THEATRE ORANGEVILLE Artistic Director David Nairn speaks with some of his young actors in preparation for the upcoming presentation of A Christmas Story. Contributed Photo "If the actors in a play don't really understand their parts, then the audience won't either.

"How many of you have seen a Shakespearian play and you didn't understand all of it?" So David Nairn asked the seven young people about to begin rehearsal for their own, non-Shakespearian, play, A Christmas Story.

Four of them put their hands up. They had not understood all the language or the references.

"Yet the language is English," Mr. Nairn remarked. "Most of the words are words we use today, even if the language is a bit flowery. No, the real reason is because the actors themselves don't understand it. They haven't done their homework and learned about the history of the play." He offered this to make his point.

This analogy was by way of explaining to the youngsters, ages six to 13, why they needed to know who the Lone Ranger was; what sort of toys a 10- year-old would want for Christmas in 1955; what a flit gun was. These are references of the play, which is based on a boy's Christmas in the year 1955.

The characters in the play have different wants and needs from people now, obviously, with the vast difference being in what is and was available as toys and amusement. When Mr. Nairn asked each of them what would they would like if they could each only have one Christmas present, all but one mentioned a sophisticated electronic piece of equipment. One of the boys wanted an amazing sounding piece of equipment for his electric trains, although none of them wished for something to take outside to play.

Entrenched in their differences from the characters they will take on stage, Mr. Nairn wanted to impress upon each of them the need to work for the understanding.

Not all aspects of the young characters were unknown: young ladies and young gentlemen still get crushes on their opposites. Girls still gossip and giggle; boys still conspire; bullies still terrify.

For this initial coming together of the young actors on Monday this week, they sat around a table, conference style, munching on the snacks they had brought, for a meeting that began at 4:30, just after school, and went on until 7:00 p.m. This was one of two, with the second scheduled for the following day.

Their first real rehearsal with the full accompaniment of cast, that is to say with the adults in the play, is coming this Friday, when rehearsals begin in earnest. From then one, the schedule is six days a week, 10:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. During this time, they work at their rehearsal hall.

Then, just before opening night, there are four "10 out of 12" days, which run from noon to midnight in the theatre when they learn the technicalities of producing the play — costume changes, lighting, using the actual set.

There is much more to acting than just delivering lines, although that, in itself, can be quite a challenge.

However, at the start of it all, is the law. The law of David Nairn.

And the first law is about them taking care of themselves. There was a long list of sports in which they are not allowed to participate during the course of their involvement with the play. They, or their guardians, have signed contracts agreeing to the conditions under which they have been engaged to perform with Theatre Orangeville, for each of them is being paid for their participation.

They will not engage in dangerous sports — which include almost everything you can think of short of ping-pong — or chess. They have to wear appropriate outdoor clothing. They have to get permission to travel further afield than, say, Toronto.

"Thank goodness, we already went to Myrtle Beach!" exclaimed Christopher.

It was not long, though, until Mr. Nairn was getting into the business of creating. Within a few minutes, he had them put together the idea of being in a car: "how are we going to get a car on the stage?" "Well, maybe we could use those four chairs-" "Yeah, if you move about on the chair as though you were really in a car, then the audience will believe that's where you were — see? We just invented a car."

"Cool." "But people will still be able to see the rest of the set-" "No, because the lighting will fix that."

Theatre magic, all to be discovered.

Turning my attention for a moment to Kate Brown, the stage manager, I asked her what the special challenges are of this particular production.

"There are lots of challenges. They don't know the jargon. We try to work as long as we can with their schools. We keep them in school up to a point, for the first couple of weeks, working around the need for them at rehearsals. And then, it's full time in rehearsal and out of school for all of them."

Out of the blue, Mr. Nairn called out: "Is anybody scared?"

Several voices admitted to being nervous, Ms Brown amongst them. She said, "It's a big show and a lot of stuff happens. It's my job to make it all works out."

Said Mr. Nairn, "I'm nervous until the first rehearsal and then all my nervousness will go away because I know that I've got the right cast."

In this, he is right for sure, for we are all glad to welcome back Susie Burnett and Terry Hart who gave us such a good time last season in I'll Be Back Before Midnight. Jamie Williams is also returning to Theatre Orangeville to reprise his role as the Father of the family, a role he played in the original production here in 2005.

When the question was put to the youngsters as to why they wanted to do the play, with all the restrictions, sacrifices and hard work in mind, they were consistent about the joy of being on the stage; that the theatre is important to them; that they wanted the challenge of the work and the achievement.

Every hand went up when they were asked who wanted to be in the theatre business in their futures.

Except for young Tyler Simpson, age 6, who was concerned that his parents do not like him to get too messy or be up too late.

Interesting times ahead.