Audiences who enjoy “Celtic Yuletide Celebrations” on Dec. 12-14
at Englewood’s Hampden Hall will time travel to Lord Mc Henry’s
castle in early Ireland for a production that has evolved under the
hand of ACT Englewood’s John Gerlick.
Costumes, songs and dances create a colorful entertainment,
directed by Alexander Trullinger, choreographed by Karen Schihl,
with costumes by Debbie Faber.
The setting is a long-ago Christmas Eve at the manor belonging
to Lord McHenry, where the custom is to invite the servants to join
with the Nobles for a holiday party. Soon, Gerlick writes, the
Trapsford Mummers, a traveling troop of players, appear at the
door, offering to perform their play which features a comic sword
fight between St. Patrick and the Black Knight, Slasher. After
their play, they are invited to stay for the evening since it’s the
last performance of the day.
Next, neighborhood children come caroling and join the
festivities. “Boars Head Carol” and “Wren in the Furze” are
included in the first act, which concludes with “Lord of the
Dance.”
The second act includes a Nativity recreation from Joseph’s
point of view, the “Second Shepherds Scene” with words by
Shakespeare and a finale of “Twelve Days of Christmas,” with each
day performed by the cast of 35.
Gerlick was in the cast of the original “Yuletide Celebrations,”
written and produced at Town Hall by Annawyn Shamas of Littleton in
1993/1994. Main Street Players and the South Suburban Theatre
Company cooperated in those productions, set in an English manor
house. Gerlick and produced the English castle version in 1997,1999
and 2001, then re-wrote it in a new setting with a change in many
of the songs, he says. He and his wife Angela and sons Tom (26) and
Joe (19) are cast members. Irish musicians include fiddler Mary
Ball, Celtic harpist Marianne Goodland, John Mullin on the bodhran
drum, Jeanne Weiss on Guitar and Dana Lusk of the group Molly
Magpies on flute and other wind instruments.
Performances at Hampden Hall, in the Englewood Civic Center,
1000 Englewood Parkway, are at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 12 and
Saturday, Dec. 13 and 2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 14. Tickets cost $15,
$12, $35/family at King Soopers TicketsWest outlets, www.ticketswest.com,
1-800-325-SEAT. Information: 303-761-9562. (Ear
