Sunday News from Lancaster, Pennsylvania • 91

SUNDAY NEWS DECEMBER 9, 2007 Section What's Doing H2 Movies H4 Mini Page H6 Puzzles H7 Contact the Editor Michael Long 291-8687 mUnigta lnpnews.com www.lancasteronline.com Eric Stark Theater Review mw packs in the kids at EPAC Stark Ravings Leaving the dream job behind Radio personality heads for war zone Women called in crying, e-mails came flooding in and strangers showed up at the station just wanting to shake his hand. The reaction was overwhelming and caught Chris Charles completely off guard. Charles, the afternoon drive on-air personality at WARM-FM 103.3, quit his dream job late last month to work with United States soldiers in Iraq. This is the biggest challenge of my life, Charles said, but I look forward to it like nothing else. Charles, a 1996 Penn Manor High School graduate, signed a one-year agreement with a prominent government contractor to serve as morale, welfare and recreation coordinator for the armed forces in southern Iraq, about 20 miles from the Kuwaiti border.

His job wall be similar to that of an activities director on a cruise ship, except theres no ship, just desert. Charles will organize volleyball and basketball tournaments and other physical-fitness activities to bring fun to the off-duty hours of military personnel. Hell be the director of fun. I just want to put a smile on their faces, said Charles, 29, who is single and an amateur bodybuilder. Feeling an urge to help, he applied for the job six months ago.

He Please see MORALE BOOSTER, page H3 By Mrty Crisp Sunday News Staff Writer trump What if Romeo and Juliet didnt die? What if they put one over on the adults and moved to Albuquerque, N.M.? That story-within-a-story is part of the slightly subversive, totally wholesome, so-popular-its-insane High School Musical, just opened for the holidays at Ephrata Performing Arts Center. HSM, the new musical based on the Disney TV-movie megahit of the same name, is packing the seats of this intimate community theater and has young fans dancing in the aisles. So many kids cartwheeled and boogied across the set during intermission Friday night that it took a bulldozer to clear the stage for Act 2. (Just kidding about the dozer.) The outstanding 3Smember teen cast, ranging in age from 13 to 19, inspired wide-eyed wonder in the lads whove helped make High School Musical an international phenomenon. Here were Hoy, Gabnella, Ryan and Sharpay, not up on a screen, but living and breathing and breaking into songs like Bop to the Top" and Were All in This Together.

The target audience for this Family Series show has never heard of Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney and their 1940s-vintage lets-put-on-a-show movies, but the vibe is much the same: enthusiastic youth singing their way through all obstacles with a little budding romance. Only this time, there are lots of cell phones. Never fear. Theres no actual kissing, only a heartfelt hug, keeping down the ick factor for the 5- to 11-year-olds at the core of this Please see HSM, page H2 Maestro Stephen Gunzenhauser, festively adorned here with the help of some photo Illustration, will conduct Lancaster Symphony Orchestra In Its Sounds of the Season holiday concert Lancaster Symphony offers yuletide treat By vryAiice Bitts Sunday News Correspondent favorites, including selections from Tchaikovskys beloved Nutcracker Suite and a performance of Leroy Andersons jingly Sleigh Ride. We have the classics you would expect, but also a few surprises masterfully performed, Gunzenhauser said.

And we have avoided seasonal schlock. One of the evenings highlights will be a symphonic, setting of the classic Clement Clark Moore poem A Visit From St. Nicholas (Twas the Night Before Christmas), which will be narrated by LSO board member Clark Mc-Sparren. Dr. McSparren does the presentation of the Composers Award each year, and he has a wonderful way with the audience, Gunzenhauser said.

It will be a treat. Rounding out the program are the Hawaiian novelty tune Mele Kalikimaka, a canzona by baroque com- Please see SYMPHONY, page H2 You dont have to be a world-class vocalist to sing in Lancaster Symphony Orchestras first Sounds of the Season concert. You dont even have to sing on key. All you need is a willing spirit and a dash of holiday cheer. The concert, scheduled for four performances Dec.

14-16 at Franklin Marshall Colleges Barshinger Center, features a healthy variety of orchestral and choral seasonal works, and culminates in a jolly audience sing-along meant to stir the dormant caroler in everyone. This is not meant to be the Metropolitan Opera. What were trying to do has an entirely different objective, conductor Stephen Gunzenhauser said. And that objective is to bring the entire community together in song. The concert includes many recognizable holiday Christmas TSS stages ByJymesBcescher Sunday News Correspondent When it comes to holiday Christmas shows, theres no shortage of sappy, syrupy, sentimental schmaltz.

YVhat gets missed in all the holiday hoopla is thoughtfulness, a state of mind thats as essential to the Christmas spirit as plum pudding, presents and cookies for Santa. I love the concept of what Theater of the Seventh Sister is doing for their Christmas show this year, said actor Brian Martin, who will take part in the theaters upcoming holiday fare. Its more than nostalgia; its looking at Christmas through another kind of lens. Seventh Sister opens its doors Thursday on a dual production of The Long Christmas Dinner, a one-act play from times two For director Lydia Brubaker, the most interesting thing about the two productions is seeing how they fit together. There are differences, she said.

Wilder, just like he did in Our Town, has actors miming eating and drinking food, while A Childs Christmas in Wales is so prop-and costume-heavy, its almost like watching a period movie. Beyond their stylistic differences, the nostalgic themes in the two pieces dovetail nicely. They focus on the little things of Christmas, and both take a good look at what makes up our lives and memories, Brubaker said. Personally, my favorite part about the show is seeing Wales come to life. Like so many people, I read Thomas poem as a child.

Please see DRAMAS, page H5 Our Town author Thornton Wilder, and A Childs Christmas in Wales, a work of lyric prose by British poet Dylan Thomas. These are two very thoughtful pieces, Martin said. Both have an emotional element, and most folks, I think, will be able to find something they can relate to: families, moods, the joys of Christmas morning. We can all identify with whats happening onstage. These shows are also both nostalgic and innovative.

They make you think about what Christmas is really about. These are wonderi ul shows that are a real reality check irom the mall. The ensemble staging the pair of dramas includes Martin, Chet Williamson, Elizabeth Pattey, Amy Shea, Matt Hu-dacs. Bob Breen, Leslie Berkowitz and Nicole Buddendorf. A young Dylan Thomas (Matt Hudacs, center) shares a holiday story with friends actors, clockwise from lower left, Brian Martin, Elizabeth Pattey, Nicole Buddendorf, Bob Breen and Amy Shea in the Theater of the Seventh Sister production of A Child's Christmas In Wales.

Racoons debut album steadily builds a mistake. Hidden behind Bart van der Weides inoffensive songs about turbid relationships, everyone getting along, the misadventures of youth and the deep realizations of young adulthood is some fine tunecraft. He starts of the album with Happy amilv, singing about howT it would be nice if we could all just sit together to have a cup of everything to see all your faces smiling," set to a riff borrowed from Dave Matthews. Of course, he dismisses these dippy dreams because it all just seems to be about the money, man. Everybodys on the take.

The album progresses into something less predictably banaL By the final third of the album, the band has plugged in and musters just enough force to give swigs Lose Another Day," If You Know What I Mean and others sufficient musical weight to carry the seriousness of their lyncal aim. Some raunchy Hammond organ even makes its way into the mix on Hanging With the Clowns," a texture completely missing from the first act Even though the albums floser, Close Yoqr Eyes" Please see RACOON, page H5 By John Diffy Sunday News Correspondent When songs seems custom crafted to court a specific radio demographic, they should be treated with suspicioa And when a singer claims to know the deepest meaning of life by the age of 30, that, too, should raise an eyebrow. Both characteristics seem to fit Dutch acoustic rockers Racoon, whose first stateside release, Another Day, just drips with the Matchbox 20-Better Than Ezra-Goo Goo Dolls kind of FM earnestness that makes 19- to 34-year-old middle-class females feel all gooey inside and drop serious cash. Racoon will play in support of the Lemonheads Tbesday, Dec. 18, at the Chameleon Club in downtown Lancaster.

It is the band's first U.S. tour. Dismissing Racoon simply because your girlfriend likes them so much it makes you uneasy would be.