Last Thursday and Friday, Dos Pueblos High School Theater Company put on its annual winter show, Holiday Package. 

This year’s performance took inspiration from the television show “Saturday Night Live.” It was an entirely student-run production consisting of 12 comedy sketches, all centered around the theme of holiday cheer. The show was directed by Quill Inda (12) and Ollie McGrath (11).

“[Holiday Package is] mainly based around holidays, but we also try to feature DP events,” Inda said. “This year, we put in a reference to the cell hotel.”

DPHS student Ashleigh Coulter (12) was an actress in the show and explained the process behind the tradition.

“[Every] winter, theater students are told by the chosen directors, who are also students, to write scripts,” Coulter said. “Everyone writes a script, and only a few get chosen.”

One of the scripts chosen this year was titled “Santa Gives Out Boyfriends Now,” written by Biz Fletcher (12). She said that her script was a “collaborative effort” with Andrew Cooper (10). 

“We wrote about half of the script,” Fletcher said, “We bounced ideas off of each other … and it takes a lot of trial and error, but in the end, it’s fun.”  

After scripts were chosen, there was a two-day audition process. Then the cast and crew members started preparing for the show. The final product involved the work of the directors, cast, stage manager, choreographer, and crew who handled sound, lights, set, and costume design.

“When you’re just the actor, you don’t really see the scope of everything,” McGrath said. “Being a director, you have to take care of every single aspect. I think I’ve really learned that.”

When preparing for the show, time commitments varied among the students.

“A lot of rehearsals for me were at lunch,” Adora Bricher (12) said. “And then once we got into tech week, it was every day this week after school until 5:30.”

For Rebecca Cabeen (9), this was her first time acting in a theater performance at DPHS. She said that the theater community is “very welcoming” and non-judgemental.

“Since, in this one, both of my roles are smaller, I don’t have very many lines to memorize,” Cabeen said. “While I’m not on stage, I can generally do my homework.”

Santiago Frazer (12) said that Holiday Package is “a great way to get involved” in theater. He directed the show with Bricher last year.

“I’m acting in it this year,” Frazer said. “It’s low commitment but high reward … [and overall] it’s a really fun experience.”

The first skit of the night was “AI Dinner,” written by Sarah Martiny, ChatGPT, and Google Translate.

“It’s a skit that was written by AI, and then put through a bunch of translators, and it’s just gibberish,” Frazer said. “It’s really fun to be [Narrator One], because you don’t have to worry about whether you’re acting genuine or not, which is something you have to do when you’re acting like a human. But with the narrator, I get to act all robotic, and it doesn’t really matter what I do, because nothing makes sense.”

Malachi Cottrell (10) also acted in “AI Dinner.” He found a similar sense of freedom in his performances.

“Our fall play, ‘Our Town,’ was a little more serious,” Cottrell said. “Maybe you couldn’t go jumping around on the stage. But this is Holiday Package. There’s lots of energy, lots of cheer, and you can sort of go crazy, if that makes sense. That’s the range of expression that Holiday Package allows.” 

The cast and crew emphasized the joyful, welcoming community that Holiday Package provides.

“They’re all amazing, wonderful actors and crew members,” McGrath said. “And … It’s a bunch of fresh, brand new actors that have never been in a show before. So having this be their introduction to actually performing in front of people is special.”

The Holiday Package show does not only bring in students who are new to acting, it also brings in students who are not traditionally involved in theatre. In the “Finale,” DPHS student athletes joined cast members for the “Jingle Bell Jocks” dance.

Fletcher, who choreographed the dance, said that she loved having the opportunity to bring other people into the show.

“It’s a fun chance to get to do what I love with the people that I love,” Fletcher said. “It changes people’s perspectives, and I think that’s [part of] what I love about this show.”

**Edited for clarity on Dec. 12, 2024