INNISFAIL – Jill Cummins has been the music teacher at École John Wilson Elementary School for the past 11 years, but she admits to some jitters for the school’s upcoming holiday season musical.
“I almost felt in the beginning like a newbie again, trying to remember all the bits and pieces that it takes to put a show together,” said Cummins.
Cummins noted the upcoming three shows later this month are the first holiday season musicals performed by the school's students since 2019, just three months before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cummins said the shows will be split over three nights and performed by separate groups of students from grades 1 through 4. The first show runs on Tuesday, Dec. 20, with the second on Wednesday, Dec. 21 and the third performed on Thursday, Dec. 22.
“This way they all get one night to perform,” said Cummins, noting a total of about 360 students will have a chance to perform over three consecutive evenings. “We don't know exactly the length yet because we haven't had time to go into the gym and put it together. If I had to guess I would say we're probably looking at about a half an hour, 40 minutes.”
The main doors at John Wilson school open at 6:10 p.m. for all three shows with each concert starting at 6:30 p.m. Admission cost is a donation to the Innisfail and District Food Bank; cash or food items.
The students will be singing the musical Christmas on Candy Cane Lane, described as a holiday musical for “young voices” and composed by John Jacobson and Alan Billingsley.
“The kids are really excited because most haven't had an opportunity to perform live. Only our current grade fours have ever had a Christmas concert live,” said Cummins. “We have been working hard preparing the songs and the speaking parts for this year’s show and we began as soon as Halloween was over. The month of November and December has been all Christmas concerts.
“Some of them didn't know what a Christmas concert really was,” added Cummins. “It’s brand new for them. They've have not seen one or been in one. And the concept of the show is really cute this year.”
Christmas on Candy Cane Lane is a story about trouble brewing over deciding the best colour of a candy cane. Santa Claus is asked his opinion, and of course he says red. The evergreen trees are asked their opinions and they say green.
And then someone very dear to Santa comes up with a solution.
“The crux of it is that they're trying to decide which is the better colour,” said Cummins, adding she’s also feeling “excited” about putting together annual Christmas musicals after a long absence caused by the pandemic. “I honestly feel almost as excited as I did for my very first show here because it's just that chance to gather again, sing and be together and perform that I'm really looking forward.”
