Mohawk’s Production of White Christmas

Throughout the years Mohawk High School has put on countless musicals, including; “Tuck Everlasting”, “Mary Poppins,” “Newsies” and so many more!  Mr. Addicott our music and choir director, he has done a wonderful job at producing these recent musicals with the help of our students and staff.  This year, Mr. Addicott and his team are putting on the production of “White Christmas.” This musical is an excellent choice for the upcoming holiday season!

“White Christmas “was originally created as a screen play in 1954 by Michael Curtiz. Produced by Paramount Pictures, it was the first widescreen Vista-Vision process ever made! A little bit about “White Christmas”; “Singers Bob Wallace and Phil Davis join sister act Betty and Judy Haynes to perform a Christmas show in rural Vermont. There, they run into Gen. Waverly, the boy’s commander in World War II, who, they learn, is having financial difficulties; his quaint country inn is failing. So what’s the foursome to do but plan a yuletide miracle: a fun-filled musical extravaganza that’s sure to put Waverly and his business in the back!” (Distributed by: Paramount Pictures.)

I put together a few questons for Mr. Addicott regarding the musical production:

I asked Mr. Addicott why did you choose to produce “White Christmas “this year?  He started off by saying he chooses musicals based on how he wants to push out the program. This year, he wanted to do a few different things revolving around the musical. He wanted “White Christmas” to have a very professional feel for the actors as well as the audience. In addition, scheduling for rehearsals was much more “fast-paced” than his usual musicals. Along with the professionalism aspect, Mr. Addicott and his students performed at the Adult Center along with a carol sing at the Mocha House, to help further push out the program to the community. For this particular musical he wanted a more community outreach as well as a much more family friendly production!

I also asked Mr. Addicott, how long does rehearsal/production and role casting take? He estimated that their total run time of the entire castings and rehearsals were very much over 400 hours. This time was put into the rehearsals, set design, lighting and many other things alike. For many of the days, Mr. Addicott stayed after-hours just to prepare for the musical. Many aspects of the musical were all started at different times for everything to land complete all at the same time.

For the “struggle” aspects of the musical. Mr. Addicott stated, “The struggle for this year was, it was the closest to a normal musical production that my students have had in a long time.” For the last couple years, Mr. Addicott and his students have had many interruptions while trying to conduct musicals. While producing Newsies they lost the show due to the inconvenience of Covid-19. During “Tuck Everlasting” the casting and roles were split also due to the pandemic. The cast was never there at the same time, two different days or two different times of the day, rehearsals were very tough during those times. In Mr. Addicott words, this is a very traditional show compared to the other shows that have recently been produced through Mohawk.

Like always, Mr. Addicott and his team put on a terrific show, those many hours really paid off! Congratulations to everyone involved and thank you for putting on a great show!