The winter season approaching marks the start of holiday performances. Including “The Nutcracker” by the Kansas City Ballet and movie showings of “Elf” at Union Station, many are either participating in or watching these beloved productions. This holds true for sophomore Amelia Hooper, who was a part of “A Christmas Story” Nov. 9-12.
“The musical ‘A Christmas Story’ is based on the movie, and in both, [main character] Ralphie Parker finds a Christmas gift he absolutely needs — a Red Ryder BB gun,” Hooper said. “He devises many plans to get his parents to notice his longing for the gift and to convince them to get him the BB gun.”
Hooper was tasked with the role of “Mother,” Ralphie’s mom, placing her as the female lead of the show. She auditioned for this role in early August by preparing a one-minute cut of a song and got a callback for the role. Not feeling 100% about it, Hooper affirmed that the worst part of auditions is waiting for the cast list to be posted.
“There are so many emotions going on because you just put your heart into doing the best acting, singing and dancing you can, and you don’t know what anyone thought about it,” Hooper said. “[When] the cast list came out and I saw that I got ‘Mother,’ I was excited to get a lead but also a little scared. It took me a few weeks to start to open up and try new decisions with my acting and singing.”
Although afraid of starring in such a huge part, the numerous rehearsals helped Hooper settle into her role.
“We started rehearsing on Aug. 29, and we rehearsed for about 12 weeks every Tuesday and Friday,” she said. “We would work on songs and dances and [then] run scenes that only the Parker family were in while the kids’ ensemble learned choreography. Later in rehearsals, we would run the show and the directors would give us notes about what they liked and what we could improve on”
Receiving a lot of support from the people at First Act Theatre Arts, the company producing this show, the performance brought a lot of good experiences for Hooper.
“‘A Christmas Story’ was a really special show to me because the entire directing team was so supportive, and our music director was so kind,” Hooper said. “She helped restore my confidence in myself and my voice and the directing team really helped me grow as a person throughout those 12 weeks.”
However, with the already busy schedule of “A Christmas Story,” Hooper had to also rehearse for the BV musical, “Newsies.”
“The only disadvantage [of being in] the show was trying to juggle two shows at once and also doing school work,” she said. “My life was insane because I would run straight from ‘Newsies’ rehearsal to ‘A Christmas Story’ rehearsal, so I would sometimes rehearse from 3-9 on Fridays. I managed to figure it out and stay on top of both shows — it just took a bunch of energy and focus at rehearsals for each show.”
Despite this, Hooper doesn’t regret being a part of “A Christmas Story,” as she asserts that her passion and love for musical theatre made her know she wanted to be a part of the production.
“The performances went super well, and it was such a great opportunity to have that I’m very grateful for — there is just something really special about theatre in the sense that you get to tell a story to people that impacts them,” Hooper said. “It was a really amazing show to be a part of, and I met so many people who are just so great and supportive of one another — it truly is a family at First Act.”
