Katie will be offering festive fun in Horsham
Santa’s New Sleigh – the Christmas show for the little ones at Horsham’s Capitol this Christmas – comes with added significance given the horrible year we have all been through.
Katie Glover, who will be playing Dibs the elf, said: “It’s going to be something for the children and that’s so important. It feels like children have been really hit hard with the closure of schools and everything. It really hasn’t been easy for them – and I feel like Santa’s New Sleigh is just going to be so much fun for them, to give them something back and to give them a bit of Christmas spirit.” It is going to be important to Katie too in all the circumstances: “Just like everyone in this past year, you have just got to try to keep positive about everything and on a personal level too. Everyone has had to do all sorts of different jobs just to keep going. I ended up back in Bath for a while where I grew up working for a company that I used to work for when I was 18 which felt a bit like going back in time!
“And I also work for a children’s drama school and I have created my own YouTube channel, Katie’s Kids Corner! It is just about trying to find ways to keep going. I just found that I couldn’t help but being a bit proactive. It comes quite naturally to me. I get what I call my itchy tummy where I have got to do something now.
“It has been OK, but in the grand scheme of things I know I have been so lucky. I am OK, I have stayed healthy, I haven’t caught Covid. I have been in London a bit but my partner and I went home for what was supposed to be a long weekend and ended up staying three months. But it is just about being positive really.”
And yes, she has even managed to have some fun – with a couple of friends coming up with the Do The Clean Hands Dance, created by Silly Moo Productions: three ladies in lockdown, “trying to make the world a happier place, getting the nation moooving, handwashing and donating to the NHS.”
Now comes the Christmas show, Santa’s New Sleigh will be at the Capitol from December 12-24. Christmas is fast approaching and Santa’s Sleigh is nowhere to be found. Will Sprocket and Dibs be able to create a new sleigh in time or will Christmas be cancelled? Can you help them save the day? Only time will tell but with audience participation, singalong songs and a present from Santa for every child, it promises to be the perfect festive treat, Katie says. The show is ideal for children aged two to eight and has a running time of 50 minutes.
“The story is that the sleigh has gone and we have got to build another one otherwise Christmas will be cancelled. The idea is that there is going to be quite a lot of audience participation. The children have got to help us build the sleigh and save the day. We have yet to go through all the ins and outs of how that will work in the circumstances, but there will be a present for the children. There will be lots of original music, and there will be a jingle-bells sing-along.”
Inevitably the second lockdown was a worrying time. “But the theatre are being amazingly supportive in trying to make it happen and are doing everything they can.” It will be Katie’s first time in Horsham: “I don’t know Horsham at all, but I went to drama school in Guildford which isn’t so far away. But I have never been to the theatre in Horsham – which is really exciting.”