Last December, scenes from holiday movie classics came to life in Downtown Naperville’s storefront windows.
This year, the living windows will be back, with both returning favorites and some new scenes sure to make you smile.
“Kids get right up to the window, they try to make the actors break character, but they don’t break character, and they take pictures with it, you get a sense you own the street at that time,” said Kandiss Hernandez, executive director of Fair Lady Productions.
The display is a joint project by the Downtown Naperville Alliance and the Center Stage Players – who bring the props, costumes, and of course, the actors.
And the players have to use their acting chops in a different way.
Instead of being in and out of character as they enter and exit the stage in a normal play or musical, these actors have be in character and engaged for the whole event.
“The example I give them is Disney. Everybody has been to Disneyland and if you study those characters you see they never lose their engagement, their animation, their character,” said Hernandez. “Once you give a kid that frame of reference they get what I’m looking for.”
It may not be Disneyland, but the young actors still get to bring some of their favorite characters to life in this one-night only display.
You can catch the living windows in Downtown Naperville on December 7 from 5 to 8 p.m.
Naperville News 17’s Blane Erwin reports.
