“Candy Canes Forever!” hits the stage

When Candy Cain joined the Crest Area Theater, she said, people were commenting there were not enough plays for kids. After a hip replacement surgery, Cain was able to write that play and tomorrow night, it comes to fruition.

“Candy Canes Forever!” is an hour-long play that begins 7 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. Saturday at Uptown Brick & Bell.

“The play follows the antics of the elves of the North Pole who are tasked with manufacturing the world’s supply of candy canes for the holiday season,” Cain explained in a press release. “They come to realize that sharing holiday traditions and spending time together with friends and family is more enduring and worthwhile than new-fangled technology, passing fads, and social media.”

Just as the play borrows from Cain’s own name, so too did she involve pieces of her own life in the comedy. The actors ages range from 8-years-old to mid-teens.

“The play is based on a some of my family members and there’s a lot of innuendos and names and situations that are important to me and people that know my family will pick up on those,” she said. “I wanted kids, we decided because of the differences in roles, we wanted to do from 8-years-old up and up, I think our oldest actor is maybe 15, most of them are younger than that. We do have an adult Santa Claus.”

Auditions for the play were open to everyone in the community, as Cain said is common for productions by the 50-year-old Crest Area Theater.

“It’s a local organization, meaning anyone can join, it’s free,” she said. “Most people decide they hear about a play that’s coming up, they want to be involved and so that’s how they get started.”

Cain also said the play was cast intuitively and everyone has a role.

“Auditions were fairly easy, I’m finding the people that audition, you can kind of get a feel for what part they might fit in,” she said. “We had all of our auditioners got a part, we were short a couple, so two or three of them are in double roles.”

“Candy Canes Forever!” will also feature music by John and Autumn Callahan, Jessie and Christian White and Bill and Julia Mullin.

“We do have some musical acts in between, we had some people audition for those, so in between acts there will be a little variety show-type thing,” Cain said.

Tickets are $5.00 and doors open half an hour before the play starts. Cain said to come early, because there’s limited seating and Uptown Brick & Bell will be serving food to audience members.

“I just hope everyone will come out to see the hard work these young actors are putting into this and hopefully that we can continue with the kids productions in the future,” she said.