This article was originally published in The Examiner on Dec. 8, 2016.
By Eleanor Skelton
Staff Writer
This weekend, the production “A Whimsical Christmas” is coming to the stage for the sixteenth time.
Performances will be Friday, Dec. 9, at 7 p.m. and Saturday, Dec. 10, at 2 p.m. at the Nederland Performing Arts Center, located on the Nederland High School campus.
“Families from all over Southeast Texas mark this event as one of the official starts to their holiday season,” The Mid-County Performing Arts Company said in a news release.
The company also scheduled three performances during the day for over 5,000 school children across Southeast Texas before the show opens to the public.
This year’s show involves over 100 performers, organizers said in the release.
“We just started from nothing and created the show,” director Keely Jardell said. “I’m just really proud of the fact that everyone that does it is volunteer. I don’t get paid, not one of my staff, not any of these moms and dads.”
Bringing “A Whimsical Christmas” to the stage requires over 1,000 volunteer hours, according to the company’s announcement.
“It’s just one of those shows that when you get to the end of it, you’re like, ‘Oh man, I can’ t believe that it’s over.’ It pulls you in and entertains you throughout,” Mid-County Performing Arts Company media relations and advertising director Tabetha Franklin siad.
Franklin’s daughter is performing for her sixth year in the show.
“There’s never a moment once the show starts that you’re not engaged because of the costumes, the set, the different dance styles and the story lines,” she said. “It’ s not a traditional ballet performance that you might expect a holiday show would be limited to.”
Jardell’s husband and other fathers of the cast members build the props.
“Everybody uses their gifts,” Jardell said. “That’s what’s so amazing. This mom might be able to sew and this one can paint, this one helps us with whatever — everybody has a job.”
Moving the set takes five trailers, a large truck and 30 men during set up and assembly each year. The set is stored offsite during the summer months.
“We try to add something new every year just to bring something new to life,” Jardell said. “But we created a show, we took our own story and put a kink in it, made a twist.”
According to the release, the original set is still being used, although the company also noted “tremendous changes in costume and stage sets since the original show was performed.”
The show is for all ages, even younger audience members not usually interested in ballet.
“The other day my husband went to pick up those books
at the elementary school, and this little boy was in there and he said, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s for the Whimsical show?’” Jardell said. “So everyone loves it.”
“Whimsical” is a conglomeration of several Dr. Seuss stories like “Cat in the Hat,” “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” and “Horton Hears a Who,” and multiple dance styles besides ballet.
Some actors change costumes as many as 13 times throughout the performance. One scene involving the hunches is performed under blacklight, lending a floating appearance to their costumes.
Jardell intentionally created the show this way to be inclusive.
“We do lots of ballet, as you can see, but we try to have all different styles of dance because not everyone is a ballerina,” Jardell said. “Some are actresses and some are very graceful and maybe they’re not as animated, so it lets every child in this production feel that their part is the most important.
“They think the show’s not going to go on unless they’re in their spot. Everyone feels that way even though they don’t have a title — that’s how we want to make them feel, that everyone feels that important.”
All of the stage directors that help have been in the show in previous years, Jardell said.
“They want to have those girls have that same adventure that they had,” she said. “It’s really amazing to watch so many people give of themselves.
Keely Jardell founded the Mid-County Performing Arts Company and first cast the show back in 2001. She has also run her own dance school, the Keely Jardell School of Dance, in Nederland since 1989.
When Nederland ISD built the Nederland Performing Arts Center on the high school campus, Jardell saw an opportunity to bring more arts to Mid-County that would normally be in Beaumont or other local venues, Franklin said.
The cast comes from several local dance schools, not just Jardell’s, and involves performers from Beaumont, Fannett, and Bridge City as well as Mid-County cities like Port Neches, Nederland and Groves.
The Mid-County Performing Arts Company holds tryouts each April to join the company, and auditions for “A Whimsical Christmas” begin in August, Franklin explained. Rehearsals are each weekend on Saturdays and Sundays for about four hours a day once the school year starts.
This allows the group to accommodate school schedules, Franklin said, especially for older students who are often also cheerleaders and in drill teams, in addition to their regular dance classes and honors courses.
Tickets are on sale now for $10, $12 or $15 each and can be purchased online at midcountypac.com.
Eleanor Skelton 