FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Beloved Children’s Classic MADELINE’S CHRISTMAS to Open at GCT!

Allie Smith as Madeline and Diane Kirk as Miss Clavel

Germantown Community Theatre is proud to present the regional premiere of the lovely holiday musical Madeline’s Christmas this holiday season. 

When: Performances will run November 30 – December 23, with Thursday through Saturday performances at 8pm and Sunday matinees at 2:30pm. 

Weekday Matinees: By special arrangement, schools and groups can see the show at 11am on weekdays.  Interested teachers and group leaders should call for information.

Where: Performances take place at GCT, 3037 Forest Hill-Irene, in Germantown, TN, 38138. 

Tickets: Tickets are $15 Students/Seniors and $20 Adults. For tickets, call 901-754-2680. 

Free Food: A reception will be held after the show on opening night, and a “tailgate party” will occur before the first Sunday performance, in this case December 2, at 1:30pm.

Our Sponsors: Madeline’s Christmas has been generously sponsored by Target and by the Germantown Community Theatre Guild.

The Story

Everyone familiar with the beloved Madeline books knows that “in an old house in Paris that was covered with vines lived twelve little girls in two straight lines…” the smallest of which is young Madeline – whose resourcefulness and love of adventure gets her into (and out of) lots of scrapes.  In Madeline’s Christmas, a fun-filled winter trip to the zoo leaves all the girls of the school ill, except for Madeline who had the sense to wear her scarf into the cold.  Even Miss Clavel get sick, so its up to Madeline to take care of everyone in the old house.  An unexpected guest arrives:  Harsha the magician.  He sells Madeline special carpets so that the girls of the school will have something warm for their feet in the mornings, but there may be something extra in these carpets – a little magic!

Two Productions, Two Directors

GCT is thrilled to welcome to new directors into its creative fold:  Irene Crist and Megan Marcellini.

Ms. Crist, director of our evening production, has just finished three years as a resident company member of Playhouse on the Square. She is the recipient of several Memphis Theatre Awards. Irene was also the Assistant Director of the Playhouse Theatre for Youth and administered the Summer Youth Conservatory for children and teens and the theatre classes for youth and adults. She currently teaches in the Playhouse on the Square education program. Her recent roles include Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Nat in Rabbit Hole; Nancy in Frozen and Alice in Retreat from Moscow at Circuit Theatre, Memphis; Jeanette in The Full Monty, Big Mama in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and Golde in Fiddler on the Roof at Playhouse on the Square in Memphis; and Eleanor in Lion in Winter at Theatre Memphis.

Ms. Marcellini, director of our daytime production, received her BFA in Theatre Performance from the University of Memphis and her Masters from Northern Michigan University.   She has directed numerous plays including Picasso at the Lapin Agile, The Compleat Works of Wllm Shkspr (abridged), Ebenezer Scrooge, You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown!, The Crucible, Women and Wallace, and Winnie the Pooh .  She is the author of Bravery and Brotherhood, Folktales from Around the World, a collection of short plays adapted from folktales, and Hope, which was a finalist in the National Ten-Minute Play Contest at the Actors Theatre of Louisville.  She currently is the Administrative Director of the Germantown Arts Alliance and the Program Coordinator for REACH, an enrichment program focusing on the arts for elementary students.

Cast and Crew

Our daytime production features Allie Smith as Madeline, Diane Kirk as Miss Clavel, BC Jennings as Monsieur Brun and Harsha, Julie Ziegenhorn as Mrs. Murphy, and Mary Catherine Loftis, Betsy McKinley, Sarah Walton, Rebekah Cisney, Hannah Smith, Faith Cisney, Abby Davis, Emily Cost, Courtney Ziegenhorn, Ashley Lindsey, Elizabeth Kirk as Madeline’s schoolmates and Christopher Loftis as the Mouse.

Our evening performance features Chandler Keen as Madeline, Julie Reinbold as Miss Clavel, James Lukawitz as Mounsieur Brun and Harsha, Carol Wolder as Mrs. Murphy, Emily Bennet, Alaina Brommer, Casey Greer, Anna Carroll Horton, Lacey Jones, Sarah Grace Ketler, Rebekah Mathews, Mollye McDaniel, Riley Smith, Madison Snipes and Amelia Sutherland as Madeline’s schoolmates and Paige Robbins Hollenbeck as the Mouse.

Miriam Patterson Smith is stage manager for our daytime production, while Lori Miller makes her stage management debut for the evening productions.  Both productions share the following crew:  David Shipley is music director, Robin Owens is costume designer, Bo List is set designer, Mike Hanrahan is lighting designer, Eric Sefton is sound designer and Betty Dilley is properties designer.