Christmas Concert (2015)

The big night is finally here.  It's show time!  The students and teachers of Inuujaq School are ready to present their Christmas acts to the people of Arctic Bay.  From what I witnessed at the dress rehearsal, the community is in for a treat.  Everyone is fully rested, excited, and a little nervous.  But I'm willing to bet that I'm the most nervous because I'm the stage director.  I don't like it when Murphy's Law - "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong." - shows up when I'm in charge.  Hopefully, he won't make it into the community hall during the concert.

            

The morning and afternoon of December 17th was a regular school day.  Some classes made last minute changes to their performance pieces.  The bilingual concert programs were printed in colour and folded by high school students.  I checked with Ryan (media teacher) if we had enough pictures for the slideshow.  We put together a collection of school pictures that would be displayed in between performances to keep the audience occupied.

            

The school and most of the town assembled inside the community hall for the evening concert.  It was easy to spot the teachers and students because they were wearing formal clothing.  I spoke with my two high school emcees after I helped Ryan set up the slideshow to the left of the stage.  I gave my emcees one last motivational talk before sending them out with two microphones.

            

Inuujaq School's 2015 Christmas Concert began.

            

High School Emcees

The kindergarteners had the honour of opening the concert with the singing of the classic tune, "Little Drummer Boy".  The children in the front row all had small drums to play on.  The Grade 1 class recreated the nativity scene from the Bible.  The Grade 2 class performed a square dance number that got the audience clapping & tapping along.  The Grade 3 class did a drama skit titled, "Away in the Manger."  The Grade 4 students were the second class to perform a dance routine.  The routine had them dancing to a compilation of songs while wearing various costumes, and acting with various props. 

            

Grade 7s.

Grade 8s.

The Grade 5 students did a drama about a doctor visiting Arctic Bay on Christmas and curing sicknesses.  The Grade 6 class put on a Christmas themed talent show titled, "Do You Think You Can Dance." (The skit is a parody of the popular tv show So You Think You Can Dance).  I was recruited by Greg, the Grade 6 teacher, to introduce the skit with a drum roll.  The Grade 7s did a radio show and the Grade 8s did a drama titled, "From Christmas Eve to Christmas Day."  The play was divided into three scenes: 1) Elves wrapping gifts; 2) Santa Claus & his reindeer delivering the gifts; 3) Kids waking up to delivered gifts.    

            

Grade 9s

Grade 9 Rappers.

Well, this is the moment you've been waiting for.  In my previous post, I wrote about the Grade 9 class setting up a large yoga ball on stage for their act, but neglected to tell you why.  Well, now is the time.  The class wrote & performed a parody of Miley Cyrus's song, "Wrecking Ball", titled, "(I Came In Like A) Santa Claus".  In the "Wrecking Ball" music video, there are numerous shots of Miley Cyrus sitting on a large wrecking ball.  While the Grade 9s sang the chorus, a student fully dressed as Santa Claus sat on the large yoga ball and swung from one side of the stage to other.  The performance and spectacle was very well done and warmly received by the audience.

            

My drummers and I had set up our drums several acts before ours in order to save time.  The other reason was we didn't want to miss the Grade 9 performance.  We carried our drums, music stands, and sheet music onto the stage while the emcees kept the audience entertained.  We all wore matching red hats, and drumstick pins I bought online.  My mother bought the red hats down south and sent them up via First Air Cargo.  When everyone was in position, I signaled the emcees that the 2015 Drum Line was ready.  The curtains were drawn open.  I looked past the excited faces and camera flashes, raised my sticks, and clicked them four times.  We began our act with a bang.

            

2015 Inuujaq School Drum Line

We played four pieces: UCLA Run On, Sick!, Bumper, and the Drumline Ending I wrote based on the ending credit music from the movie Drumline.  The audience liked each of the pieces that we played.  I'll admit we made several mistakes but we followed golden rule: keep going.  The original plan was to conclude with two of my snare drummers performing their own solos, but the audience demanded more.  I stepped up to my snare drum and made up a short solo on the spot.  My bass drummer followed suit with a solo of his own.  My male quad player was the last one to play a solo.  I shook the hands of all of my drummers after the curtains closed.

            

The high school cultural class put on a fashion show by wearing a variety of humourous outfits made out of newspapers.  The participants had to walk off stage and down the middle aisle of chairs because we didn't have an elevated walkway.

            

The last act of the concert involved the Inuujaq School staff.  The staff made posters in English & Inuktitut describing what Christmas means to them.  They presented theses posters in pairs while Greg sang the song "Hallelujah".  I provided the piano accompaniment.  Greg & I had originally planned to perform as a separate act but decided to combine ours with the staff performance.  I have to admit that the performance went better than expected.  We managed to get the entire community hall to sing along during the chorus.             

            

When the curtains closed for the final time, I felt like a huge weight had been lifted off of my shoulders.  The concert was a success.  A lot of the stress that I had been feeling throughout the week was gone.  There was still carolling the next morning but that would be "a walk in the park".  I slept very well that night.        

            

Unfortunately, my duties as stage director prevented me from taking pictures and videos.  Thankfully, I was able to acquire photos from Ryan.