Yes, Laura, There Is a Santa Claus!

If you attend our performance of "A Little House Christmas", you might be shocked to hear the statement, "You are too old to believe in Santa Claus!"

Yes, it's true! Nellie Olsen does her best to ruin Laura Ingalls' Christmas by denying a belief that Laura holds dear.

Laura's resolve is shaken a bit, but she does a little investigation of her own. First, she talks to her Uncle George. Does he believe in Santa Claus? Why, of course he does. Then later, Mr. Edwards arrives on Christmas to share with the Ingalls sisters his tale of meeting St. Nick himself in town earlier Christmas morning.

By my reckoning, that is 1 against and 4 for Santa! Santa wins!

And, really, who are you going to believe? Nasty old Nellie Olsen or Laura Ingalls? I bet you know the answer to that question.

Mr. Edwards (played by Roc Living) tells Laura and Mary (Brittney Holdgraf and Jennifer Gilbert) about his encounter with Santa Claus. (also pic. Alan Hall and Linda Royce)

For more information about the existence of Santa Claus, check out www.newseum.org.

And that's the word on the street!

The MST Q&A: Julia Ethier

Julia Ethier (pictured center with Sarah Thomas and Taylor Cruse) appears in the Kids On Stage production of NUMBER THE STARS, presented at Chelsea Market this weekend, Nov. 21, 22 and 23. Get to know a little more about Julia as she answers MST's Q&A...


Full name: Julia Louise Ethier

Age: 9 ¾-years-old

Talents and hobbies (besides acting): I like to play sports, my guitar, board games, and drawing.

Pets: I have 2 adopted dogs, Parker and Godiva.

First live play you ever saw: The first live play I saw was either “Pippi Longstocking” or “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” when I was in kindergarten.

Most played song on your iPod: “Burning Up” by the Jonas Brothers

Favorite book: “Marley and Me”

Book that hasn’t been adapted as a play but should be: “Roxi and the Hooligans”

Actor you would most like to be in a movie with: Selena Gomez

Favorite thing to do to celebrate opening night: This will be my first opening night so I’ll have to let you know!

Funniest onstage mishap: Trying to pronounce the German words during rehearsal for the first time

Worst costume ever: A Mini Mouse costume my mom made for a dance at camp

Future career: Actor : )

NUMBER THE STARS plays our Chelsea Market location Nov 21-22, 2008 at 7:30pm and Nov 23, 2008 at 3:30pm. For tickets, please call 713-524-6706.

And that's the word on the street!

But Not Forgotten

This month, MST will start off the holiday season with the family comedy "But Not Goodbye". Written in the 1930s, Samuel French, a major publisher of play scripts, no longer publishes the script, but instead has a photocopy on file to copy and send to you.

Unfortunately, the copy is not the best, having had holes punched for its binding that went through the text itself.

When David Parker, leading character Sam Griggs, first did the show in 1950, he and fellow actors had to fill in the literal holes based on the surrounding text in a way that made sense.

So, imagine our surprise when Alison Coriell, playing Jennifer Griggs in our production, found a copy of the script in the MST library! Complete with actor notes and pictures from the original production, we can now fill in the proper words lost so long ago in the Sam French photostat room.

Come see "But Not Goodbye" as George Seaton intended. With all the words!

And that's the word on the street!

A Talk Back with Playwright Y York

On October 25, "... and L.A. Is Burning" playwright Y York returned to see the finished production and give a talk back about her prize winning play. Here is a brief overview of the event from my notes. (sorry if they are a bit sketchy...)

Approx. 60 people from the sold out house stayed for the event, prompting Y to say, "Oh God! You guys all stayed!"

Y was thrilled with the cast and the production.

When asked if the character of Sylvia was based on her, Y said that she wasn't specifically based on her, but that the person she is will come out in all her characters.

When writing a play, Y thinks about what the character expects from a scene and then thinks about how that goal is thwarted. A writer must be careful as they can jump to conclusions about their characters. Her goal is to write something that you have never seen on stage before.

When writing a play, there is no rule of thumb as to how long it takes to complete it. It can take weeks of even years. "... and L.A. Is Burning" was originally conceived in '92 during the events in L.A. while Y lived in Seattle. But it sat dormant for years until the character of Haddie came to the forefront of her consciousness again 2006. At that point, the story just started to flow and the finished play took about 6 months.

Why did you choose "The King and I" as a running theme through out the play?
"The King and I" is so much about race and all of Y's characters get associated with it in some fashion. In the middle of "King and I" is the presentation of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" which is viewed very differently by both Alvin and Haddie.

Y was able to join the cast during the first week of rehearsal. Very little of the script was changed during that time as the team worked on the script. Only about 5 lines were changed and the phrase during Sylvia's Act 2 monologue about "people without clout" was changed to "people without power".

When asked about her characterization of Haddie, Michelle Britton said she made the specific choice for Haddie to be deliberate and still as she tries to understand the people around her. She thinks of Haddie as both a listener and mimic as exemplified by how she imitates phrases from her favorite TV show, "The Cosby Show".

One closing thought from an audience member was that the play was a "rarity", because they felt that the actors, whom many of the audience were familiar with from their acting work in many Houston theaters, disappeared into their roles, becoming the characters they portrayed.

And that's the word on the street!