‘A special day’ for hundreds of kids — and the adults, too

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/12/2017 (3197 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It turns out I have a lot more in common with Charlie Brown than I realized.

It’s not that I have a head the same size and shape as a regulation bowling ball, or a crippling lack of self-esteem.

No, it’s more that, just like the lovable loser in the zigzag T-shirt, I am constantly searching for the true meaning of the Christmas season.

The great news is that, on Wednesday morning, I found it. Forgive me for getting all mushy, but I found it on the joyful faces of about 300 inner-city kids who were treated to a special performance of Manitoba Theatre for Young People’s production of A Charlie Brown Double Bill, a musical mashup of the play You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown! and the beloved TV special A Charlie Brown Christmas.

I was there, getting all misty-eyed because I was allowed to fill the shoes of Shermy, the hapless shepherd, for Wednesday’s special performance, organized by Variety, the Children’s Charity of Manitoba, for economically challenged students from David Livingstone Community School, King Edward School and William Whyte School.

(For the record, the public run of A Charlie Brown Double Bill began Dec. 8 and goes until Dec. 31. Tickets are $23 to $30 and are available atmtyp.ca, but move quickly, because a lot of nostalgic grown-ups want to see this show and tickets are going fast.)

When my wife, She Who Must Not Be Named, and I arrived at the theatre Wednesday morning, the first thing that happened is we were recruited to help the Variety volunteers stuff loot bags for the kids. Out of journalistic fairness, I will concede that I stuffed precisely one loot bag, because I also needed to prepare for my musical theatre debut by ingesting substantial amounts of free coffee and Timbits.

When the buses rolled up, the volunteer ushers, whose ranks included my festive spouse, escorted the kids to their seats, where they began bouncing around like rubber balls fired out of a cannon. I will point out that my wife was likely the hardest-working person in show business this day because, during the play, she had to escort a never-ending stream of kids to and from the bathroom.

Anyone who is familiar with A Charlie Brown Christmas knows that Shermy has exactly one line — “Every Christmas it’s the same. I always end up playing a shepherd” — so I sat in my assigned seat for about 75 minutes of the 90-minute production repeating that line over and over in my head because I was terrified that, when my big moment came, I’d draw a complete and utter blank.

Speaking of my moment, it comes when Charlie Brown orders Lucy Van Pelt to hand out the scripts and costumes, which is when Lucy bellows “SHERMY!” then helps me slip into a fuzzy shepherd’s robe and headdress, and hands me a shepherd’s crook jerry-rigged with brown duct tape.

Which is when I splutter out my line in Shermy’s self-effacing manner and then do nothing for a few minutes until the signature dance scene begins, which is when I got to join in and bust a few of the Frankenstein-style moves that Shermy made famous in the beloved animated TV special that was first broadcast in 1965.

So there I was, wearing what looks like a brown bathrobe, sleepwalking in place, when the actor portraying Snoopy pointed at me and sent the kids into a howling, dancing delirium by shouting at the top of his lungs: “COME ON KIDS, DO THE SHERMY!!!” 

For the record, the kids were on their best behaviour and agreed to restrict their unfettered noise-making to three occasions, namely: 1) Before the play began; 2)During the play; and 3) After the play.

For most of these enthusiastic kids, it was the first time they’d ever seen a live theatre performance, and this one had them howling with laughter to the point where, I suspect, there was probably not a dry seat in the audience.

“I loved it!” is what eight-year-old Kylee Bear, a Grade 3 student at King Edward School, chirped in the lobby as the kids were treated to lunch after the performance. “My favourite part was when Charlie Brown got the snow dumped on him. I liked it when he got the tree. He didn’t pick a good tree. It was a special day.”

Chimed in eight-year-old Chakara Chartrand, also in Grade 3 at King Edward: “It was really funny! When Snoopy was chasing his bowl of food, it was very funny. My favourite parts were when they sang and danced.”

The idea behind Wednesday’s performance was to give a special Christmas memory to a group of kids who don’t normally get a lot of treats during the holiday season. “This was a wonderful opportunity for them,” said Brittany Klein, who teaches grades 3 and 4 students at King Edward. “A lot of our students don’t get this kind of opportunity to get out of the school and celebrate. It really gives them a chance to be kids and celebrate with their friends and create lasting memories.”

The driving force behind it all was my philanthropist buddy Louis Trepel, who works tirelessly behind the scenes to organize events like this for needy children all year-round.

“I’m feeling overwhelmed with joy and grateful to be a part of sharing this experience,” he told me in hushed tones after I waded through a minefield of children gobbling down lunch in the lobby to reach him. “It’s always a reminder how blessed we all are and how wonderful it is to be able to share with others.”

You could also see the joy of Christmas shining on the face of Lisa Cefali, the president and chief barker for Variety in Manitoba. You could see it partly because Lisa was decked from head to foot in a red-velvet Mrs. Claus suit. “The kids said, ‘You must be Santa Claus’s daughter,’” Lisa told me. “I said, ‘What’s my name?’ And they said: ‘You’re Chrissy Claus!’”

But the real meaning of the day shone through because Lisa used to be a kid in the inner-city school division. “It’s special for me,” she said. “I never went to the theatre because we couldn’t afford it. I loved this. It makes me warm and fuzzy because I know how important it is.”

No one had to convince director Pablo Felices-Luna how important it was. “You heard them scream with joy at the end of the show,” Pablo said as the kids collected their loot bags and climbed back on the buses. “I said to the actors, ‘Listen to that. You won’t get that kind of unbridled joy many places in life.’ It’s pretty unique.”

The director also said my Shermy dance was the “icing on the cake for him,” but I have to tell you the real spirit of Christmas was revealed at the end of the play when the cast escorted children onstage to wish Charlie Brown a merry Christmas.

One little guy shyly stared up at the beaming face of Charlie Brown (played by Peter Fernandes) and sweetly gushed: “Happy mewwy Cwistmas, Chawlie Bwown!” And Charlie sweetly replied: “Happy merry Christmas to you, too.”

And a Happy Merry Christmas to all of us, even if we don’t work for Peanuts.

doug.speirs@freepress.mb.ca