There may not be a flake of snow in the air, but at Generations Church it’s already starting to sound a lot like Christmas.
On Thursday night, rehearsals began for the church’s annual Singing Christmas Tree Choir and theatre group. The singers gathered in the choir room to familiarize themselves with this year’s repertoire, while the actors assembled across the hall in the sanctuary for their first read-through. The final performance will resemble a musical, with the story tying the songs together.
Darcy Siggelkow, lead pastor at Generations Church and musical director of the Singing Christmas Tree choir, said it can be “a little weird” to be singing Christmas songs in September, but after directing the choir for 11 years it’s become routine.
“The people that have been in the tree for a few years, you get used to it. But for some people it’s like, ‘This still feels like summer,’” he said. “So it’s a little weird, but we’ve been working on the production since last spring. So those of us that are on the creative team, we’ve been thinking Christmas all summer.”
Forty-three singers attended Thursday’s rehearsal. Only a few were new additions as the majority of choir members have been taking part in the Singing Christmas Tree year after year.
“One of the great things about singing in a choir is that you make good friends and so people come back because it may be the only time they’re going to see these folks throughout the year. But we’ve got the one thing in common, which is the choir,” Siggelkow said.
That’s the case for longtime member Mike Briant, who has been with group for “nine or 10 years.” He joined the choir, and the church, after watching a Singing Christmas Tree performance.
“We went, ‘Wow, these people have really got it together,’” he said.
“We really enjoy ourselves and it’s a great camaraderie and so a lot of the people come back year after year. I mean a lot of us don’t have great voices, but we’re in it more for the fun that anything else.”
The Singing Christmas Tree will give 10 performances on Dec. 8, 9, 10, 15, 16 and 17, but the singers and actors will not rehearse together until closer to December. Drama director Cheryl Eakins wrote the script with her two assistant directors.
“Normally our first audience is the choir so we’ll do rehearsal with the choir and the choir will be sitting in the sanctuary and that’s the first time they actually see the play,” Eakins said. “Our favourite part is just to see their reaction to the play because they haven’t seen it before and we like to keep it very secretive from the choir. We’ll sometimes put some little red herrings out there and just a little bit of mystery.”
Siggelkow said it’s exciting when the two groups finally merge about three weeks before opening night.
“That’s a really fun rehearsal, when for the first time the choir comes in and sees the drama and the drama hears how the music fits in with what they’re doing.”
The Singing Christmas Tree Choir meets at Generations Church every Thursday at 7 p.m. New singers are still welcome to attend.