered. And then there's always Merryflower to create stuff in paper and cardboard. The costumes range from someone's dupatta to belts, hats and other peripherals. Make up is always done by "professional" mums who make quite an effort to put lipstick on the boys.

Feedback

No, not the feedback noise from the stage monitors, though there is a bit of that as expected. This is the feedback from the audience. The performances have always been well appreciated by the doting parents of course, but also by the audience at large.  The secret sauce, of course, is that they haven't seen the script and accept it warts and all. But, let me not take anything away from the total performance that just sorts itself out and happens through the members of our club, young and old - with love and devotion! 

Some Learnings

• there may be shortage of time but there is no shortage of enthusiasm, driven by passion.
• scripts can write (and rewrite) themselves once an idea is in place, or several ideas.
• the tiny ones grow bigger, become teens, then tweens, then adults -- and there is still a role for everyone!
• producers, directors, choreographers, stage hands, technical team ... no one needs a "credit" or position to do what they do. 
• there's no point tearing your hair ... it all works out eventually!