Southwest Florida Theatre Producer Andrew Kurtz had the idea and the company’s Musical Director Julie Beardon Carver did the rest. The result is a holiday musical set in the magical town of Grimmville.
“It's kind of Grimms' fairy tale creatures meet 'The Gift of the Magi,' and there's an unexpected plot twist in the middle, some great little surprises and a lot of familiar music,” said Carver. “You'll recognize not only Christmas carols, but maybe even a little opera tune.”
As she did with last season’s “Snowbird Follies,” Carver cleverly reworks familiar tunes.
“The Christmas carols are used to advance the story,” Carver said. “And you'll recognize the characters. It will be a different take on what you're used to with Hansel and Gretel and Rapunzel.”
When a mysterious enchanted mirror stirs jealousy and temptation, the trio’s acts of sacrifice and forgiveness reveal the spirit of Christmas. Filled with classic holiday songs and fairy-tale charm, “Once Upon a Christmastime” celebrates love, redemption and the wonder of the season.
The musical is onstage Nov. 19 through Dec. 6.
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Featuring cherished holiday songs and captivating storytelling, this festive journey sparkles with joy, wonder, and a touch of happily ever after — a magical experience for audiences of all ages.
“It stars Natalie Brouwer, Matt Michael and Kiana Cintron,” Carver noted. “They've all been on our stages before. They're wonderful.”
Raymond Jaramillo McLeod directs.
“He’ll be making his Southwest Florida Theatre Company debut as a director,” Carver added.
Julie Beardon Carver
Julie Bearden Carver is a professional musical director, voice and acting coach, orchestrator and arranger. As artistic operations manager for Gulf Coast Symphony, she rosters and facilitates housing for guest artists from across the country. As music director of Southwest Florida Theatre Company, Carver works directly with Producer Andrew Kurtz to select, cast, and produce shows at the Music and Arts Community Center and the spring show with orchestra at Barbara B Mann. She regularly piano conducts rehearsals and performances. Shows include “Next to Normal,” “Grand Night for Singing,” “Nunsense,” “Route 66,” “Forever Plaid,” “Camelot,” among many others. Her new cabaret series “Julie Carver presents…” will showcase singers from the local community stages to Broadway.
Go here to view the rest of Carver’s long and illustrious theater credits.
Natalie Brouwer
Natalie Brouwer performs professionally as an actor and singer. She was last seen at the Music & Arts Community Center in “Howl at the Moon,” a one-night-only Broadway cabaret where the ghosts of the Great White Way came out to play.
Brouwer’s other stage credits include “Beehive: The 60s Musical,” Carole King in “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical” (The Broadway Palm); “Jersey Boys” (Barbara B. Mann PAH), Linda in “Night and Day,” “Jingle Bell Jubilee,” Lady in the Street in “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time,” “Laughter on the 23rd Floor,” “Ho! Ho! Ho! The Christmas Show” and "I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change” for Players Circle Theatre; “Nunsense” for Gulf Coast Symphony; “Beauty and the Beast” for The Alhambra Theatre and Dining; “Miracle on 34th Street” for Beach Street Repertory Theatre; “Bright Star,” “Marvelous Wonderettes,” “Sanders Family Christmas,” “Something’s Afoot” and “Working: The Musical” for Appalachian Repertory Theatre; “Common Enemy” for Triad Stage; “The Wizard of Oz,” “Bridge to Terabithia,” “Winnie the Pooh” and “Sleeping Beauty” for Barter Theatre; and multiple singing engagements for Brian Gurl Productions.
Brouwer also works as an audiobook narrator. Natalie grew up in the beautiful mountains of western North Carolina. She received her B.A. in Theatre from Lee University (where she performed in “Wit,” “Sabrina Fair” and “33 Variations”) and her M.F.A. in Acting from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (where she performed in “Cabaret,” “Machinal” and “Twelfth Night”).
Kiana Raine-Cintron
Kiana Raine Cintron is a product of the Center for the Arts at Cypress Lake High School and Stuart Brown’s theater program at Florida Southwestern State College. Her stage credits include work in the ensemble of “The Addams Family” musical at Broadway Palm (where she was also understudy for the role of Wednesday Gomez), “Footloose,” “Sister Act,” “Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat,” the seamstress and work in the ensemble of “Irving Berlin’s White Christmas,” “A Chorus Line,” dancing in the ensemble of “Broadway Palm Thru the Decades” and “In the Heights” (Prather Entertainment), Wanda in “Escape to Margaritaville” (Prather Entertainment), Sonia in “Godspell,” Dance Captain in “Newsies!” (Florida Repertory Theatre), Nina Zarechnaya in Anton Chekhov’s “The Seagull” (FSW Theatre Program), “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change” (in which she portrayed seven different characters (FSW Theatre Program), Tilly in “She Kills Monsters” (FSW Theatre Program), the Assistant Choreographer Lara in “A Chorus Line” (Florida Rep Conservancy) and Claire in “This Random World” (FSW Theatre Program).
She was also a shadow dancer in Florida Rep’s “Spring Awakening.”
Striving to be well-rounded, Kiana served as teaching artist for “Annie,” “Aladdin,” “Anything Goes” and “The Wizard of Oz” at Florida Rep and stage manager for FSW’s production of “Wellesley Girl.” [Some of her credits and media refer to her by her maiden name of Raine-Pinder.]
Cintron is also an emerging choreographer.
“I actually started choreographing professionally when I was working at Florida Rep,” said Cintron prior to the opening of “In the Heights” at the Alliance for the Arts. “I started as an intern. Then I did TA, which is their teaching assistance, and then I came on staff. I got to choreograph Patsy Cline and do some little line dancing for that. Then I assistant choreographed for ‘Spring Awakening’ at Florida Rep, summer camps and a kid’s show over at Broadway Palm.”
Her skills were put to the test when Carmen Crussard recruited her to choreograph the Alliance’s production of Lin Manuel Miranda’s “In the Heights.”
“Typically when you're choreographing, you can choreograph to the music, to the beats,” Cintron noted. “’In the Heights’ is one of those shows where you have to choreograph to the lyrics, to every single lyric, which means that all of your dancers need to know every single word to every single rap. It required four times as much choreo than a normal show because of how full the text is, but honestly the biggest challenge was getting everyone to know you don't need to just learn choreo, you have to learn lyrics that aren't even yours to sing or say.”
Cintron’s distinctive choreography in that show reflected her early childhood experiences.
“My grandmother is from Cuba,” Cintron said. “My mom was born in Cuba and they came over on a freedom flight. My grandmother's a painter, and when I was growing up, my grandmother would paint people dancing on the beach and she would paint these beautiful Cubana dancers and there’d be all these pretty poses and they'd open their skirts and spin.”
The result was a series of ensemble dance numbers that fully captured the spirit and elan of the Heights and Lin Manuel Miranda’s lyrics and score.
Matt Michael
Matt Michael is an accomplished actor and singer active in Southwest Florida’s theatre community. Michael brings vocal versatility and stage presence to every performance, making him a dynamic addition to any ensemble.
His credits include “Through the Decades” at Broadway Palm;l various roles for Players Circle Theatre in “Night and Day,” “The Dining Room” and “Laughter on the 23rd Floor”; Nunzio, a cop and the stage manager in “Newsies” for Iron Bridge Dinner Theatre in Tyrone, Pennsylvania; John Adams in “1776” for Northhampton Summer Theatre in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; Mr. Jacobi, Seitz and Male Swing in “Newsies” for Northhampton Summer Theatre; Sam Carmichael in “Mamma Mia” for Iron Bridge Dinner Theatre; J.P. Morgan in "Ragtime" for Northampton Summer Theatre; Tony DelVeccio in the regional premiere of “Disaster!” for Northampton Summer Theatre; multiple roles in “Playing Doctor” for Clove Creek Dinner Theatre in Fishkill, New York; multiple roles in “Almost, Maine” for Clove Creek Dinner Theatre; Corny Collins in “Hairspray” for Sugarloaf Performing Arts Center in Chester, New York; Chuck Cranston in “Footloose” for Sugarloaf Performing Arts Center; the Phantom in “Phantom of the Opera” for Sugarloaf Performing Arts Center; Kenickie in “Grease” for Theatre at West Shore Station in Newburgh, New York; Orin and ensemble in “Little Shop of Horrors” for Just Off Broadway in Newburgh, New York; and the Pirate King in “The Pirates of Penzance” for Rail Road Playhouse.
Raymond Jaramillo McLeod
Raymond Jaramillo McLeod is an actor, voice actor, and singer. He has appeared on stages performing opera and musical theater nationwide. He has been in five Disney movies. On TV, he is best known for roles on “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” “Adventures in Wonder Park,” and guest appearances on “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” and “Law & Order: Criminal Intent.” He appeared in the Gulf Coast Symphony production of “West Side Story” as Officer Krupke (his first non-singing role in a musical). He will star as John Adams in Gulf Coast Symphony’s upcoming production of “1776: The Musical."
He has performed at the Hollywood Bowl and has been seen on Broadway stages including as Eddie in “The Wild Party”; opposite Taye Diggs and Wreck in “Wonderful Town” at City Center Encores! He recently appeared as Juan Peron in the 20th anniversary tour of “Evita.” He has also performed in several Los Angeles opera productions, notably as Doctor Grenvil in “La Traviata.” He has also performed with Plácido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti, José Carreras, and Kiri Te Kanawa and performed in concert with John Denver, Barbara Streisand, and Linda Eder.
Other stage credits include multiple roles in “A Tale of Two Cities”; a villager, vampire and Creature of the Night in “Dance of the Vampires”; and Simon Stride in “Jekyll & Hyde.”
Support for WGCU’s arts & culture reporting comes from the Estate of Myra Janco Daniels, the Charles M. and Joan R. Taylor Foundation, and Naomi Bloom in loving memory of her husband, Ron Wallace.
