Children star in stories for the season Trini Christmas Magic

A Trini Christmas Magic featured little fairies and elves and magical spirits, but the message behind the play had a deeper meaning.

The play was a collaboration between actress Cecilia Salazar and actress /teacher Penelope Spencer, performed at the Little Carib Theatre, Woodbrook, last Sunday.

Spencer said she was asked to come on board with Salazar to produce the show, which was geared for and performed by children. The 65 children who performed were students from St Monica's Preparatory, Newtown Girls' RC and Salazar's Saturday morning drama class.

"It is the coming together of the two schools and making it into a fun Christmas lime," Spencer said. "The message is about love and keeping the environment clean. Christmas is not just about the young people, but also about the parents and grandparents. Some of the letters from the girls from my class said they wanted a crime free environment, being able to be with their friends and wanted those gifts instead of toys.

"I am an entertainer, but not everything is a laugh any more, not with the state we are in now. We are in a state of being aware, of being conscious, and the children have to know what is right from wrong. It is about empowering these young girls, let them know who they are and what they stand for, that they must be strong in their purpose," she said.

The girls also read letters to Santa Claus asking for a better environment for the world to be a better place.

The first half of the performance was Spencer's students from Newtown Girls' where they did choral speaking and local versions of Christmas carols. In the second half the children performed in Can Anyone Save Christmas?, a play about going in search of a good child when everyone else was being mean and wicked. This was written by Salazar's sister, Olivia Guillen.

Salazar's drama class presented Legends of Christmas skits of local legends such as Anansi.

There may have been a few missteps along the way, but it only made the evening more entertaining and judging from the audience's reaction and applause, they were more than happy with the performance.

Salazar said although the production was a lot of hard work, they were able to pull it off, and promised to come bigger and better next year.