On Friday, November 17, and on Saturday, November 18, the I-35 Drama Department proudly presented this year’s Fall play “An Enchanted Bookshop Christmas” to help get everyone in the holiday spirit. This lighthearted production took place in the enchanted bookshop A Likely Story, in which the fairytale book characters came to life every night thanks to the magic of the mischievous Book Fairy (Daisy Lorton, 7th).
The story takes place four days before Christmas and Miss Margie (Reagan Trost, 10th), the scatterbrained owner of the shop, is thrilled to have two very special guests, her serious-minded sister Ellen (Karlee Stuart, 10th) and book-loving niece Annabelle (Hailey Cormeny, 9th). Ellen was recently laid off from her position as an astronomy professor, and she’s certain she’ll never find a job again. Her luck changes, however, when high-tech billionaire Phoebe Brantley (Brianna Fantz, 10th) stops in at the shop and Margie convinces Phoebe to hire Ellen for her new space project. With Ellen out shopping, Margie has a brainstorm to wrap the bookmark that Phoebe wrote her phone number on and give it to Ellen as a Christmas present. However, when the present disappears, it’s up to our come-to-life book characters, including the Nutcracker Prince (Elliot McMichael, 8th), Tom Sawyer (Emi Gutierrez, 7th), Dorothy Gale (Gracey Carico, 10th), Pollyanna (Libby Stuart, 12th), Doctor Doolittle (Evolett Wells, 7th), Amy March (Piper Wernli, 7th), The Little Match Girl (Morgan Downs, 8th), Jim Young (Sean Wilson, 7th) and wife Della Young (Zaylee Gutzmer, 7th), and Christmas staple Ebenezer Scrooge (Justin Bennett, 6th) to solve the mystery of the missing bookmark and save the day for Ellen all without giving away their magical existence.
In addition to the on-stage cast, a few new leadership roles were introduced to help bring the performance together. Our first-ever Student Director, Mackenzie Maiers, 7th, directly assisted Director Heather Wells and Assistant Director Amanda Geddes and helped lead the cast and crew through rehearsals and the performances. We also implemented a Set Lead, Camille Hutton-Edwards, 6th; a Lights and Sound Lead, Alyssa Weinstock, 7th; a Prop Lead, Ivey Maske, 6th; as well as our crew members Tailia Naggar (10th) on stage lights, Faith Reisinger (6th) and Carly Gehringer (6th) on spotlights, our set and sound crew member Lily Edwards (6th), Macean Jones (6th) on props, Nataley Brillon (6th) on costumes, and Alexis Crawley (6th) managing the curtain during performances!
A great deal of time and hard-work goes into preparing for any drama production, and each student spent several weeks and countless hours preparing. They were all delighted by the wonderful turnout at both shows.Thank you to everyone who was able to attend the performances and we are already beginning preparations for our Spring performance of “The Bachelor King” on March 22 and 23.
