‘Twas three weeks before Christmas, when all of the theater performed,

A winter storytelling show, that left our hearts warmed!

I joined the Facebook live to take part in the holiday performance theater put together for the school and was greeted with festive holiday music and the Castaic Coyote Theatre Company smiling at me from their zoom squares. Mrs. Mistry, the Castaic theater teacher, welcomes us, adorning a holiday hat—elf ears included. Her kids are snuggled in the background, waiting for the show, just like all of us at home. 

The first story was student-written for an audience of kindergarten to first graders, called The Mittens. The story was simple and entertaining, full of impromptu fun. From the cute animals scurrying throughout to the zoom-forests to creatively involving the audience towards the end. A special shout-out must be made for the impressive beginning of the performance: a seamless interaction through the zoom platform of the main character and her grandmother (stay tuned for the last show to see another remarkable grandparent performance). 

The next performance of a student-written story called The Snowy Day featured a beautiful animation of a novel and SNOW! It was of course animated because we do live in the Santa Clarita Valley (although I didn’t realize it was animated for a while…). Ultimately, the snow greatly contributed to the winter vibes, paired with the theatrical voice-over. The story also includes a strong lead character and an insanely enjoyable snowball fight. 

Hortense and the Shadow is the third performance, directed at an older audience of 3rd to 4th graders. The story had a classic introduction in a vintage font and even a credit sequence! Additionally, this production leveled the snow game up with some actual snow footage! The performance included some clever shadow puppeteering and a rhyme at the end! (Which definitely was superior to my introduction of this article.)

Lastly, a classic tale was performed: The Polar Express. This production started out strong with terrific acting, inter-zoom interactions, and another 11/10 grandparent performance (the classic grandpa chair also made it 5X better). This story was longer, including a memory sequence with exceptional transition music, more talented voice-overs from Grandpa, a fantastic lead, and more amazing snow! I was nearly transported into the snowy wonderland of the show which featured top-notch wintery landscape and elf housing. Despite my COVID reflexes acting up when the same *unsanitized* silver bell was passed from hand to hand—it was another amazing performance and a fabulous way to end the night.

And if you missed this wonderful winter affair-
(which would have been such a nightmare!)
Go check out their Facebook-@castaiccoyotetheater-now!

Because you can still watch the show, for as long as they allow.

(No seriously, their wonderful performance is still on their Facebook page—go check it out!) 

And follow @castaic_coyote_theater on Instagram, to never again miss a phenomenal theatre program!