One of the largest crowds in recent years attended the Erskine School's drama class' Christmas performance on Wednesday, Dec. 14.
The performance featured a semester's worth of lessons for the Grade 6 and Grade 7 students, who put on three plays: "What Christmas is Not," "The Santa Interviews," and "When Christmas left Rattler Canyon."
The first two performances took place before the intermission, with the longest play, When Christmas left Rattler Canyon, filling the second half of the performance.
"The students all worked very hard leading up to tonight's performance," drama teacher Rae Munden said. "They were so excited they were hanging off the light fixtures before the show."
The enthusiasm of the students for the performance was obvious in the excited, energetic spectacle.
The first play, What Christmas is Not, featured all 26 students from the two grades.
"The first play was designed to have all of the students involved," Munden explained. "'What Christmas Is Not' is a series of vignettes showing how commercialism has destroyed the true meaning of Christmas. We ended with an Owl City/Toby Mac song called 'Light of Christmas,' which is what Christmas is really all about."
The second play, "The Santa Interviews," involved only some of the students. Santa, needing a new manager, goes through several interviews trying to find the right employee. After dismissing Ebeneezer Scrooge and Frosty the Snowman, to name just a few of the potential new hires, he eventually settles on one of his elves – to the disappointment of another elf, who had quietly hoped for the position instead.
The humour of the finale had the audience laughing as the elf, in the midst of giving Santa an unhappy rant, discovers he is instead to be promoted even higher, resulting in the rant becoming effusive praise.
After a 15-minute intermission, in which students served up homemade haystack cookies and cups of sarsaparilla – otherwise known as root beer – family and friends took their seats again for the longest of the three performances, the western Christmas comedy "When Christmas left Rattler Canyon."
The play told the story of the town of Rattler Canyon, and the townsfolk's efforts to save Christmas after the mayor loses the deed to the town in a poker game. The winner of the game, Big Bad Ben, a true Christmas Grinch, immediately cancels Christmas.
By the end of the play, Christmas is restored, but not before there are a number of laughs as the townsfolk's ploys to save the town, and Christmas, don't work out exactly as expected.
"Students can sign up for the roles they want to play," Munden said. "If more than one student wants a role, we choose by drawing names. That way, there's no competition."
The second and third plays were chosen to ensure every student had a chance to play a role beyond that of the first play, which was designed to get every student on stage.
At the end of the evening, the drama class raffled off several small gift baskets. The money raised at the performance is funnelled back into the drama class, paying for the cost of scripts, props, and costumes – though Munden tries to avoid having to buy them, instead relying on regular clothes in certain themes to accomplish everything.
Sometimes, though, a costume is simply required. One such example is that of Santa Claus's bright red Santa Suit.
The Santa suit was already in residence when Munden came to Erskine School from Gadsby School in the early 1990s.
"That Santa suit has been around a long time," Munden said with a chuckle.