Cosmic-radio Christmas vignettes raise funds for La Conner student drama
Christmas is all about tradition, but this holiday season the Skagit Passage theater troupe has something new in store for La Conner audiences.
The local non-profit, dedicated to storytelling and growing the La Conner Schools Drama Club, is presenting its first annual Christmas Special fundraiser shows this month at the Tim Bruce Performing Arts Center — a hometown holiday treat with a little stardust mixed in.
The Skagit Passage community actors will stage a series of holiday-themed vignettes developed by program director Taylor Pedroza in collaboration with cast members.
Showtimes
- 7 p.m., Dec. 19 — Tim Bruce Performing Arts Center, La Conner High School campus
- 1 p.m., Dec. 20 — Tim Bruce Performing Arts Center, La Conner High School campus
- 7 p.m., Dec. 20 — Tim Bruce Performing Arts Center, La Conner High School campus
- 5:30 p.m., Dec. 21 — Tim Bruce Performing Arts Center, La Conner High School campus
Tickets, available online and at the door, are priced at $25 each with all proceeds going to the La Conner Schools Drama Club and its annual spring play. So when you grab a seat, you’re also backing the next generation of Braves performers.
Pedroza said those attending the Skagit Passage Christmas Special programs will be treated to an original holiday celebration revolving around what he termed “cosmic radio” broadcasts.
“It will be more cohesive than a one-act-play,” Pedroza said during a rehearsal session last week. “We’ll weave it all together so that while it’s not overly connected, it’s still cohesive.”
Pedroza said reviving La Conner’s rich community theater heritage while also boosting the student drama club are the passions that drive him to write stage plays for Skagit Passage during time away from his day jobs in landscaping and video production.
“It’s what I like to do,” said Pedroza, who studied Theater Arts at Gonzaga University. “It can be hard work, but I feel grateful to be in this situation. I have a lot of faith in what we’re doing. It’s great when everybody comes together like this.”
For its Christmas Special, Skagit Passage has assembled a versatile and deep cast. Several, like Alex Van Hine, who portrays the radio D.J., have extensive La Conner ties. While Pedroza is the production’s primary writer, he routinely calls upon those cast members for input on what directions to take the script.
“Taylor is a writer, he writes the drafts and puts together the outlines, but it’s a collaborative process,” said Alicia Schwind, Executive Director of Skagit Passage and a graduate of the Portland State University theater program. “It’s all pretty ‘workshoppy.’ Taylor adapts to all the suggestions. He’s very creative but it’s also important to him to share the ownership of ideas.”
Yet another creative voice is that of Jessica Pedroza, Taylor’s wife and fellow Gonzaga alum, an actor who serves as the Skagit Passage creative director.
“This is a fun production,” said Jessica Pedroza, also the site coordinator for the Braves Hub after-school program. “It’s been a case of incorporating ideas as we go along.
“It’s a quick production, under two hours, about 90 minutes, without an intermission,” she said.
The La Conner Schools Drama Club, beneficiary of the Skagit Passage Christmas Special, is a big part of what inspires Schwind and the Pedrozas to produce quality community theater here. They teamed together three years ago to launch the club when budget constraints after the COVID-19 pandemic forced drama classes to be dropped from the high school curriculum.
From the get-go, the trio committed to twice weekly 90-minute evening blocks introducing La Conner students to the many facets of theater arts, including but not limited to the fundamentals of acting, comedy delivery, stage craft and set production, vocabulary, and teamwork.
The educational value — especially of the latter element — was prioritized.
“The teamwork you develop in theater arts can fit with any career,” Taylor Pedroza said.
Their goal from the start was to build the student program while also resurrecting the local school-community productions that regularly drew large audiences to the campus auditorium.
The first-ever Skagit Passage Christmas Special checks both boxes — a holiday show made by the community, for the community, with the kind of warm, close-to-home magic that makes La Conner feel like La Conner.
Bill Reynolds is a general assignment reporter for La Conner Community News.
