A blast from the past: Lompoc High’s Naughty & Nice

During these recent events where we are in the midst of a pandemic, we aren’t able to do much such as going to school, going to the movies with friends, or even going to school events. In this particular situation, we are reminiscing about an event that happened in December of 2019, that we weren’t able to release last year.

So, without further ado, last years’ holiday show was called “Naughty & Nice”. What is this show you may ask yourself? The show consists of many holiday-themed segments written by the students and staff of LHS theatre. This show took place at the Lompoc High Little Theater on December 12-14, 2019 at 7:30 pm. Naughty & Nice was a production that was directed by Mrs. Sarah Barthel, Madison DeSchryver, Johnny Kassis, Natasha Signorelli, and Robby Theis. The cast members are Diana Alcantara, Seth Baird, Trent Bauldry, Cole Beattie, Shya Belgarde, Sydney Brooks, Dallas Contreras, Madison DeSchryver, Zoey Ford, Mary Garcia, Nicole Hall, Aleida Hernandez, Scout Hierholzer, Lauren Jansen, Johnny Kassis, Sarah Lopez, Prechus Norwood, Jillian Picache, Anahi Rodriguez, Linsey Rodriguez, Gabriel Ruiz, Natasha Signorelli, Amia Simmons, Maliah Simmons, Elle Smith, Robby Theis, Delanie Valencia, Jazira Velazquez, Rebecca Villa, Matthew Villalpando, and Dulan Wimalasoma. Many people were part of the crew and had to take on the position of doing many things to help the production of the show go smoothly.

We interviewed some cast members to see how they felt about their role(s), performing, and how the show went. Freshman (now sophomore), Rebecca Villa states, ”I played the role of a mother in two seperate scenes (Christmas in Cali and Elf Not That One) and also as a crew cast during ‘Twas the Night Before Opening. I enjoyed my roles a lot since I felt the motherly type of behavior corresponded with how I’m the ‘mom’ of the friend group.” Villa seems to relate to their role since it fits the feeling of them being the “mother” of their friend group. They expressed that the show went smooth and that everyone that was a part of the stage, whether it be onstage or backstage, worked well on the show. They said that it was an amazing experience which sparked their interest in wanting to be a part of other productions. They anticipate to be in future productions which happened when they starred in Matilda the Musical in Spring 2020 and Bad Auditions…On Camera! in Fall 2020.

Freshman (now sophomore), Aleida Hernandez, says, “I really enjoyed performing in the show because I met tons of new people and became friends with all of them.” Hernandez enjoys the environment of the theatre where she gets to make friends with the people she had newly met. She had played three roles overall in the show but her favorite was Tina in Christmas in Cali. She has also been featured in productions like Matilda the Musical in Spring 2020, Bad Auditions…On Camera! in Fall 2020, and Little Shop coming in Spring 2021.

Senior (now graduated) Cole Beattie, tells us, “In Naughty & Nice I didn’t play a specific role but I had singing numbers that were placed in the show as a part of my project for my Theatre Quest class! I loved singing in the show though. Singing is one of my favorite parts of theatre and I really was so thrilled to participate as well as sing with my duet partner Natasha Signorelli in “Baby It’s Cold Outside”. Beattie expressed that even though he didn’t particularly play any roles in the show, he had a part of singing which he enjoys in theatre with his partner. He really loved the show and how much work everyone did for the show in such a short amount of time. He is proud of how hard everyone involved worked to produce and run the show with the amount of underclassmen involved.

Many people said that the play from their viewing was a very entertaining and fun experience. Although we can’t really enjoy things in this form, it doesn’t take away the fact that things like this did happen and we can look back at the memories made from it and hope we can go back to them someday.