Army of volunteers toil over production of “White Christmas”

Late nights, little sleep, and long rehearsals. As the new White Christmas play production nears students and other contributors spend many long hours after school preparing for the performance.

If you want to see the final production for yourself, White Christmas will be showing on Dec. 1-3 and 15-17 in the evenings at 7:30, and Saturday matinees at 2 p.m. Tickets are available at the PAC box office or www.numericapac.org. Adults are $16, students and veterans $10, and senior citizens are $13.

Backstage is where the majority of the behind-the-scenes work goes on. Prop builders, stage managers, and costume makers run around to make sure everything is in its place and perfect for the actors so that they can perform efficiently.

“At the beginning of the play we go through measuring all of the kids, and then we’re pulling costumes from the upper costume closet, and we’re ordering costumes online. The closer to the play then we’re fitting for them,” costume maker Kristy Claire said of the long process of preparing for a play.

Students and parents are rehearsing from 3 to 11:30 p.m.

For Clare, helping out with each play is her second job, but the experience and bonds she makes during the process make up for the amount of devotion that has to be put into the production.

“I love interacting with the kids and putting stuff together,” Claire says, “[I love] getting to know all the kids and watching them progress. Even from freshman up to senior year.”