SUN CITY – Christmas season is party time. Parties and gatherings are everywhere. Sun City’s 40 neighborhoods “do” holiday parties, starting right after Thanksgiving and many do more than just one.
Some do ethnic smorgasbords, others sponsor open houses in homes, some present entertainment, some bring in Santa, or get together to trim Christmas trees, or decorate homes and yards, etc. Most parties feature dozens of varieties of cookies, candy, mistletoe, and yes, even fruitcake.
Neighborhood 9 performers gather in Drendel Ballroom to rehearse skits for their upcoming holiday celebration. (Photo by Chris LaPelusa/Sun Day)
There is one Sun City neighborhood, however, that has taken the concept of a Christmas celebration to an entirely new level. In Neighborhood 9, they have converted their holiday fun into a Hollywood-style production, complete with a script, skits, songs, sing-a-longs, costumes, props, humor, and social commentary, all performed by a cast of 18 residents. Neighborhood 9 has about 75 homes on Golfview Drive, Birdie Drive, Highland Lane, and Eagle Ridge Lane south of Cold Springs Drive.
It got so formal and complicated this year that they scheduled a “dress rehearsal” on Nov. 24, almost two weeks before the actual performance on Saturday night, Dec. 6, in Drendel Hall. To prepare this report, the Sun Day attended the rehearsal for a first-hand look.
“We have been doing some skits in our homes in recent years, and last year, a bunch of us did our own version of the “Twelve Days of Christmas,” said Caroline Gunnon. “This year, I volunteered to organize a series of production numbers built around events that occurred in our neighborhood during 2014. The performers in each skit or scene wrote out their own dialog.”
A native of Roselle, Caroline lived in San Diego in recent years and retired recently after 44 years of teaching. She came to Sun City in October, 2013.
“I taught elementary grades, and I used to help organize entertainment events for the children,” she said. “I decided a year ago to come back here and come to a place where I could be active. I quickly got involved in the neighborhood’s holiday party plans and volunteered to do some of the creative work. This has been a lot of fun, and work, for all of us.”
With only one chance to rehearse the entire event (Drendel Hall is a very busy place in the holiday season), the group ran through 10 scenes on Drendel’s stage, and then did the whole thing again to give the event an improved pace and movement. Called “Memories of 2014,” the show is a series of skits and songs. Cindy Young and Greg Korney acted as narrators and provided lots of humorous dialog between scenes.
In the opening scene, Bill Clanton and Sandy Magana, accomplished vocalists who are members of Sun City’s Prairie Voices, remember last winter’s “polar vortex” cold weather with a delightful duet of Irving Berlins’ “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.”
In another scene, Ralph Hardy, Dennis O’Leary, Korney, and Nick Damales hilariously fantasize about their favorite foods at the Colonial Cafe in Algonquin, where they go for breakfast once a month. They focused finally on a dish at the restaurant that includes seven pieces of bacon. They suddenly break out in a parody of the song, “Sugar in the Morning, Sugar in the Evening,” substituting bacon in place of sugar. All this while at a traditional neighborhood social get-together called “Drinks on the Drive.” The men held large beverage containers filled with cotton, symbolizing beer and fizz-topped soft drinks. While the men talked food, Dodie Williams, Judith McKinney, Gunnon, and Esther Bell speculated about how a mutual friend got rid of her “wrinkles.”
In another skit, Hardy, Korney, O’Leary. Damales, and Clanton remember last year’s hailstorms and subsequent insurance-supported roof repairs by singing, “Nail all the shingles, make them stick” to the tune of “Up on the Rooftops,” a Christmas Santa Claus melody.
In a gift-opening scene, Sandy, Nancy Hardy, and Dodie Williams spoof old age by expressing their delight at receiving false teeth and then singing “All I want for Christmas is my two ‘false’ teeth.”
Late last winter, Caroline spotted a bear trotting across her back yard, and the “bear sighting” has been a big topic of neighborhood conversation every since. For the show, John Schrammel donned a bear rug head in a scene about a holiday party.
At a salon called “Whatever it Takes Beauty Shop,” Williams, Esther Bell, Nancy Hardy, and Phyllis Schrammel spoof gossip and verbal communications mishaps.
Helping with the props and setups were “stagehands” Jeannie O’Leary, Gail Grosskurth, and Phyllis Schrammel.
At the end, the entire cast does a line dance while singing “Jingle Bell Rock.” The staff finally invites 100 of their neighborhood friends at the party to join them in singing “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” and “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”
