Theatre stages The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
Student actors adjust to new style of new director in fun seasonal comedic play
Freshman Sierra Gomez, sophomore Estrella Martinez and senior Celina Tijerina rehearse scenes from The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, which will hit the stage in December.
November 20, 2015
New theatre director Burgandy Trimmer is staging a play about defying expectations as she sets her own expectations for the Akins Journey Theatre program.
Trimmer, who previously worked as a theatre teacher in North Carolina before starting at Akins this summer, intention- ally selected The Best Christmas Pageant Ever as her first play at Akins because she knew it would be good material for her to get to know her cast and crew.
“It’s fun. There are serious moments but also funny parts and I think the audience will really enjoy it and can escape from real life and come have some fun,” Trimmer said.
The play The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is a story about a mom who is played by sophomore Estrella Martinez who takes over the director’s job and tries to put on the “best Christmas pageant ever” and is forced to cast the notoriously bad behaved children called the Herdmans.
Trimmer said she hopes to learn more about the actors’ strengths and performance styles based on how they perform in this first play she stages at Akins. The comic nature of the script allows for a fun experience for the cast to get to know their new director after long time director Maureen Siegel departed from the theatre department this year.
Martinez said the play took a while to get off the ground, but she sees a lot of progress being made now.
“I think now that in all future rehearsals we’ll all buckle down and make this a fantastic show,” Martinez said.
Senior Tyra Williams, who plays one of the delinquents, said she feels that Trimmer will do a great job directing the play and is excited to for it to hit the stage.
“I’m really excited for this show to go up,” Williams said. “Trimmer is working really hard and always wants the best for us.”
The students will perform “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” in December and after the performance Trimmer will have a better idea with who she’s working with.
“It’s been very interesting working here, and I’m glad that I can continue to do what I love to do, which is teaching theatre and directing shows and I hope that the kids will fall in love with theatre, all over again,” Trimmer said.
