Blog Archives
The Waukesha State Bank Art Gallery Presents: La Casa de Esperanza Charter School
The Casa de Esperanza Charter School is pleased to present to you this beautiful display of Christmas art projects made by our students with my collaboration as an art teacher at our school. Our students are children between grades K4 to third grade. In addition, they participate in our arts class every day for a period of 45 minutes where, using a variety of manipulative materials, they are exposed to experiment and develop their skills, creative abilities, and imagination in the composition of different projects.
For this exhibition, we decided to select various Christmas cultural elements that represent the nationalities of our students. For example: our K4 students make ornaments using wooden sticks to create elves, reindeer, snowmen, and Santa Claus. The students of K5 made paintings with fingerprints, hands, and feet. The students of first grade made sculptures of wool yearn creating snowmen. The second grade students painted flags representing the nationalities of our students, embodying Christmas elements such as: Puerto Rico (The Three Kings); USA (Santa Claus); Mexico (La Flor the Noche Buena); Venezuela (El Nacimiento); and Nicaragua (El Arbol de Navidad). To finish, the third grade students made mosaics representing The Three Kings, Christmas Wreaths, the Flower of Christmas Eve, The Bells, and The Candlestick.
We greatly appreciate the Waukesha Civic Theatre for the opportunity they have given us to present our Christmas artwork in this fabulous exhibition for the enjoyment of all families.
¡Merry Christmas!
Art Teacher
La Casa de Esperanza Charter School
Director’s Note: Candy Cane Tales And Holiday Carols
Growing up, Christmas Eve was a night I couldn’t wait for. Not only because I knew Santa would be coming, but because it was always a night I got to see all of my cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. We would drive to my grandparents and the kids would march upstairs to play together with the old toys that were still there from the generation prior to us. We’d rehearse and put on a concert for our parents (complete with ripped up paper snow) and we knew if we listened closely, we would hear Santa’s sleigh. We always knew we were too loud and rowdy when one of our parents yelled up the stairs because the dining room chandelier was shaking (which happened to be right under the room we were in and right above the table where they were playing sheepshead). Opening presents was always exciting, but not nearly as exciting as the quality time spent with family. It was a night filled with love.
After my grandparents all passed, the family rotated who hosted Christmas Eve for a couple of years and some family members stopped coming. Eventually, my husband and I decided we wanted to pick up the tradition. This year will be our 6th year hosting Christmas Eve and it’s now become one of the days of the year my daughter counts down until. The night is filled with family, friends, singing, laughing and, most importantly, love.
When John Cramer approached me about co-directing and shared the concept for the show, I knew I had to hop on board. I think just about every cast member has commented at some point how much the love the holiday season. It’s been fun hearing the stories from the cast on their favorite holiday memories. Thank you to our cast, crew and production staff for making this story come to life. Every time I work on a show, I’m reminded why community theatre is so amazing.
As you sit back and enjoy the show, you might find a scene reminds you of something, a character may remind you of someone, you might hear your favorite holiday tune, but what I hope the most is that you feel is just how much dedication and love went into this production. Happy Holidays and thank you for coming to the show! Enjoy!
Kelly Goeller
A Crazy Cramer Christmas
It’s no secret that I love the holiday season. Starting with Halloween, continuing with Thanksgiving, thriving through Christmas, and culminating in New Year’s Eve, these three months are truly “The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year.” I love the lights, the themed decorations, the family gatherings, the parties, and of course, the music and the stories.
The Cramers are more than a little crazy when it comes to celebrating the holidays. First, we decorate like we’ve been possessed by Buddy the Elf. We have seven 30 gallon bins full of decorations for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and New Year’s that we lovingly haul out of storage and display every year. But it is Christmas that really gets our attention. We have more than twenty 30 gallon bins full of holiday delights. A Santa collection, an elf collection, a village, garlands, wreaths, lights and more take over our home in a festive explosion of color. We have Christmas trees in our family room and all three bedrooms. Some years we add a fifth, or even sixth tree just because. I did say we were a little crazy, didn’t I?
This love of the holidays is where Candy Cane Tales And Holiday Carols came from. The show started out in 2005 as a musical revue performed at the Waukesha State Bank holiday party by me and my wife Kelli, and accompanied by Abby Lorenz. I put the show together featuring our favorite music and stories, with a little bit of history thrown in, and entertained the WSB employees for an hour.
Then I started thinking about how it might translate to a full production. Good holiday shows are hard to find. There are a handful of traditional classics like A Christmas Carol, Miracle On 34th Street, It’s A Wonderful Life, and The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, but every theatre produces them, so the holiday entertainment market is saturated with these old standbys. I wanted to create something that could be WCT’s unique holiday tradition so I took that WSB show and expanded it to a full two hour show, with opportunities for community members of all ages to participate. We produced it for the first time in 2009 with a cast of 65 actors ages 6 to 80, and a new tradition was begun. We followed that production with six more versions of the show through 2015. Each year the show changed a little bit, replacing some of the songs and stories with other fantastic songs and stories.
We took a break from the show for two seasons, but are now bringing it back with a brand new story line. I am very excited about this season’s version of the show, and can’t wait to share it with the Waukesha community. Happy Holidays!
John Cramer
Co-Director, Candy Cane Tales And Holiday Carols
Waukesha Civic Theatre 