Andrews – The Christmas season got well underway last weekend to coincide with Christmas on Main, as the Community Youth Players presented North Pole’s Got Talent at the Valleytown Cultural Arts Center.
Written by Lavinia Roberts as a special ensemble cast for youth and hilarious holiday take on reality television show talent competitions, North Pole’s Got Talent showcases inhabitants of the North Pole and their varied offerings for judges, including Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus and Ruby the Red-Lipped Reindeer.
Co-directed by first-timers Sawyer Bradley and Lilly Graham, most of the cast were also performing for the first time in the half-hour play.
Bradley and Graham, fresh off the first season’s offering in Something Wicked This Way Comes as stage manager and lead role, respectively, both agreed the directing experience is much different, especially when the majority of the cast are under age 16 and half the cast were composed of “the littles, as we like to call them.”
“It’s great that this is most of their first times performing onstage,” Bradley said. “They’re especially teachable and we get to be mentors to them.”
“Being in control of everything onstage has been a transition and a valuable learning experience and we’ve both enjoyed that transition from acting and the technical aspects to the more creative side of theater,” Graham added.
That creativity came out abundantly from choices of costumes to the obviously fun atmosphere the two directors, along with stage manager Luisa Phillips, added to the production.
The hosts of the show, Holly Daze and Mistletoe Merrymen (played by Aleah McKay and Isabella LeDuke, respectively) held court over the ensemble talent show with much aplomb and math skills, letting each performer know their rankings and standings in the competition.
Both have been involved with Community Youth Players for several productions. They were urged by family to become involved with the local theater.
As Santa, Jaxon Hughes – who was only performing in his second show, with this his first time in a lead role – added a sense of “naughty and nice” to his role as judge of the talent show.
As Mrs. Claus, EmmaJane McKay perfectly exuded the much-put-upon first lady of all things North Pole, from having to do everything as Santa’s helpmate to judging the talent show as she lamented, “No one has time to take a seat with all this holiday work to be done.”
A true scene-stealer and princess of puns, Shayla Dyer as Ruby the Red-Lipped Reindeer, regaled the audience and contestants with her wide-ranging and sometimes groan-inducing puns, with takes on her busy “calen-deer” to how “there’s snow business like snow business” at the North Pole.
Dyer got started in the theater by a family friend and seems a veritable natural as this is her fifth production, having played the Wicked Witch in Oz. She was also slated for the lead in Beauty and the Beast, but that production was halted due to COVID.
As the Snow Queen, Sophia Evans gave a commanding performance as she quoted, “I am second to none” when confronted with the fact that she and Jack Frost, portrayed by Oscar Prate, “have no actual talents, and you only create weather.”
Leaving everything “chilled out,” they exit with threats to freeze everyone – and everything – in their wake if they don’t win the competition.
The other highlight of the performance was those eight famous reindeer “busting serious moves” on stage. From Dasher to Blitzen, the dancers delighted with a well-choreographed rendition of “Up on the Rooftop.”
After a discourse of the variations of the reindeer diet, featuring “lichen, moss, twigs and sticks,” the little deer dashed away to forage for energy on their one big night of the year.
Finally, Ginger and Cookie, played by Silas Bradley and Maura Short, saved the whole show for the North Pole by declaring enough cookies had been baked and everyone was a winner, giving an endearing insight into the season meant for kindness, love and peace to everyone.
The next production for the Community Youth Players will be Alice in Wonderland in early 2024. Auditions are scheduled for January.
Details: facebook.com/ACT2Players.