Shows for holidays include 'Hansel,' 'Pageant,' 'Hillbilly'

We are now officially in the sentimental holiday season: gifts to give and get; plays to go and see.

"Hansel and Gretel," Engelbert Humperdinck's classic children's opera, opens Friday night at the Lee Burrows Center for the Arts in Marysville and plays there through Nov. 16.

Friday and Saturday shows are at 7:30 p.m. and the two Sunday matinee performances — make a note of this — are at 3 p.m. rather than at the usual 2 p.m.

Attendees will find some improvements in the facility, and some smoothing out of production gimmicks.

Venetian blinds have been added to the high windows at the center, located on the corner of E and Seventh streets, which should make day time performances even better.

Also, at a sneak visit to a rehearsal, it was clear that lighting and effects man Joseph P. Stottmann has produced some interesting wrinkles in the show.

This "Hansel and Gretel" is a Borgamaria Lyric Opera Company production directed by Joaquina Calvo Johnson. It stars Wendy Cooper as Hansel and Kelly Barber Cunningham as Gretel.

Other leading singers in the show include Brant Bordsen as the father, Helen Jackson as the mother and Karen Trefzger as the witch.

Some 20 kids from the Yuba Sutter Youth Chorus ranging from 6 years old and upward play the gingerbread children.

Tickets are $25 for general admission, $20 for seniors, $15 for students and $10 for children under 12. There is a special $75 ticket package available for families with three or more children.

Borgamaria productions are always well done, immensely popular and frequently sold out — or nearly so.

Your best bet is to get your tickets early. They can be purchased at Amicus Books in Marysville, or at the Yuba City Florist, or at the Yuba-Sutter Regional Arts Council, also located at E and Seventh streets.

A family-oriented feature, "Best Christmas Pageant Ever," opens Dec. 5 at The Acting Company on B Street in Yuba City.

Brian Aronson and Debbie Coulter are the directors.

This perennial favorite about a church play focuses on — and I quote from the Web site posting — the "poorly-behaved children of the Herdman family."

Having seen this play several times, I think "snotty, obnoxious kids" would be a serviceable alternative description of some of the parts written into this play by Barbara Robertson.

Among other things, the children, all of them good at heart, learn the "true meaning of Christmas through participation in a church play about the birth of Jesus."

The 35-member cast is huge, so I can't list them all, but one you might watch for is Yuba County Superior Court Judge Debra Givens, who plays Mrs. Clark.

We're talking celebrity here. This would be like U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg playing Mrs. Claus in a school play — relatively speaking, that is.

Other actors of note in the play include: Christine Louk, Tad Crother, Elias Saracco, Kathleen Hansen, Stephanie Balmer, Chris Collier and Peggy Scarfe.

"Best Christmas Pageant Ever" plays Dec. 5 through Dec. 21, with shows at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and matinees at 2 p.m. Sundays.

Tickets are $15 and are available online or at the TAC box office at 815 B Street, Yuba City.

Another intriguing entry in the upcoming holiday shows group is the Magic Theater Productions offering of "A Hillbilly Christmas Carol," which opens Dec. 11 and closes Dec. 20 at The Acting Company.

This is another venture by the prolific director John Trent, who is fast earning a reputation as Yuba-Sutter's "impresario of children's theater."

"A Hillbilly Christmas Carol" is described as an offbeat look at Christmas Eve in the Ozarks, a beautiful section of southern Missouri and northern Arkansas, unfairly noted for its poverty, illiteracy and corncob pipes.

The plotline has it that "Widow Hinckley is closing in on Joshua, a lazy, bad-tempered mountaineer. She brings him a bedraggled Christmas tree in hopes of softening him up, but Joshua hates Christmas."

Those who know Joshua liken him to Dickens' Scrooge character, "so they prepare a mountaineer version of 'The Christmas Carol,' and Joshua sees the Ozark Christmas past, present and future."

Tickets are an affordable $5 at the door, and can be reserved by calling 751-1100.

There are special Thursday evening performances at 7 p.m., Dec. 11 and Dec. 18. Other performances are at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. Saturdays.