Who: Elk Rapids Players
What: 'The Best Christmas Pageant Ever,' by Barbara Robinson
When: Dec. 5 - 14
Where: Historic Elk Rapids Town Hall
Tickets and more info.
The play is based on a 1972 children's book by Barbara Robinson, in which a family of infamously troublesome kids joins the cast of a church Christmas pageant, injecting some chaos into the usually polite performance.
For example, the youngest child is cast as the angel who announces the birth of Jesus, which she does by shouting "SHAZAM!"
The performances come just months after a community group purchased the Historic Elk Rapids Town Hall, where the play will be performed. The purchase ensures the building's continued use by the theater group.
The sturdy yellow-brick building has stood in the middle of downtown Elk Rapids since 1883. But it had an uncertain future and became the subject of several rounds of public debate before local officials agreed to sell it to the Historic Elk Rapids Town Hall Association.
Rob Ford is on the association's board — and in the play, which opens Friday — and he talked to IPR about the show and his hopes for the town hall's future as a centerpiece of community life.
"This is the one building that ties us to the roots of our town," he said. "It has seen us boom and bust, boom and bust, over and over. Seen the world come and go. Elk Rapids (was) a booming lumber town, then it was an iron producing town, and now all of a sudden it's a retirement/resort community. Through it all, this hall has seen all that, and it is the one gathering spot to get together and tell a story — get together and lose yourself in community."
Hear Rob Ford's conversation with IPR using the audio player above.
