Ralphie and pals to light up Theatre CBS’ Christmas production
Theatre CBS takes to the stage at All Saints Parish Hall this weekend with A Christmas Story, the classic movie adapted for theatre. Set in 1939, this memoir of growing up in the American Midwest follows nine-year-old Ralphie Parker in his quest to get a genuine Red Ryder BB gun under the tree for Christmas…
“You’ll shoot your eye out!” he’s warned.
All the elements from the beloved motion picture are here, including the family’s temperamental exploding furnace; Scut Farkas, the school bully; the boys’ experiment with a wet tongue on a cold lamppost; the Little Orphan Annie decoder pin; and Ralphie’s father winning a lamp shaped like a woman’s leg in a net stocking.
“This is our most child-heavy play to date,” said director Susan Bonnell, who quickly added having seven children and youths in the cast has been an absolute pleasure. “There’s nothing like working with enthusiastic, talented young people on a holiday-related show to get you in the Christmas spirit,” she said.
It’s been 41 years since the movie A Christmas Story was released to holiday audiences by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In the subsequent years, it’s become something of a classic, and recently it’s enjoyed a bit of a revival, with iconic bits appearing just about everywhere. From the leg lamp to “Oh Fudge!” t-shirts, it’s not hard to find Christmas Story memorabilia.
“In choosing a story for our annual radio play, we landed on this one and committed pretty early,” said Theatre CBS President Gord Billard. “The script, written by Philip Grecian, who also wrote our version of A Christmas Carol in 2022, had to be converted to a radio drama format, and we faced a few challenges, like how to present Ralphie’s dream sequences.”
The company asked long-time technical director and video producer John Bonnell for help with that.
“Shooting videos is something new for us, and the actors and crew have had so much fun with it,” said Billard. “We think the audiences will love the video vignettes.”
Once again, Theatre CBS has experienced strong support from the local community for its shows. Tonight’s Friday the 13th show sold out in late November, leaving limited but still available tickets for Saturday night. Producer Andrea Peddle said the business community also came on board with advertising exceeding the group’s expectations.
“We are so thrilled to see the number of companies that want to be in our programme and show their support for the work we’re doing in CBS,” she said. “We’ve added a jingle option to the advertising this year, and I’m sure audiences are going to love hearing fun jingles for local establishments and community partners.”
For more information on the show and how to buy tickets, visit TheatreCBS.com.
printed in the Shoreline, December 5, 2024.
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