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Written by Dan England
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Friday, 07 December 2007 |
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 For many years, Lori Hoffner’s offered hundreds of pieces of advice to her 14-year-old son, Alex, whether he wanted them or not.
Now Alex is the one doing the coaching.
He’s a veteran of community theater plays, even at his age, and so for the annual holiday production of the Greeley Community Theater Troupe, he’s there to give acting advice to his parents, Steve Heinike and Hoffner, whether they want it or not.
“I haven’t done this since high school,” Hoffner said. “So he helps me out a lot. He tells me that I need this expression or if something is lame. Of course, he’s a teenager, so he’s pretty dramatic at things anyway.”
This is exactly the kind of thing that makes the play, “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever,” at least the biggest pageant ever for the Troupe, even if it may or may not be the best. There are more than 50 people in the cast, and most of them are kids, and that includes some 5 year olds. All the kids made their own clothes. One parent made a stained-glass window, another made the manger, and still another donated a jungle gym. Everyone helped sell tickets.
 That’s what Director Noel Johnston wanted when he picked the play to replace “A Christmas Carol” after putting it on for the last five years. He wanted something different after tiring of the Christmas classic, and he wanted to give a lot of kids a chance to be in a play. Plus, Johnston loves this play, based on a book written by Barbara Robinson in 1972.
“It’s one of the more charming Christmas stories I’ve ever come across,” he said. “It’s a very simple story of what Christmas should be about.”
The story follows a family of misfit kids, the Herdmans, who decide to tryout for a thrown-together version of a church Christmas pageant after the original director breaks her leg. The gist to the play, Johnston said, is the Herdmans want to be in the play for free food but slowly discover the story of Christmas and the meaning behind it.
“We want to make this a Christmas gift to Greeley,” he said.
It’s a complicated gift, to be sure, like a fruitcake recipe, but Johnston believes he’s managing it, even with all the kids.
“With this many young ones, it really becomes more about managing, not just directing,” he said. “It really does work out all right with some of the littlest ones. I know they have no idea what scene they are supposed to be in. But I tell the 13 year olds to just go get the 5 year olds if they wander off.”
There are 16 families in the play, including the Hoffner-Heinike crew. Even Chloe, the 8-year-old daughter, has a role.
“She’s a diva,” Hoffner said. “She has one line and is taking it very seriously. She knows my lines, too.”
She should. The family likes to rehearse their lines with each other on car trips, especially to and from school.
When Molly Ward of Greeley heard about the need for a manger — her 5-year-old son, Harper, is in the play — she immediately volunteered her husband.
“My husband builds things every day,” Ward said, “so I figured he could do it.”
Her husband, Matt, puts together campers and sells them for his RV business with his father, Bill. So the two took the afternoon off and built the manger.
“It was a hoot for them,” she said.
In fact, it was such a hoot, it wound up being a lot bigger than Johnston was planning on. But that’s OK. That’s the kind of flexibility he’ll need to manage such a large cast and turn it into what he hopes is the best Christmas pageant ever.
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To go to the show
The Greeley Community Theatre Troupe puts on “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” at 7 p.m. Dec. 14 and at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Dec. 15 at the Greeley Central High School auditorium.
Tickets are $5 for children 12 and under and $6 for those 13 and older.
Call 356.5000 for tickets, or they are available at the door, although they are going fast. | Only registered users can write comments.
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