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Nose Creek Players bring twist to Christmas classic

If you’re a fan of the Dr. Seuss classic How The Grinch Stole Christmas, this month’s Nose Creek Players (NCP) performance will be right up your alley. On Dec.
Channelling Cindy-Lou
Elle Davies (left) is the star of Nose Creek Players’ 2018 Christmas play, ‘How Cindy-Lou Saved Christmas.’

If you’re a fan of the Dr. Seuss classic How The Grinch Stole Christmas, this month’s Nose Creek Players (NCP) performance will be right up your alley. On Dec. 21 and 22, Airdrie’s community theatre group will present four performances of How Cindy-Lou Saved Christmas. According to Taylor Burton, who wrote the script and will direct the play, NCP’s show will be a modern twist on the 60-year-old children’s story. “I knew I wanted to tell the story from Cindy-Lou’s perspective, because this is going to be the first time NCP uses youth as part of the cast,” Burton said. “It’s coming together great.” The plot follows the actions of Whoville resident Cindy-Lou Who, as she tries to uncover why the townsfolk don’t like the Grinch and why he came to despise Christmas. “She goes to find out the backstory of what happened in his past, and finds his parents and hears the story from them,” Burton said. “Then, she makes a plan of how to include the Grinch and how to make Whoville like him.” Eleven-year-old Airdronian Elle Davies will star as Cindy-Lou Who, Tare Rennebohm will play the Grinch and Connor Winslow will voice the play’s narration. Burton said Davies is excited to star in the play and has been working hard to prepare for her critical role. “When we started the play, the expectation was to be off-book before we started rehearsals, because we casted it a month before rehearsals started,” she said. “Coming back, she was off-book already and had her lines ready to go. “It shows she’s excited and dedicated.” Other roles in the play will be split between youth and adult actors, according to Burton, with the youngest being 11 and the oldest 38. Writing the script was an enjoyable process, she added, but challenging. Burton said she didn’t want to stray too far from Seuss’ 1957 original, but she also wanted to incorporate her own ideas. “Most people, when they think of the Grinch, they think of the 2000 Jim Carrey film,” she said. “But I wanted the Grinch in my story to be more surrounded by the book, as opposed to the movie.” The cast was finalized in October, and according to Burton, the actors have been hard at work rehearsing since Nov. 24. The rehearsals would have started earlier, Burton said, but she didn't want to overlap the preparations with the rehearsal schedule for The Laramie Project, which she added some of the cast and crew were also involved with. “It’s been a little bit of pressure, but all the actors are doing great – it’s been a lot of fun, and it’s been awesome having youth actors in an NCP show for the first time,” Burton said. Performances will be held at the Airdrie Town and Country Centre, at 6 p.m. Dec. 21 and 1 p.m., 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. Dec. 22. Tickets for How Cindy Lou Saved Christmas are $10 plus tax, and can be purchased at nosecreekplayers.com

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