{"id":16069,"date":"2016-12-14T12:29:22","date_gmt":"2016-12-14T17:29:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=16069"},"modified":"2017-02-01T18:01:01","modified_gmt":"2017-02-01T23:01:01","slug":"comedy-classic-a-christmas-story-spans-generations-at-theatre-aurora","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/comedy-classic-a-christmas-story-spans-generations-at-theatre-aurora\/","title":{"rendered":"Comedy classic \u201cA Christmas Story\u201d spans generations at Theatre Aurora"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir
\n<\/strong>
\nMaking her way through the first season of Theatre Aurora\u2019s theatre school 13-year-old Maria Necola has learned you should \u201cnever be shy to give it your all when you are performing\u201d \u2013 even if you\u2019re standing on stage surrounded by actresses playing \u201csassy\u201d girls and you\u2019re bringing to life the iconic role of Ralphie from the equally iconic A Christmas Story.
\nMaria leads the cast of budding young actors as the theatre school mounts their production of A Christmas Story next Wednesday, December 21, at 7 p.m. for two performances. It\u2019s their debut production after being re-formed over the summer.
\n\u201cI think I am better at playing a boy than I am playing a girl!\u201d says Maria with a laugh. \u201cI can act like a girl too, but I like that Ralphie is not very popular and not everybody wants to hang out with him. He is this average kid who lives a normal life, but he also has these cool experiences at home and school that are very usual.\u201d
\nWhat was once an average, normal comedy about a 1950s family making their way through the holiday season \u2013 and a wide-eyed boy who wants nothing more than a Red Ryder BB gun \u2013 has since morphed into a holiday classic that has transcended generations.
\n\u201cWhen we were approached to do this, I was ecstatic because it is one of my favourite movies,\u201d says Richard Varty, who co-directs the play with Sophia Bagnell and Kim Reihe. \u201cIt has almost made the process a little easier because we could let the kids watch the movie and get an idea of the characters, but it is funny because there is a generational gap.
\n\u201cWhen I watch this story with my dad, I don\u2019t get some of the references because that was the time he grew up in. Now I am trying to transpose that into 21st century technology. Kids don\u2019t understand what a clinker is, or when a furnace screws up, or why it was a big deal going to the tree lot, but it has been an interesting experience working with different generations of people.\u201d
\nBut, after the directors gave the kids their homework to go and watch the movie, they felt themes really struck a chord with their young troupe.
\n\u201cFrom the top of the show, it is all about remembering Christmases past and I think it is interesting looking back at our own Christmases or our own memories,\u201d says Mr. Varty. \u201cWe remember things much more vividly and differently than they probably were. It is very much a coming of age story, especially for Ralphie. It\u2019s about growing up, dealing with bullies. His relationship with his mother has also been an interesting topic. There is one really great scene where there is a line that \u2018from that day forward my relationship with my mother was very different.\u2019 I think everyone has that Christmas or that one moment that redefined how they saw the world.\u201d
\nAdds Ms. Bengall, \u201cWhen [the theatre students] first read the script I don\u2019t think they really envisioned it as being in the past. It was just something every kid could relate to. I think something that resonated with them was it doesn\u2019t matter if it the 1950s, the 1980s, or almost 2017, kids are going to have their friends, the school bully, that one special thing they want for the holidays and I think those are just trends that span time.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Christmas Story runs Wednesday, December 21 and Thursday, December 22, both performances beginning at 7.30 p.m. Tickets are $10 and are available through Theatre Aurora at 905-727-3669 or by visiting www.theatreaurora.com.<\/em><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Making her way through the first season of Theatre Aurora\u2019s theatre school 13-year-old Maria Necola has learned you should \u201cnever be shy to give it your all when you are performing\u201d \u2013 even if you\u2019re standing on stage surrounded by actresses playing \u201csassy\u201d girls and you\u2019re bringing to life the iconic role of Ralphie from the equally iconic A Christmas Story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16037,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/2016-12-15-02.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-4bb","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-16 11:18:29","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16069\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}