Rose Valley School Christmas Concerts

From the Memoirs of C. Stuart Ibsen (Edited by David Ibsen)

[Rose Valley School] Christmas concerts were a big item in the school year. We began to practise and prepare for it in November and by the middle of December, much of each school day was spent on the concert. However, I think the time was well spent because we learned many things about speaking orally and acting as well as memorizing. 

We also had to construct most of the props and make the costumes. Teachers usually went all out as the type of concert they put on was often the criteria as whether she would be hired again next year. This was a big part of our art and industrial arts course. 

Some of the concerts were memorable events. One year my brother Les and I put on a skit. Miss Perry (the teacher) wrote the script, which was an impersonation of the Amos n' Andy radio program. They were a well-known coloured pair regularly heard on the radio. I suppose we would now be accused of racism if we put such a play on. We painted our faces with charcoal and practised talking like them.  Andy had a deep voice and Amos had a high squeaky voice. We both enjoyed acting and really got into the parts. The skit was arranged for us to look like dwarfs. We stood behind a table and put shoes and stockings on our arms and hands. Behind us a curtain hung down to our armpits.   Behind the curtain stood another pair of kids who put their arms under our armpits and acted as our arms and hands. We did a tap dance to the tune of "I'll be down to get you in a taxi honey”. It was a big hit. I was quite shy at that age and went on stage with a lump in my throat and fast beating heart but once I got out there I enjoyed acting a part.  

There was always plenty of comedy but the real meaning of Christmas came through clearly too. There were plays with the nativity scene and reading from Matthew and Luke. There were also star drills with elaborate tinsel costumes and angels and shepherds.

For the concert, a plank stage was set up on sawhorses by some of the parents.   Since it was only temporary and would be removed immediately after the concert so they could dance, it was not too solid. One concert, the last song called for the whole school to be on the stage and to join hands and sing "Auld Lang Syne" and as we sang we were to sway back and forth to the music. As we neared the end of the song the stage began to sway and collapsed flat on the floor. That was quite a finale.

The lighting for the stage was a gas lantern or lamp suspended by a wire at the middle of the stage. The Christmas tree sat at one end of the stage. It had real candles on it, which were lit near the end of the concert. Someone was delegated to watch it carefully in case of fire.

Sleigh bells ringing announced the arrival of Santa Claus and he came in through the window with lots of Ho, Ho, Ho's. Each child got a candy bag with an orange, some candy and peanuts in it. Then the tree came down and the stage was dismantled and pitched out the window so that dancing could begin.

The school in those days was the centre of the community. The concerts in adjoining school districts were usually spaced throughout one week so that people could come from other districts too. Rose Valley had the reputation of putting on one of the best concerts in the area.

For the complete story email david.ibsen@ualberta.net