Morrow Little Theatre entertains with Christmas program

By Alberta Stojkovic

The joy and beauty of Christ­mas came to Mount Gilead last Fri­day and Sat­ur­day with the music of the Mor­row Lit­tle The­atre pro­gram and din­ner in coop­er­a­tion with the Trin­ity C.I.C. Class. This year “Christ­mas in the Vil­lage” cen­tered the theme on a radio pro­gram script. Ken Bar­nett opened the pro­gram and invited guests to enjoy their din­ner that included ham loaf, cheesy pota­toes and green beans with home­made rolls, Jello salad and cake for dessert.

Host for the imag­ined Christ­mas radio pro­gram was Carl Schae­fer, also known as “the mel­low fel­low from Can­dle­wood Lake.” Schae­fer intro­duced Jon Hick­man who sang “White Christ­mas”, one of sev­eral songs in trib­ute to singer, Bing Crosby. High­lights from Bing Crosby fol­lowed through­out the first act. One crowd pleaser was “The Lit­tle Drum­mer Boy” from Bing Crosby’s 1977 Christ­mas TV Spe­cial. It was sung by Ken Bar­nett and John Wallis.

Jeff Rocks on the drums added a jazzy beat to sev­eral songs in both acts. His drums picked up the beat in “Jin­gle Bell Rock” with the kids cho­rus and added fun to “Rockin’ around the Christ­mas Tree” and other songs.

The kids’ cho­rus, directed by LeAnne Gompf, got lots of applause and enthu­si­as­tic com­ments all evening. They sang out with con­fi­dence and brought many smiles to the audi­ence. Sophia Thompson’s clog rou­tine was a show stopper.

Mount Gilead High School music teacher, Randy Mann opened the sec­ond act with his “Sis­ter Julia Child” role. He kept the crowd laugh­ing as he mixed up a recipe with a good help­ing of brew.

One high­light fol­lowed another in the sec­ond act. John Lennon’s “That’s why there’s Christ­mas” with Mike Petee and Desmond Wall on the gui­tar was fol­lowed by a ten­der song with Betsy Ander­son, “A baby changes every­thing.” Mandy Rocks con­tin­ued the emo­tional mood with “Who could imag­ine a king?” and LeAnne Gompf brought tears to many eyes with “Beth­le­hem morning.”

Jim and Betsy Anderson’s duet of “Light in the Sta­ble” brought strength to the pro­gram as they sang out Hal­leluiahs. LeAnne and Mandy brought in more emo­tion with their duet “Mary, Did you know?” Amy Barr and the cho­rus closed the pro­gram with “Because it’s Christ­mas and invited the audi­ence to join in singing “Silent Night.”

Ken Bar­nett acknowl­edged Kristi Bulkowski for much work on the silent auc­tion. She found spon­sors for the 26 gift bas­kets in the silent auc­tion and did much of the work assem­bling the bas­kets and items for the auc­tion. The $897 raised by the auc­tion will be given to fam­i­lies in need at Christ­mas. The Rose­mary Brown fam­ily and Gompf Funeral Ser­vice were also rec­og­nized for their spon­sor­ship of the evening.

Pianist for the pro­gram was Becky Ship­man. The cho­rus included: Betsy Ander­son, Jim Ander­son, Wayne Au, Amy Barr, Ken Bar­nett, LeAnne Gompf, Far­rah Gregg, Logan Gregg, Jon Hick­man, Randy Mann, Mike Petee, Joey Pow­ell, Pamela Ritchey, Annie Robert­son, Amanda Robin­son, Mandy Rocks, Carl Schae­fer, Michelle, Thomp­son, Sophia Thomp­son, John Wal­lis, Desmond Wall.

The children’s cho­rus included Jay­den Ritchey, Cheyenne Ritchey, Miken­zee Clap­per, Meaghan Clap­per, Greer Simp­son, Evan John­son, Tay­lor Robin­son, Makenna Oates, Sophia Thomp­son and Penny Cranston.

Posted by Randa Wagner on Dec 12 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.