By Jessica Dillon
ILLUMINATE: A Christmas Revue in Lights lit up the stage on Dec. 12 and 13 as a holiday celebration presented by the Martinsville City Public Schools Performing Arts Academy.
The original production brought together students’ talents in music, dance and theater, sharing the magic and meaning of Christmas through performance. Students from second through 12th grade participated in the show.
Several cast members shared their favorite songs from the production.
“We have, like, The Polar Express, we have Santa Baby, Baby, It’s Cold Outside. Jesus Is the Reason, we have Mr. Grinch,” said Matthew Spencer, adding that “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” was the cast’s favorite.
Thirteen-year-old Hailey Coleman said her favorite song was Underneath the Christmas Tree by Kelly Clarkson.
“My favorite song is Underneath the Christmas Tree by Kelly Clarkson, because it has a really good vibe and it, like, it shows, kind of shows that Christmas has more than one meaning,” she said. “Like you have you can get presents and you can get toys, but the true meaning is having the close loved ones around you.”
Joslin Coleman echoed that sentiment, citing All I Want for Christmas as her favorite.
“It shows that you don’t always need presents for Christmas. Sometimes you can have your family around. It’s okay to have presents, but, like, you can’t always want it because you also need your family,” she said.
Seven-year-old Joah Cosby said his favorite song was Jesus Is the Reason, “because it has so much potential in it, and it brings all the joy to people,” he said.
High school senior Caesar Draper said he contributed behind the scenes as well as on stage.
“I also help with building props and technical crew,” Draper said. “Okay, so the show eliminates a Christmas review, and lights are sort of similar to our other Miss Corey view we did with. Elevate is just this time split with Christmas music, but also when we elevate the show is to tell everybody else that we’re elevated. So, you will see more things coming to the stage that you haven’t seen before. And it’s just basically a lot of holly jolly Christmas fun.”
Senior Kaira Womack said working with students of many different ages was both a responsibility and a rewarding experience.
“I’m going to say it’s challenging in some sort of way only because, um, you know everybody’s younger than you,” she said. “So, it’s kind of you have to help them in a way that they understand in order for them to get what they need to get done, but other than that, it’s not challenging at all because we all see each other as equals and we love everyone here.”
Senior Kamori Dillard highlighted the inclusion of younger performers.
“For the first time, we accepted second graders into our program, and they’ve been working really, really hard,” Dillard said.
High school student Lily Rorrer said mentoring younger students was one of her favorite parts of the experience.
“I’d say taking care of the kids and kind of helping them out,” she said. “A lot of people have a lot of different thoughts and a lot of opinions. So, it’s very creative to me to kind of direct them in a certain way to where they can be creative as well.”
