With the holidays fast approaching, Winthrop High School has embraced its festivity. The Friday before break is always a very special day for staff and students alike; the winner of the annual door decorating contest is revealed and who can forget the special edition of Wake Up Winthrop that will last the final half hour of the day. The other component of the day before break is none other than Winthrop High’s very own Holiday Show!

The Holiday Show is an age old tradition at WHS as it spreads holiday cheer to the entire building. The show is a collaborative effort with students from Mrs. Calinda’s Advanced Drama Class, Mr. Donnelly’s Digital Media 2 and 3 class, Mr. Cross’ Life Skills class as well as the  students from the Little Vikings Preschool. Each installment of the Holiday Show is truly a very special and unique experience for all those involved and this year has been no different.

The Holiday Show this year is meant to feel as though it is an episode of Saturday Night Live. The famous sketch comedy show has been re-named Holiday Night Live for this performance as it promises to be an extremely memorable holiday event. As a student directly involved within this production, I can ensure that this will be one of the most captivating Holiday Shows to date. The SNL (or HNL) format has allowed for much creativity when it came to the creation of the show.  The show will feature SNL staples such as Weekend Update, an opening monologue from an esteemed host and a truly legendary musical guest. WHS will have our very own Staff Infection headlining as the musical guest for this episode of HNL!

Senior Class President Amelia Spencer will be this week’s host for Holiday Night Live, ensuring that the student body will truly be in for a very special show. When asked what the most rewarding aspect of working on the show was, Amelia said “The most rewarding aspect of working on the Holiday Show is creating a sense of holiday spirit! Whether you celebrate Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, or whatever it may be, the performances are very diverse and appeal to  people of all beliefs. I know that before I was a performer I looked forward to the show because I liked to see how the drama program interpreted the holiday spirit with Winthrop as a collaboration in small , unique ways. Every year they do an amazing job and I am fortunate enough to be able to help and contribute in the ways I have and am this year!” 

I then went on to talk to James Stangle and Ash Kowalczuk about their involvement in the show as members of the Advanced Drama Class.  They both have worked very hard to help produce the show you will see on Friday the 20th. From writing scripts and brainstorming ideas to building sets and constructing costumes, these two have been very dedicated to making the Holiday Show the best show it could be.  When asked about his involvement in organizing and designing the technical elements of the show, James said, “The technical components of this show (though seemingly simple,) take a lot of time and effort to organize. There are four individual scenes each with their own setting, characters, and plot. For this show, the biggest challenge has been creating a mountain for the characters to climb up and down. However, with a little creative ingenuity and dedication, it’s nothing that can’t be done.” Ash went on to tell me how excited the student body will be to see the Reindeer Murdeer Mystery sketch, saying “In my opinion, I believe that the Reindeer Murdeer Mystery is the stand-out skit of the show. It involves a group of Santa’s famous reindeer as they try to solve the mystery of who killed their “beloved” coworker Rudolph. The sketch is very comedic. I have a role in this sketch as well and I just love my character. Now I won’t spoil anything, but pay close attention to how my character acts throughout the skit.” Having worked alongside James and Ash on this production for the past month, I can honestly say that it truly is one of the most collaborative shows I have ever participated in.  We have a limited amount of time to get the show on its feet, which requires so much time, energy and effort from all involved. The limited time frame for the show genuinely makes it that more special to see it all come together. 

Finally, I caught up with juniors Avery Shea and Ayanah Piris about what it has been like to produce the videos of the Holiday Show.  The Holiday Show is genuinely a multimedia production as the videos are truly an instrumental part of the performance. It feels like an extremely natural bridge between the stage and screen this year as the videos serve as the commercial breaks during the episode of HNL.  Dig-Vid always produces the best videos for the holiday show with recent fan favorites including Teachers Reading Mean Tweets, Club Bathroom and the traditional movie trailer packed with WHS references. When asked how these videos differ from creating regular Wake Up Winthrop content, Avery said, “For me personally, I feel that there is a lot more to be done during the Holiday show compared to Wake-Up Winthrop because we all have so many projects that we want to work on and put  our best effort on.” I then sat down with Ayanah who talked me through the timeline of the iconic videos of the Holiday Show. She told me “For the video I have been working on, coming up with the script took around three classes. We brainstormed what genre we wanted and got inspiration from popular networks. Filming took a couple of classes to make sure the video came out right.” Personally, I’m so excited to see this year’s batch of videos and am 100% certain that once again, the Dig-Vid students have knocked it out of the park. 

As a first-time participant in the holiday show, it genuinely has been so rewarding to work on. Seeing everything come together so flawlessly has been a joy to watch and I can’t wait to share this production with the school on Friday, December 2oth! It really takes a village to produce this show and I genuinely believe that everyone who attends will have a great time. A special shoutout to all of the students and teachers who have participated in the Holiday Show in any capacity.  I cannot wait to celebrate the holidays with all of you as we give you this very special episode of Holiday Night Live!