The Lyric Theatre’s annual tradition of a Christmas-themed production continues this year as ‘A Christmas Story’ – based on the 1983 motion picture written by Jean Shepherd, Leigh Brown and Bob Clark – takes the stage Dec. 4-6 and again Dec. 11-13.
“The show itself, it’s the classic ‘A Christmas Story’ show,” said Eric Evans, Managing Director of the Lyric Theatre. “People are going to giggle all the way through because they already know the story, and they’re going to see it acted by a lot of kids they know, or people they know in a place that they know. I think people are going to laugh out loud.”
‘A Christmas Story’ is the lone production at the Lyric Theatre whose schedule has not been impacted by COVID-19 thus far.
“It’s been on our schedule all year long,” Evans said. “It’s the one we tried to make sure we got to the stage and met all the criteria that the governor’s outline has for us.”
Regarding the selection of ‘A Christmas Story’ for the holiday season feature, Evans said, “We tend to look for some familiarity with the titles of the show, and with this particular show there’s a musical version and a non-musical version. We chose to go ahead and do the non-musical version because of the current COVID environment.”
Set in Homan, Indiana in December 1947, the Lyric website describes the production as “The story of growing up in the midwest in the 1940s follows 9-year-old Ralphie Parker in his quest to get a genuine Red Ryder BB gun under the tree for Christmas. Ralphie pleads his case before his mother, his teacher and even Santa Claus himself at Higbee’s Department Store. The consistent response: ‘You’ll shoot your eye out!’ All the elements from the beloved motion picture are here, including the family’s temperamental exploding furnace; Scut Farkas, the school bully; the boys’ experiment with a wet tongue on a cold lamppost; the Little Orphan Annie decoder pin; Ralphie’s father winning a lamp shaped like a woman’s leg in a net stocking; Ralphie’s fantasy scenarios; and more.”
Brownwood High School Theatre Director Shannon Lee will serve as the director for ‘A Christmas Story,’ marking the first time she has directed a Lyric production.
“I’ve been a director for 15 years, but getting to direct here at the Lyric is something I’ve wanted to do for a really long time, and until now it just hasn’t ever worked scheduling wise,” Lee said “I’m super excited because I’ve been on stage, I’ve done technical stuff, but this is the first time to get to direct and it’s been a challenge just because of the way the world is working right now, but it’s been a lot of fun. Everybody’s been fantastic to work with and I have loved it.”
Evans added, “We chose Shannon, she’s been on the stage with us before but she’s never directed before. She was scheduled to direct Grease earlier this summer, but we had to postpone it until next summer. We had her do this because she knows the high school kids, works beautifully with them, and they’re not really getting to do much over at the high school right now. It worked out for her to be able to do this, and as a matter of fact her daughter is doing the costumes, so she’s made it a bit of a family affair. It helps when you know the people. We have probably five or six newbies that have never been on the Lyric stage before, so that’s always fun.”
Regarding the challenges of directing a play at the Lyric opposed to a high school one-act play, Lee said, “At the high school, I get to give people grades for whether or not they do their work. Here it’s all on a volunteer basis and the majority of the actors have jobs. You have to approach it differently and be a little more patient as far as getting off script and all that kind of stuff, and remembering it’s community theater and the purpose of that is to just have fun.”
As for the similarities between the play and the movie – which airs annually on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day for a 24-hour stretch – Lee said, “It is pretty darn close. They added a little bit more, a few more scenes to flesh some stuff out, but everything that’s in the movie is in the show, which is cool.”
The cast includes John Monson as Ralphie Parker; Brad Wells as the adult version of Ralphie, who serves as the narrator; April Tassin as the mother; Shade Tidwell as the father; A.J. Tidwell as Randy; Emily Haynes as Miss Shields/Mrs. Schwartz; Evan Fraze as Flick; Zaiden Lopez as Schwartz; Allie Haynes as Esther Jane; Morgan Phipps as Helen Weathers; Jake Bowren as Scut Farkas/Black Bart/Cowboy; Kelly Jones as Toadie/Kid/Elf/Desperado; Taylor Crow as Santa Claus/Desperado/Tree Lot Owner/Delivery Man; Kate Yantis as Voice of a Neighbor; Ryan Myers as Voice on PA/Pierre Andre’; and Carson Blair, Ella Haynes and Charlotte Rose Myers as the children.
“They’re really doing a great job with the show and I couldn’t be more pleased with the entire cast,” Evans said. “The cast is going great and enjoying it immensely.”
Tickets are available at www.brownwoodlyrictheatre.com for $12 for adults, $8 for students. Evans stated approximately 100 to 120 tickets are available per show.
Show times are 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 4; 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 5; 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 6; 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 11; 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 12; and 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 13.
Evans also added there many be only one weekend of shows due to the rising COVID numbers.
Currently, Brown County is operating under Governor Greg Abbott’s Executive Order GA-32 that allows most businesses to operate at 75 percent capacity. After seven days of more than 15 percent hospital capacity by COVID patients, their respective region would have to revert to 50 percent capacity. In Brown County’s regional, that could occur Sunday, and while the Lyric is only seating at 50 percent capacity, putting on the play with additional social distancing measures would not be possible, according to Evans.
“We can only have so many actors at a time and they have to be distanced a certain amount,” Evans said. “We may only be able to pull off one weekend of these shows, so that’s the exciting and anxious part. The board will make an official determination on Monday, and that depends on if we hit that seven-day threshold. We can’t distance the cast if that happens.”
