Theatre Woodstock presents A Snow White Christmas

Top row, left to right: Joanna Sweete, Alex Woodward-Herborth, Joanna Kennedy, Middle row, left: David Butcher, Middle row, right: Aaron Gorlick, Bottom row, left to right: Dana Fobert, Jeff Sweete (Director), Grace Kennedy. (Joanna Kennedy/Grace kennedy Photos)

Emily Stewart, Echo Correspondent

Just in time for the holidays, Theatre Woodstock will bring a winter fairy tale to the stage by presenting A Snow White Christmas by Norm Foster.

Directed by Jeff Sweete, produced by Kim DiLello, and featuring a Blacklight youth team directed by Joanna Sweete, it examines what happened after the supposed happily ever after.

Sarah Hodgkinson, marketing and communications coordinator at Theatre Woodstock, is looking forward to the production coming to the stage.

"It is magical. It has Blacklight magical scenes where things are floating. I don't want to reveal what's floating exactly, but it's so cool to see that on our stage.”

She added that the comedy is a Christmas present for young and old.

“It is not your grandmother's Snow White like in the 1940s, the everything's going great in her life Snow White, although she does die for a while there,” Hodgkinson said. “This is the Snow White who is now divorced. She is bitter. She is working in a candy shop doing her best to make ends meet. That is the Snow White that we get to know."

Kristin Klein worked on plenty of costumes for the performance. Earlier this year, she won the Western Ontario Drama League Award of Merit for Behind the Scenes with her daughter Jocelynne Klein for their dresses in the February production of Cinderella.

“I’m excited for people to see those,” Hodgkinson said.

The performance is the second Oxford County community theatre production on the Foster Four Tour. All of the community theatres in Oxford County are presenting a production by beloved Foster during their 2024/25 season, and each show part of the tour will give attendees a chance to enter a draw to win a pair of tickets to the Norm Foster Festival in the summer of 2025. Embro’s Thistle Theatre kicked off the Foster Four with The Ladies Foursome in the fall.

In 2025, Theatre Tillsonburg will present Opening Night in February and Ingersoll Theatre of Performing Arts (ITOPA) will bring The Long Weekend to the stage in June. Hodgkinson said that she spoke with someone part of ITOPA, who said the second bestselling show of the 2024/2025 season is The Long Weekend, a production six months away.

"They are already seeing at ITOPA, which is the final Foster show. They're already seeing postal codes they've never seen before because Norm Foster fans will travel to see his plays."

A Snow White Christmas runs from Dec. 5 to 15. All shows on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays will start at 7:30 p.m. with the two Sunday matinees at 2 p.m.

Tickets are $28 each for adults, $20 for students, $18 for youth 12-and-under and $20 on Thrifty Thursdays. To purchase tickets, either visit the box office on 22 Reeve Street, call 519-537-2582 or visit www.theatrewoodstock.com.