Santa’s Christmas Magic is an annual Christmas musical performed in early December featuring over 100 actors and actresses from all ages and backgrounds. The musical has been performed for over two decades, making it a San Jac holiday staple. Santa’s Christmas Magic will premiere on December 5-8 and December 12-15 at 7:30 PM at San Jac’s Central campus Powell Arena Theater.
“I just wanted to add a little bit more tradition to the department,” says Dr. Jerry Ivins, Artistic Director of Theater and Film.
Prior to the production of the play, the San Jac Theater Department didn’t have an annual Holiday play, and he wanted to change that.
The story of Santa’s Christmas Magic is light-hearted and simple. The villains of the story wants to stop Christmas, but they realize that Santa has Christmas magic. When the villains steal the Christmas magic, the toys and elves come alive and find clues to determine who stole the magic. “It’s kind of a who-done-it kind of thing.” Says Ivin.
Ivins recalled the moment he realized the Theater department had to write their own original play. He previously told his students, “Listen, we either break the tradition and don’t do a Christmas show or we write our own, and that’s what we did. We did Santa Claus vs. The Grinch and that’s how it evolved. Written by us, that’s what makes it special. ” says Ivins.
Ivins shared the unique story of how the original poster for the play came about.
“If you look at the poster for the Christmas play, there is a little girl, and she’s got a binky in her mouth. I could tell you that’s my 21-year-old,” says Ivins.
Ivins has three daughters who have all once participated in the play.
Yes, it’s our script but it’s also a show that my entire family has done. My wife has been in it, my children have been in it, and I’ve been in it,” says Ivins.
Participating in the same production as his family members gives Ivins that “special feel” when it comes to the play.
As for the popularity of the play, dozens of families come from different parts of the Houston area to watch the play.
“We have folks that travel 50-60 miles a year to come see this because we’ve been doing it so long and it’s become a family tradition of theirs to come see the play,” says Ivins.
A production as big as Santa’s Christmas Magic requires an additional team of staff members to ensure that the process of production runs smoothly. This team is known as the Artistic team. They are responsible for the show’s choreography, background music, and costume/set design. “They are an entire team of staff and faculty that work on all the productions,” says Ivins.
Working with performers from different age groups needs preparation and organization.
“It’s an awful lot of work and it takes a lot of focus. Jessica McCarol is the co-director for this play and when we bring in 50-70 children for the elf chorus, we stop focusing on the adults and we start focusing on the kids and we divide the responsibilities,” says Ivins
Having little to no performance experience is no worry for someone like Dr. Ivins.
“We have parts for people that have never been on stage before up to people who have been on stage all their life.” Ivin’s advice for an aspiring actor/actress is “To pick a show like this one so that you could just see what it’s like to be in a show. You could just get your feet wet so to speak and then just build up different shows after that.”
Actors and actresses from all different backgrounds are encouraged to attend the auditions. As stated on the San Jac Calendar.
For more information regarding ticket prices, call (281) 476-1828.
