Christmas on Christmas Island
Ocracoke School kids gave their gift to the community with their annual Christmas program Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the school gym.
This year’s theme is a history of Ocracoke Christmases, from the days of Blackbeard the Pirate right up through modern times
Courtney Connor-Gardini came to Ocracoke last week to direct the program, which she also wrote, with some assistance from Ocracoke School’s art teacher, Kitty Mitchell.
Courtney lives in New York City, where she teaches ballet, gymnastics, and pilates. She also performs and does costume work, recently dancing in a children’s ballet as Angelina Ballerina. She and her husband, Marco, own a home on Ocracoke, and love to visit. Courtney has been a guest artist for Ocracoke School’s Arts Weeek in the spring and has been here before to direct the Christmas program. She was also Ocracoke’s P.E. teacher for the 2002-03 school year.
Courtney calls the Christmas program “a comic fantasy about Ocracoke Christmases past” and dedicates the show to her island neighbor, Maurice Ballance.
“He’s the one who got me so interested in Ocracoke history,” she said. “He inspired me. Even though this show is a fantasy, I did a lot of research about Ocracoke before I started writing it.”
She wrote the show in New York, with lost of emailing back and forth to Kitty for her input.
“There are so many more kids in the school than when I was here before,” she said. “So we had to add a few numbers so everyone is involved.”
The show will include singing, dancing, Blackbeard, flounders, dingbatters, the Monitor and Merrimac, and an Allman Brothers album. Really. And – need we say it? – so much more!
The children who are performing have been practicing – learning their songs, spoken lines, and cues – while the backstage crew is busy painting backdrops and creating props.
Courtney brings some real NYC professionalism to the Ocracoke stage, which is fun to watch. She expects the kids to make their best effort and sing, dance, and act like they mean it.
When I visited last week, she was working with the Pre-K class. When Courtney called out “Okay, let’s run it from the top!” one little girl looked confused and asked “The top of what?”
By the end of the show, these kids will talk like old Broadway stagehands.
Special thanks go to the Ocracoke School PTA for sponsoring Courtney's visit as guest artist.
