After a brief hiatus, Plateau Community Players are center stage again.
Not only is the Plateau-based community theater group sprucing up its home in the Osceola Community Club, but its hosting auditions for a December production of “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.
“Plateau Community Players’ Dennis Riley and Stephanie Leeper said the group has been laying low for the past few years, but recently met to breathe life into its dormancy.
A rush of activity has been centered on fixing up the historical Osceola Community Club, where it meets. The nonprofit group is working with community volunteers to bring it up to a standard where the club can rent it for community events and meetings.
Riley said he’s looking and accepting help from anyone. There’s plenty that needs to be done including painting, plumbing and more.
With its historical background, the group is hoping for grant money down the road, but right now it’s all gratis.
To help, Plateau Community Players decided to do what it does best – put on a show.”We haven’t done a show in a long time,” said Riley, noting “I Hate Hamlet” in 2008, but also recalling bigger past productions like “The Unsinkable Molly Brown” and “Brigadoon.”
The group went back to its roots for this fundraising event, a holiday classic it brought to the stage in the past.
“The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” is a one-hour, kid-friendly show scheduled to open at 7 p.m. Dec. 2 at the White River High School theater. There will be additional shows at 1, 3:30 and 7 p.m. Dec. 3. Tickets are $5.
The play is about the Herdmans, the worst kids in the history of the world. A group that lies, steals, smoke cigars, swear, hit little kids and invades church one Sunday and decides to take over the annual Christmas pageant. The Herdmans have never heard the Christmas story and their interpretation has a lot of people up in arms, but in the end the Christmas message is clear.
“It tells the whole meaning of Christmas,” Riley said.It also uses the talents of many children. The cast calls for eight boys and nine girls between the ages of 5 and 14. There’s also a call for four adult males and six adult females.
Auditions are scheduled for 7 to 9 p.m. Sept. 30 and 2 to 4 p.m. Oct. 1 at the Osceola Community Club, 45623 220th Ave. S.E., Enumclaw.
Those trying out should come prepared to read from the script and “be prepared to have fun at the auditions,” Leeper said.
Rehearsals are expected to run from 7 to 9 p.m. three days a week at the Osceola Community Club for five weeks beginning in October and running through November.
For information or to help with renovation work, e-mail plateaucommunityplayers@hotmail.com or call Riley at 360-907-0465.
