Encore Theatrical Arts Project will be performing Christmas Undercover, an original story written by Scott and Karsten Dees, as a holiday season performance for all ages. In a world where elves are undercover amongst humans, a rookie elf named Marzipan faces the problem of a child without Christmas spirit and must try her best to save the North Pole and Christmas.
Encore Theatrical Arts Project is a nonprofit organization that performs original works like Christmas Undercover. The company was founded in 1996 by Raynor van der Merwe and Mario Petrides, who were driven by their own creative visions and the desire to give dancers an opportunity to perform.
The company focuses on community outreach, especially connecting with young people, as they feel it’s important to make an impact so the arts stay alive. They have backstage tours to show children how a show is put together and to let them meet some of the dancers. “We have to continue to build and inspire young audiences,” says van der Merwe. He says that Encore Theatrical Arts Project tries to keep ticket prices low to allow as many people as possible to attend.
Encore Theatrical Arts Project has teamed up with Brookfield Elementary School to invite students and parents to come in for a backstage tour and then watch a dress rehearsal. The company performs at charity events, which van der Merwe says is meant to “open [the dancers’] eyes to a bigger world at such a sensitive, young age.”
The company also travels internationally and has performed in China, Spain, Greece and South Africa, where van der Merwe and Petrides are both from originally. The community outreach stretched there, too; South African students and dancers from Encore Theatrical Arts Project interacted and were taught dance routines by the other. “We get to put a real face to who Americans are,” van der Merwe says of why international performances are important, likening them to how the Olympic Games should be, with everyone coming together for a common goal.
Christmas Undercover will premiere Dec. 9 at the Richard J. Ernst Theatre in Annandale.
