Notre Dame High School brings holiday cheer to stage with 'Silver Belles'

Notre Dame Regional High School in Cape Girardeau is set to bring some festive cheer to the stage for its fall play with a production of "Silver Belles" by Laruen Grove.

Performances will be held from Thursday, Nov. 14, through Saturday, Nov. 16, in the Cynthia R. King Performance Hall on the school's campus.

The play is described as both heartrending and hilarious, and has many of the tropes from Christmas movies. The story unfolds in a retirement home threatened by a real estate mogul's plans to replace it with a new luxury hotel. The play’s twist comes when the mogul's son, Frank, tasked with delivering the bad news, discovers that the home's manager is his high school crush, Kate.

The play will feature a cast of 20 students. The production is a first for Notre Dame as students have not done a full Christmas play before. Director Emily Steimle said she chose the script for a variety of reasons, one being the play writer made the script self-aware with its humor.

“We haven't done a Christmas play before here. This is only my third year here, but looking back over the past, like 10 to 20 years, there wasn't, there hasn't been any Christmas play. The reason why I chose this particular script, there's one scene in particular. It's called the montage, and a song plays and there's a passage of time, like a week passes, but you're seeing little snippets of different days in that week. It's like, just a very fast-moving scene,” Steimle said.

Behind the scenes of th play have been more than just the students on the stage. They all have learned a variety of skills, from using power tools to help create the set to learning how to do old-age makeup and walking correctly with a walker or cane convincingly.

“I think theater has a lot to teach kids. It's everything — it's social skills, it's confidence, public speaking. Working on this set, kids are learning how to use power tools and paint, and it's creative and getting involved even if they're not on the stage,” Steimle said. “I've got over 20 kids who ... don't appear on stage, but they're either running the lights or the sound or doing the makeup or organizing the costumes or moving furniture around backstage. There are lots of things in theater, and it is just teamwork, coordination and focus. All kinds of things that they can learn aren’t necessarily about theater.”

The creative team and Steimle were able to have fun and add their flair to the production, drawing inspiration from pop culture that they added just for themselves. One example is the costumes created for five elderly women, residents at the home, who are subtly inspired by the Spice Girls, giving each character a unique style adding depth to the overall portrayal. They also added a layer of humor to the antagonist's sidekick's costumes they hoped the audience would understand.

“When you have the script, you have the words, you're given a lot of leeway with what everybody can look like, and the visuals of the play aren't written down for the most part, so you get to decide, like, what the place looks like and how everybody's dressed. That's part of telling the story. It also gives kids who don't want to be actors necessarily a chance to get involved and put their mark on the show,” Steimle said.

The play aims to deliver a feel-good comedy with a love story and moments that tug at the heartstrings. Steimle hopes audiences will enjoy the humor and warmth of the production, while students take away valuable life skills and a sense of community from it all.

For more information on ticket details, visit the Notre Dame Regional High School website at https://www.notredamehighschool.org.