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| Show 47 of 2016 |
My dear friend, Lisa Riggle is the vocal director in a small town outside of Ardmore. Lisa was my high school vocal director, where I did not sing, but came to love technical theatre. She gave me my first stage manager job my junior year of high school. She produces a musical with her high school kids every year (usually in the fall) and I pride myself on having seen them all except one (OU won the national championship that fall and my head was not right…I have no other excuse!). Their production includes several daytime performances for elementary school kids. I still remember being a kid and getting to go to the high school shows.
This year they put on Elf. I would be lying if I didn’t say I was kind of dreading seeing this show. I have seen the movie Elf once and was not a huge fan. I don’t care for Will Ferrell’s brand of comedy most of the time. I know a lot of people that consider Elf their go to Christmas movie, but I’ll keep White Christmas and Love Actually myself.
If you are unfamiliar with the story Buddy the Elf is a human who was raised in the North Pole and grew up thinking he was a giant elf. Finally Santa must tell Buddy the truth about his family: his mother died when he was a baby, but his father lives in New York. Buddy then embarks upon a journey to be reunited with his father and shenanigans ensue.
Buddy was played by Dylan Morrow, the younger brother of my sweet friend Katy. He was absolutely adorable. His sweet personality brought out the innocence of Buddy that I was blind to in the film. He was excited and peppy and every bit of what you would expect an oversized elf to be.
I must mention the talent that Lisa has at this small town high school. She tends to pull out the best there is wherever she is and this year is no different. It is fairly typical to have talented girls, but filling a cast with boys is always tricky. This cast had more talented boys than I can name. I was thoroughly impressed.
Though I walked in very skeptical I thoroughly enjoyed this show. I even almost went to the professional tour when it was in Oklahoma City the week after Christmas because I wondered how it was done originally (and I thought I needed a 52nd show!). I know it was a hit with the children they perform for and I know the students enjoyed putting it on, especially listening to them jabber on about what show they wanted to do next year. Lisa is a jewel and has brought the love of musical theatre to more students than we can probably count. I was so lucky to have her as a teacher a few (specifics are not necessary) years ago and am even more lucky to call her a friend as an adult.
For more information:
Production: Elf
Venue: Dickson High School
City: Dickson, OK
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