"White Christmas" Pre-Show - and a Correction

My pal Dave Lavender wrote a nice story in today's Herald-Dispatch about the pre-show that's part of the local White Christmas production - but there's a big error in there, which I'll address in a moment.

First, the story:

Last weekend, Stacy Richardson-Bond got the best birthday present ever. Through some early Christmas miracle, all of her elves somehow remembered their lines, songs and dance steps.

By day, Richardson-Bond is the children's librarian at the Cabell County Public Library in downtown Huntington, and by Christmas nights, she's been writer, director and den mother, of sorts, for the children's pre-show, "Santa's Surprise," which will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday at the Jean Carlo Stephenson Auditorium at Huntington City Hall.

The original pre-show is the appetizer for the main show, 5th Avenue Theatre Company's Irving Berlin's White Christmas musical, which is in its last weekend. Accompanied by a 13-piece live orchestra under the direction of Chris Bowling, White Christmas will be performed at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday.

Tickets are $15 and $12 for children 12 and under.

Richardson-Bond, who is on the board with Fifth Avenue Theatre Company, said she got involved with the troupe a few years when her niece was in A Christmas Carol, and got hooked.

"It was a lot of fun and I remember (director) Mary Smirl said you'll be back, and I was like 'I don't know about that' but she was right, I kind of got sucked into it and now I'm on the advisory board, and I asked if we were doing anything with the kids and they said 'you can if you want.'"

Richardson-Bond, who wrote "Santa's Surprise," for last year's Christmas pre-show, also wrote, "Titanic Comes to Town," another 30-minute pre-show for last year's "Titanic."

She said the idea was to create short (under 30 minutes-long) pre-shows giving small children and first-time children actors a chance to get on stage, learn lines, simple choreography and singing on a small scale and simple format.

"Other theaters like First Stage really reach the older kids, and so we can take the younger kids and let them get their feet wet so they'll be ready for the other play companies," Richardson-Bond said. "One thing that we do is that every kid wants a line, and so I have found that writing a play was something easier to do on my own. I can go back in and change the script as more kids come and I always have to revise it. This year, I've had four re-writes so every rehearsal almost there's been a new script."

This year, Richardson-Bond is wrangling lines and stage time for 22 children ages 4 to 14 in the 25-minute-long production whose storyline is Santa's elves teaming up to throw him a surprise party for when he gets back from delivering gifts since everyone likes to receive once in a while.

"I know how much my nieces love it and they're in it, so I just want to give all the kids the opportunity to do this," Richardson-Bond said. "It's a lot of work but it is so rewarding. They all think they are an actor and actress now and I love to see how excited they are about it."

Go online at www.cityofhuntingtonfoundation.com for more information.

OK, I'm back.

So the big mistake is where Stacy says, "Other theaters like First Stage really reach the older kids, and so we can take the younger kids and let them get their feet wet so they'll be ready for the other play companies."

Since I'm on the board of First Stage, I have to point out that First Stage does shows for all ages, not just "older kids." The group just wrapped The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, which used kids of all ages, and is holding auditions on Saturday for Seussical the Musical, and it's open to kids from pre-school to high school seniors.

First Stage has done shows that focused on older kids, and it's done shows that focused on younger kids. Most of its shows are open to all ages. That's all I'm saying.

Sorry for the rant, I just wanted to set the record straight.