We asked you to share your memories of taking part in a Christmas play… and we got lots of lovely replies!
Lauren says:
I love being a performer because I get to put on someone else's shoes and walk in them for a while! I love being a part of a community and making friends with people I wouldn't normally have met. I've been in a few Christmas shows... Dracula The Panto; The Three Musketeers; and A Christmas Carol (the pic is from that one!). Christmas productions are always special as you get to help spread a bit of Christmas cheer and it makes Christmas that little bit more magical!
Yasmine says:
Christmas is always a special season for my family. Every year, my Hiphop Dance Academy performs in Christmas Spectacular, an event we have in New Zealand. Hundreds of thousands of people come to see the exciting shows, carols and fireworks! I love dancing so it's fun to take part in such a special event. Usually my friends and family are watching so it can be scary sometimes too! Each year we choose a new song to perform... a few years back it was Greased Lightning, and we had cool 50s outfits and red ribbons in our hair as you can see from the photo! As well as the Christmas shows, I do lots of community productions which help to build my confidence in the run up to the Christmas Spectacular. It's loads of fun and I love doing it every single year!
Georgia says:
Christmas is approaching - what better way to celebrate than with an end of term Christmas show? As a performer, I love being on the stage, so I was over the moon when college announced the show with just two weeks to prepare! It was very tough, but something a performer needs to be able to do. the excitement began here! Teachers began choreographing their numbers and it is honestly such an amazing feeling being put at the front - it shows that hard work does pay off and you get noticed by the teachers! When the big day arrived we had last-minute run throughs, polishing everything with the lights and surround sound. Everyone had their costumes on - a sea of red, white and silver flooded the college and as we topped up our make up and fixed our hair we knew it was almost SHOWTIME! The studio lights dimmed, bright lights flashed and it was time to hit the stage! I've been doing dance shows since I was two, so I don't really get pre-show nerves any more, more a buzz of energy ready to put my all into the piece. We were just about bouncing off the walls when we came off stage to a massive cheer from the audience! There truly is no greater feeling than doing what you love best, surrounded by the people that you love too!
Emily says:
For the last few years I have performed as a juvenile dancer at the Oakengates Theatre and the Theatre Seven in the pantos Cinderella and Aladdin. I've danced as a villager, a dog. a skeleton, a mummy, a fairy and partygoer at the ball. It has been a great experience, and I got to meet lots of famous people, which was fun! I will definitely audition again next year - I've loved every minute of it and hope to do more in the future! In the picture, this is me on the right in blue… as a villager in the panto Cinderella!
Cathy says:
I LOVE this! Thanks so much to all who contributed... you're right, too, it isn't Christmas without a show! Have YOU been to see a Christmas production this year? Or even been IN one? COMMENT BELOW to tell us more!
I love being a performer because I get to put on someone else's shoes and walk in them for a while! I love being a part of a community and making friends with people I wouldn't normally have met. I've been in a few Christmas shows... Dracula The Panto; The Three Musketeers; and A Christmas Carol (the pic is from that one!). Christmas productions are always special as you get to help spread a bit of Christmas cheer and it makes Christmas that little bit more magical!
Christmas is always a special season for my family. Every year, my Hiphop Dance Academy performs in Christmas Spectacular, an event we have in New Zealand. Hundreds of thousands of people come to see the exciting shows, carols and fireworks! I love dancing so it's fun to take part in such a special event. Usually my friends and family are watching so it can be scary sometimes too! Each year we choose a new song to perform... a few years back it was Greased Lightning, and we had cool 50s outfits and red ribbons in our hair as you can see from the photo! As well as the Christmas shows, I do lots of community productions which help to build my confidence in the run up to the Christmas Spectacular. It's loads of fun and I love doing it every single year!
Christmas is approaching - what better way to celebrate than with an end of term Christmas show? As a performer, I love being on the stage, so I was over the moon when college announced the show with just two weeks to prepare! It was very tough, but something a performer needs to be able to do. the excitement began here! Teachers began choreographing their numbers and it is honestly such an amazing feeling being put at the front - it shows that hard work does pay off and you get noticed by the teachers! When the big day arrived we had last-minute run throughs, polishing everything with the lights and surround sound. Everyone had their costumes on - a sea of red, white and silver flooded the college and as we topped up our make up and fixed our hair we knew it was almost SHOWTIME! The studio lights dimmed, bright lights flashed and it was time to hit the stage! I've been doing dance shows since I was two, so I don't really get pre-show nerves any more, more a buzz of energy ready to put my all into the piece. We were just about bouncing off the walls when we came off stage to a massive cheer from the audience! There truly is no greater feeling than doing what you love best, surrounded by the people that you love too!
For the last few years I have performed as a juvenile dancer at the Oakengates Theatre and the Theatre Seven in the pantos Cinderella and Aladdin. I've danced as a villager, a dog. a skeleton, a mummy, a fairy and partygoer at the ball. It has been a great experience, and I got to meet lots of famous people, which was fun! I will definitely audition again next year - I've loved every minute of it and hope to do more in the future! In the picture, this is me on the right in blue… as a villager in the panto Cinderella!
Cathy says:
I LOVE this! Thanks so much to all who contributed... you're right, too, it isn't Christmas without a show! Have YOU been to see a Christmas production this year? Or even been IN one? COMMENT BELOW to tell us more!
I was never in a Christmas show at school because it was a popularity contest and, put simply, no one really liked me. If I was given a starring role, there wouldn't be much interest in the play because I wasn't popular and pretty and overachieving. It's not that I wasn't good at acting - I won the Drama faculty award in S6 and I was a part of my local youth theatre from the age of 5 (spending 2 years as student president and a trainee teaching assistant when I was 15 - 17). The first time I was turned down for a role, I was really upset because I was only 6 but after that, I realised it was only ever the same few people year after year - the teacher's favourites, the ones who were simperingly sweet to the adults and vicious once their backs were turned. And I wouldn't want to act with them anyway. My brother (much more popular than me so he managed to wrangle a role as the sound producer in a Christmas panto) managed to get back at one particularly loathsome actor who had bullied my friend, threw a fit the previous year because she only got the second biggest role and personally affronted my brother by deliberately using her phone (and forcing her friends to use their phones) after the teacher had told them that using phones in the classroom messed with the soundboard. He turned the echo effect on her microphone right up for one of her solos on the last performance so no one understood a word she said. The teacher loved how it had sounded without realising it was petty revenge but the actor hated that her solo had been "ruined" and hopefully learned a lesson about being nicer to the people she considered inferior in the productions.
ReplyDeleteI was Mary in the nativity in Year 1. That's it. Hehe!
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