Theatre Department enters holiday season with “The Happy Elf”
Mansoor Ahmad
Staff Photographer
The Minnesota State University, Mankato’s Theatre & Dance Department kicked off the countdown to the holiday season with the performance of “The Happy Elf” in the Ted Paul Theatre at the Earley Center for Performing Arts Friday, Nov. 2.
“The Happy Elf” tells the tale of the cheeriest elf at the North Pole, Eubie, and his attempt at adding Bluesville, a town full of ‘naughty’ children, on Santa’s list for Christmas Eve deliveries.
Eubie’s elf friend, Gilda, mentions of a ‘Tree-mail’ from Santa which announces his decision of picking his Sleigh Team, compromised of three elves, the day before Christmas Eve. Just as Eubie and his friends express their utmost interest in being on the team, their supervisor, Norbert, shows up to the gathering, asking the elves to get back to work on toy production.
After Eubie dancingly leads the elves into a song, which halts the toy production, Norbert fires him, and heads to his meeting with Santa. Eubie identifies this as a prime opportunity to get in the good graces of Santa, and gains some good-elf points after calling him “Santarrific.” Displeased, Norbert rehires Eubie and assigns him to the ‘Naughty and Nice Department’.
Eubie discovers Bluesville doesn’t have a single entry on the nice list, so he decides to make an “unauthorized” trip to Bluesville and help convince the inhabitants to be nice.
Will Eubie succeed in helping Bluesville make it to Santa’s nice list? Or will Norbert keep Eubie from his mischievous ways and prevent the elf to making it to the Sleigh Team?
To learn where Eubie’s misadventures lead him, come see “The Happy Elf” in the Ted Paul Theatre. “The Happy Elf” will run at 7:30 p.m Nov. 8-10, and 2 p.m. Nov. 10-11 in the Ted Paul Theatre. Tickets can be purchased online at MSUTheatre.com, or from the Box Office in the Performing Arts Center.
Header photo by Mansoor Ahmad | MSU Reporter.
