By Dave Babbitt – Special to the Sydenham Current
This is my second of three columns reminiscing about the WDSS Christmas Shows that many will remember attending.
I looked at the shows as having 3 distinct components, decorations, the artistic program, and the massive set-up process.
The school was a beehive of activity night after night for two months including weekends, creating the decorations.
During the week, David Mann would come in on noon-hours to rehearse the community/staff/student chorus that was an important element each year.
All of that took place gradually, but the set-up was a high-pressure, week-long herculean effort by many, many people including staff, students, and Board employees.
Set-up started with a lot of aerial work in the gymnasium.
We would order in an electric lift from the Board to enable us to get to the incredibly high ceiling.
We had to fly three separate lighting rigs and all the accompanying cabling to allow for individual lighting of the three stages on the floor.
Local electrician George McFadden donated his time and hard-wired a 220-volt line to the gyms electrical panel as the lighting drew a large amount of electricity. The lighting cans then had to be hung on each truss, individually wired, and connected to the control panel, which electrician Al Eves did for us.
Two large, 3-level snowflake chandeliers that were hung from the ceiling, several dozen snowflakes of varying sizes, Santa and his reindeer, angels above one of the stages, a large Noel sign above another, a home-made screen above our main stage and we had to fly a projector for all of our graphics and sing-a-long lyrics.
In the final two years of the shows, we also added artificial snow machines and in using old TV antennae rotors, rigged them to turn and produce a snow storm into the audience.
All that aerial work required a lot of cabling to be run through the ceiling trusses and took hours of work.
On the ground, the decorating was unbelievably spectacular.
When patrons entered the Lorne St. entrance, they were met by a winter and Christmas wonderland that made jaws drop.
All walls were covered by the spectacular murals previously mentioned, artificial walls were constructed so no one could see down any hallway, there were 20 barrels of foam packing chips used as artificial snow lining the hallways, the display cases were now storefronts complete with mailboxes, porches, fencing, lit windows and awnings, and gentle Christmas music setting the scene.
Through the years, the hallway decorations evolved to become more and more elaborate and in 1987, I had just taken delivery of a new snowmobile, and it made it into the artificial “snow” in the hallway.
I previously mentioned that my goal was to make the school “disappear”, and we almost accomplished that. In 2002, we carpeted the Lorne St. entrance hiding the terrazzo floor and had there been a “next year”, we had designs to turn the ceiling into the sky, functionally making the school disappear.
As patrons sauntered through the entrance they were forced around the corner, into the Webber Auditorium and were confronted with a gymnasium that didn’t look anything like the gym every WDSS student recognized.
It was very difficult to turn such a large cavern into a warm room, but Lynn and her crew did just that.
The most iconic element of the auditorium were the two giant Christmas trees that stood floor to ceiling on either side of the centre stage.
Finding trees of that size was always an adventure.
Think Clark Griswold.
We had to find trees large enough, fell them, and then transport them to the school.
Most would likely have no idea how heavy a tree with a 12’ diameter trunk is.
Moving one let alone two was very difficult, and in some cases, dangerous.
Getting them to the school was only half the battle, however.
They needed to be stood up, cabled to the ceiling truss with aircraft cable, and soaked with fire-retardant spray before decorating, and if one thinks it takes a lot of lights to decorate a 7 foot tree, try a 20 foot tree!
Every year, we built a new structure on the centre stage to fit our theme.
Two years stand out however.
In 1987, the title of the show was “A Country Christmas”.
Lynn secured a supply of authentic barnboard and built a small barn on the centre stage.
The barn incorporated a fenced-in pen that was lined with straw. Rodney Ewing managed to secure young two lambs from Francis Peers and were placed in the pen each night occasionally bleating as the show went on. It was incredibly touching and brought such a realistic element to the show.
In 2002, our final year of the production, Lynn had constructed a church on the centre stage. It was absolutely beautiful and very special in another way.
In building the church, Lynn had left a hexagonal hole the spire, which no one could figure out.
At our final pre-show rehearsal, previous to opening night, Lynn unveiled a gorgeous custom-made stained-glass window that fit perfectly into the hole.
But it wasn’t just a stained-glass window.
It was made in memory of a former student, Amanda Hale.
Amanda was loved by all and had been a major part of our band and previous shows but was tragically killed the previous year by a drunk driver in Michigan.
We had a short, solemn ceremony to remember Amanda and Lynn then put the stained-glass window into place on the spire.
In my next column, I’d like to look at the many artists who took part in the programs, and explain how this giant project met its end.
