Anniversary RAAPA concert

RUMFORD -- Christmas is right around the corner and to kick off the season, RAAPA will be presenting a special Christmas 44th Year Anniversary concert at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 2 in Muskie Auditorium of Mountain Valley High School. This will be a one performance only presentation.

RAAPA has been entertaining the Rumford community for 44 years with Broadway musicals, cabarets, dinner theaters, patriotic appearances, as well as the annual Christmas concert. This special show will contain music from all those various occasions, although more than half will be Christmas music since this is the time of year RAAPA usually presens their Musical Christmas card.

Some of the Christmas music will include Do You Hear What I Hear, Sleigh Ride and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. Former RAAPA chorus members, who have sung in a previous Christmas shows, are invited to join the chorus when they preform the perennial favorite, Christmas in a Small Town.

In order to include names of past members in the program, we ask that you contact Judith Kuhn directly at 364-7242 or via email at judkuhn@yahoo.com no later than November 15.

All the familiar moments of past Christmas shows will be staged including a live Nativity and a visit from Santa Claus! A new addition this year will be a short play entitled, “A Little Something for Christmas,"starring Al Hanington, Gail Parent and Jim Robertson.

Nancy Demings, a veteran RAAPA performer, will be reading the children's story which has become an annual part of past Christmas shows. The RAAPA dance troupe is back and includes Deb Brown, Cindy Christie, Susan Everett, Doreen Jones and the choreographer, Connie Porter.

The dancers will appear in the Nativity scene as well as in the pop music section, dancing to Do Wah Diddy Diddy. There will be a section of Broadway music in the program with the entire chorus singing classics like The Sound of Music and The Rhythm of Life while the women will solo on Memory and the men will attempt to bring the house down with their rendition of There Is Nothin’ Like a Dame.

Since the chorus has been performing for Memorial Day and Veterans’ Day observances for the past 25 years, the following patriotic songs will be included in the show: God Bless America, Let Freedom Ring For America, Song For An Unsung Hero and Let There Be Peace on Earth. As is customary, the Nativity scene will conclude the program with the singing of several new and familiar Christmas songs, and will include a reading of One Solitary Life by Angela Oliver and a solo performance by Elaine Michaud (Mary Did You Know).

General Admission is $12 for Adults and $5 for children under 12. Tickets available from current RAAPA chorus members as well as Bartash and Port to Port in Rumford, Larsen’s Electric in Mexico, Log Cabin Craftworks in Dixfield and inside the Muskie auditorium the day of the show.