Photo by Laura Heise
The holiday season is officially up and running and onstage with Acacia Theatre’s production of A Laura Ingalls Wilder Christmas. Filling in a two-year gap missing from the classic Little House book series, this adaptation finds the Ingalls family struggling with personal and financial loss as they try to move forward with their lives staying and working at a hotel while eventually heading West.
Ten-year-old Laura tries to find her place in the tight-knit world of her family amid these struggles while fearing adoption by a wealthy doctor’s wife. The simple messages of love and family ring true and come through in this production, which keeps the costumes and sets simple and the focus on the story and the acts of survival.
Standouts in the cast include Claire Zempel as the oldest Ingalls daughter, Mary, and Elaine Wyler with a near perfect caricature as the well-to-do Mrs. Starr. Grace Provan’s Laura is an independent thinker who still needing her parents’ love and attention and the young actress helps us to better understand how this young girl would grow up to become one of literature’s most beloved authors.
Through Nov. 20 at Concordia University’s Todd Wehr Auditorium, 12800 N. Lake Shore Drive, Mequon. For tickets, call 414-744-5995, or visit acaciatheatre.com.
