The Meaning of the Star is the 2012 Prairie Arts Council Children’s Christmas Musical. This year’s show, written, as has been PAC custom for the past nine years, by local playwright Rachel Gorenz, is a delightful story of a family of chil-dren who complain about their grandfather coming for Christmas because he never plays with them or pays attention to them. The oldest child remem-bers how much their grandmother loved Christmas and how she made snow angels with her and made their time together at Christmas ex-tra special. Their grandfather overhears the children complaining, and the chil-dren are in big trouble with their mother.
Enter three mischievous elves who have been exiled from the North Pole for various offenses and have to do a good deed to regain admittance to the Pole. Follow their madcap adventures as they whisk the children back in time to the Christmas pageant in the 1940s where their grandparents fell in love. See how the elves and the children help their grandparents to find each other, almost ruin everything, and, in the end, save the pageant, their grandparents’ relationship, and their chances of returning home. Armed with information about their grandparents as young people, the chil-dren are able to unlock the love within their grandfather and help him to see how their grandmother’s spirit lives on to make Christmas extra special always.
Some of the songs featured in the show are “Boogie Woogie Santa,” “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing,” “Up on the Housetop,” and “Little Saint Nick.”
The Meaning of the Star debuted on the PAC stage in 2006 with two casts totaling over 60 young actors. Siblings of some of the actors who created the original roles in The Meaning of the Star in 2006 are performing in this year’s production, creating a new layer of Christmas memories for their families.
The cast includes Courtney Cook as Mom, Grace Wol-brecht as Haley, Cameron Tieman as Brandon, Mia Bowen as Molly, Vicki Tieman as Audrey, Doran Cotter as Grandpa/James Callahan, Maggie Daluga as Nikki, Kimmie Glenn as Christy, Sabrina Bickett as Frank, Myla McCune as 1940s Mom Rose Bennett, Emma Roden as Susan, Sa-vanna Birkey as Beverly, Niklas Schneider as Robbie, Mar-garet Moore as Shirley, Tori Pellegrini as Linda, Courtney Pointer as Betty, Fox Webber as Mr. Clark, Myah Headley as the Grand High Elf, Olivia Eiken as Alice, Isabelle Ger-ber as Eleanor, Sophia Pellegrini as Dolores, and Rachel Cook as a 1940s child.
David and Rachel Gorenz serve as directors, and Theresa Cotter is producer. Barry Maywood is handling set design and artwork.