Kids to star in holiday shows

Intro to Broadway Musicals students to perform Monday night

STEVE ANDRASCIK/VIEWJenny Yokobori, left, and Adam Crist rehearse "A Charlie Brown Christmas" on Nov. 12 at the Black Mountain Recreation Center, 599 Greenway Road. Advertisement

Christmas is coming a little early in Henderson this year.

"A Charlie Brown Christmas" and "The Night Before Christmas" will come to life during a holiday performance presented by the Intro to Broadway Musicals students at the Black Mountain Recreation Center.

Seasoned Broadway professionals Susan and Christopher Swanson are working with kids who are as young as 5 years old.

"You've got to start with them young," Susan Swanson said. "They are so used to television and video games, it takes a lot to wake them up."

The younger children, ages 5 to 9, will open the show with "The Night Before Christmas," and kids ages 10 and older will perform "A Charlie Brown Christmas."

"Theater gets the kids off the streets and not sitting in front of the TV," Christopher Swanson said. "It gives them something else to do."

Christopher Swanson said the children don't realize how much they achieve over the 12 weeks they are rehearsing.

The course offered by the city gives kids a chance to learn to sing, dance and act.

"We don't let them know how difficult some of the stuff they do is," Christopher Swanson said. "We just let it come. And at the end, they're singing and dancing."

Susan Swanson began working with the children's theater group a year ago, and many of the kids are back from past performances. There were about 100 children in the performance of "High School Musical" last year, and more than 60 will star in the two Christmas shows.

This isn't the first time in front of an audience for most of the children appearing in the Christmas shows.

"I've been singing and dancing my whole life," said Maxine Nathan, 12, the narrator for "A Charlie Brown Christmas." "It's a great hobby."

Some of them feel more comfortable on stage than off.

"I love the whole thing about theater," said Jenny Yokobori, 10, who will play Lucy. "I get such a rush when I'm on stage. It feels like I'm home."

The children said they have been watching the Charlie Brown cartoons to prepare. Adam Krist, 9, who will play Snoopy, said he doesn't have a lot of lines, but he definitely barks a lot.

The performances will be held at 7 p.m. Monday at Black Mountain Recreation Center, 599 Greenway Road. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. for the free event.

A winter session will be announced in mid-January in the Henderson Happenings brochure. Children ages 5 and older can participate in the 12-week Intro to Broadway Musicals course and performance. Classes are an hour and a half each week and cost $120 for the entire course.