BY KADIE TAYLOR
THE OBSERVER
OPELIKA — On Christmas Eve in 1914, on a WWI battlefield, German and Allied soldiers ceased fire and joined together to trade songs and have a Christmas Truce. Inspired by the story of the Christmas Truce, Jim Harris wrote the script for “The Christmas Truce — A Christmas Miracle,” a multimedia, theatrical, choral and orchestral event which was performed in Opelika on Nov. 16.
“It all started when I was a child,” Harris said. “My Mother told me the story of the Christmas Truce, and it stuck with me all my life. I was haunted by it — inspired by it — [but also] haunted by it. One of the reasons I was inspired [was] because it actually happened — they stopped fighting, but I was haunted by it because it didn’t hold and they went back to fighting almost right away.”
Harris said visiting the battle site where the Christmas Truce occurred was impactful and inspiring, and through collaborative work and creativity, the performance was born.
“I was touring some battlefields, and I made sure that I visited the spot where the Christmas Truce occurred, and I was struck and fascinated by the plainness of it,” he said. “There was nothing there — it was just a field and a small marker. You wouldn’t know that something extraordinary happened there. So I thought, this is a great subject for a musical. And it just so happens that I work with a brilliant musician, and I know a brilliant director and a brilliant costumer.”
After Harris wrote the script and began to collaborate with the composer, director and costumer — composer, Mark Hayes said he began working with the 80-voice East Alabama Civic Chorale and the 30-piece East Alabama Community Band Orchestra to prepare to fill the stage of the Opelika Center for the Performing Arts.
“Teresa Rhyne directs the chorale. We sent her the music several months in advance, and she taught it to everybody,” he said. “I had the privilege of conducting the show. We used a local band and brought in some string players from Atlanta. We really just had a few rehearsals to put it all together.”
Director Richard Rose said while working with local talent, he saw his actors go from employees by day to performers at night.
“We did a straight audition process, and I have to say, I’m not generally a director of community theater — largely, my whole career has been professional from New York and around the United States,” he said. “I’ve been saying this about the company, really, since we had roughly two weeks’ worth of rehearsal. I don’t think I had all of the actors at any one rehearsal until this last week because they have jobs or they have other things that they’ve committed to. But I said to the cast about four or five days ago, ‘I’ve directed very highly professional people who were not as good as they [are].’ They were a tremendous cast.”
As he reflected on his time working with the performers, musicians and singers who were a part of the Opelika performance of “A Christmas Truce,” Harris said he was excited about the skills he saw.
“I was just amazed and impressed by the talent and ability of all those involved — the chorus, orchestra and actors were all wonderful,” he said. “There is certainly a great deal of talent in this area.”
As Hayes and Rose prepared the musicians, singers and actors, Harris’ work was not done; he not only wrote the script for “A Christmas Truce,” but he also played an important role as an actor.
“[On the night of the performance] I was wanting to not only do justice to the work, but I wanted to remember my lines, and I wanted to get the right cues to Mark, because a lot of the things I said triggered the music,” Harris said. “So if I came in at the wrong place, then Mark didn’t know when to start the choir — and there’s like 120 people depending upon that. I will say this, Bert and I were running lines 30 minutes before the show — just to make sure that everything went well, but [in the end] it went very smoothly. Thank Heaven.”
With the Southeastern regional premiere performance of “A Christmas Truce” completed, Hayes said he is beginning collaborations to publish the work, so others can share the important message of the historic moment.
“I’m in the music business and have a lot of music published by several publishers around the United States — so I have connections,” he said. “I’ve actually already spoken to one publisher about publishing a theatrical project, which is also a concert, where choirs would either buy or lease the music. So I was waiting until we did this performance so I would have a video to show them.”
Harris said he hopes viewers of “A Christmas Truce” would take away the same admiration and interest in the happenings that occurred on Christmas Eve in 1914 which inspired him to write this production and remember the courage of the soldiers to fight and make peace that historic night.
“One of the reasons that I was haunted by this story is my mother made it clear [when] she told me the story as a child, that they were fighting before it, and they started fighting after [the truce],” he said. “So this piece, written accurately and realistically, looks that in the face and tells that story. [And asks], ‘What can we learn from that?’ [The performance shows] there’s a lot that can be learned, and that if we follow the lessons of the Christmas Truce in the future, maybe things can be better… I hope that the story is remembered and discussed, and that people will remember the key message that, ‘It takes courage to fight, but it also takes courage to make peace.’”
