A classic Christmas film is brought to Princeton audiences in live performance format courtesy of the Crimson Tine Players.
The film is based on short stories based on the book “In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash,” by Jean Shepherd. It was later produced as a play by Philip Grecian.
A Christmas Story is a hilarious tale of young Ralphie Parker, played by Dayton Wales who is convinced that a certain gun would be the perfect Christmas present, while all others in his life object saying, “You’ll shoot your eye out.”
On opening night Friday, Nov. 30 Wales took a tumble off the stage (the snow bank) much to his surprise, scaring the bejeebers out of the audience, cast and crew.
With incredible dedication to the performance and a little in-character assistance from The Old Man, an obsessive turkey crazed character played by Josh Herzog, Wales (Ralphie) rose to the occasion and continued on.
Let’s meet the rest of the characters…
Ralph - the adult Ralphie Parker, is played by Adam Gullason who narrates the story based on childhood memories. Gullason also plays the Christmas tree salesman and the wild frontier guy.
Hillary Riel plays Mother, a modest, down to earth woman with a few surprises up her sleeve.
Randy Parker is played by Holly Atkinson. Randy is Ralphie’s little brother, a child whom quite often is hard to locate unless he is standing beside you screaming his head off.
Destiny Earle plays Schwarz, the mischievous best friend of Ralphie. Remember— do not let this guy talk you into anything.
Flick, is another of Ralphie’s best friends. Played by Eric Ogrinc, Flick is the smallest of the friends and seems to get caught by the bully at every occasion possible.
Bill Preston plays Scut Farkus, the schoolyard bully who loves to terrorize all of the students—especially Flick. He ends up receiving a special surprise from his peers.
Esther Jane, played by Katie Bartlett is awfully sweet on Ralphie, only he hasn’t figured that out quite yet.
Thyme Callihoo plays Helen, the sophisticated best friend of Esther Jane who has a pension for the ‘older men’—the sixth graders.
Miss Shields, played by PattyAnn Peal is the obnoxious teacher who absolutely demands grammatically correct work from her students.
To learn more about these wonderfully interesting characters, don’t miss out on the upcoming performances. A Christmas Story will be performed at the Riverside Theatre on Friday, Dec. 7 and Saturday, Dec. 8 at 7 p.m. A Matinee will be shown as well on Saturday, Dec. 8 at 2 p.m.
Tickets are available at the Sunflower Arts Gallery, Shopper’s Drug Mart and at the door of the theatre.
A great production like this would not be at all possible without the many individuals that are not necessarily seen. Kudos as well must go out to all those involved; backstage crew, prompters, lighting and sound technicians, set designers, stage managers, costume designers and of course, the director and producer.
Congratulations on a job well done; Rhianfa Riel, Esther Donovan, Barb Fraser, Deb Cappos, Dawn Gardner, Grace Truesdell, Martin Riel, Pam Kepner, Lei Wu, Sophia-Michelle Crimson, Jennifer Bailey, Sylvia Bailey, Pat Fawcett, Jackie Wales, Jeannette Gerard, Sarah Nelson and Christine Simpson.