Stars shine at Christmas
The Guild Musical School performing four holiday musicals beginning today
When Lori Linkletter was searching for a Christmas musical to mount for The Guild Musical Theatre School she couldn’t find one with a character list long enough to accommodate all of her students.
But instead of feeling discouraged, she decided to pull out all the stops and produce not one but four shows for the holiday season.
“It’s that time of the year. We have approximately 65 students now and we needed some extra shows so everybody could show off their talent. That way everybody gets their time to shine,” says Linkletter, the school’s artistic director, adding the four musicals are part of a Christmas Festival at The Guild for the month of December.
The festival line up includes:“Elfis and the Frozen Princess” which runs with the “Jingle Jury” starting Dec. 2; “Elf Jr. The Musical”, performed by the Grade 4-12 class starting Dec. 8 and “A Fairy Tale Christmas Carol”, performed by students from the school and cast members from the community starting Dec. 9.
But Linkletter isn’t doing it all alone. Early on she realized she needed more help.
“Sara MacPhee and Greg Ellard are each directing a show and I’m directing two of the shows. As well, we have all the wonderful staff at The Guild who are helping us.
“It’s taken an incredible amount of logistics but it’s worked out incredibly well.”
While the teachers are excited about all their students getting their moment in the limelight, performing roles in all four shows is creating some challenges for James Ronahan.
“It gets confusing learning four parts. So now I take a script and look over it before the rehearsal begins,” says the Grade 7 student.
Isabella Butler, who also appears in all four shows, agrees. “I was scared at first but now it’s great,” she says.
Across the rehearsal hall, Jacob Reddin is pondering ways to keep his energy level up for the month of shows. He plays Buddy, a human raised at the North Pole in “Elf Jr. The Musical”.
“I’m constantly pushing myself to keep up with this character, who is so much more energetic than I am. And I’m discovering one way to do that is to push my voice up higher. That gives me more energy,” says Jacob.
With less than a day left before the first curtain Linkletter is pleased with the commitment and the energy of the cast members.
“It’s been an incredible process for these kids to see all of these shows come together with costumes, lights and sounds and videos.
“Everybody has worked very hard and I’m very excited with how beautiful all the shows are looking.”
“It’s that time of the year. We have approximately 65 students now and we needed some extra shows so everybody could show off their talent. That way everybody gets their time to shine.”
Lori Linkletter