First Rehearsal: A New Rep Family Christmas Story

 

Cast and production team of A Christmas Story

We’re always saying that New Rep is a family, and it was never so evident as Monday night at First Rehearsal for A Christmas Story. Director, designers, adult and child actors, and extended members of the New Rep family, including guests and donors, settled into the Charles Mosesian Theater to hear how New Rep’s production will be brought to life with holiday magic. Although the kids began rehearsing over the weekend, it was the first time the whole cast had come together. 

 

The cast of A Christmas Story

After brief introductions, director Diego Arciniegas spoke about his vision for the production.  “Why do people take time out of their busy lives during the rushed holiday season to come to the theater?” Arciniegas answered his own question by saying that holiday theater is all about the “reclamation of the holiday spirit:” Audiences come to see Mr. Scrooge or Ralphie Parker find the holiday spirit on stage, and then bring it with them out into their own lives. 

Arciniegas speaks about his vision for the production.

Arciniegas also spoke about why holiday classics like A Christmas Story, A Christmas Carol, and It’s A Wonderful Life become classics. According to Arciniegas, it’s because they all utilize the dramatic device of time travel. In A Christmas Story, Ralph, now grown, reflects back on the Christmas of his childhood that he spent in pursuit of the “Official Red Ryder 200 shot Carbine Action Range Model Air Rife with a compass and this thing that tells time built right into the stock!” Time travel is especially poignant at the holidays, because it is by the holidays that we measure the passage of time: how children have grown, which family members have passed, and the mishaps and mayhem of holidays past.

Model of Dahlia Al-Habieli's set design

Scenic designer Dahlia Al-Habieli then spoke about the inspiration for the set. The colors are based off of the commercialism of the advertisements of the 1940’s and 1950’s: teals, pinks, reds, and faded color photographs.  The main focus of the set is the kitchen, and the rest of the world expands outward from there, including many other locations, such as the school yard, the school house, and the Christmas tree lot. 

Costume designer Katherine O'Neill takes costume measurements.

Katherine O’Neill, costume designer, also drawing from Al-Habieli’s inspiration of vintage advertisements, has designed the costumes to represent the notion of “what you strive for, versus what you’ve actually got.”  The costumes would be a cacophony of colors and patterns, which she says is representative of the time period. In the post-depression era, people could maybe only afford a couple of new articles of clothing a year, which were integrated into whatever wardrobe they already had.  This year’s pants with last year and the year before’s shirts, creates a mix of colors and patterns that will pop onstage. 

 After the director and designers finished speaking on how the holiday spirit and the world of the play will be brought to life, the actors dove into a table reading of the script.  

Viewers examine Al-Habieli's model up-close.

New Rep staff and Behind-the-Scenes @ New Rep participants enjoy conversation and refreshments.

A Christmas Story starts on December 11 and runs through Christmas Eve, December 24, 2011. Get your tickets at http://newrep.org/christmas_story.php.

If you would like to attend First Rehearsals @ New Rep or any of our other Behind-the-Scenes @ New Rep Events, please visit http://www.newrep.org/behind_the_scenes.php!