Nashville Magician - Rodney Kelley

Now is just about the time when Opryland Theme Park would be in rehearsals full schedule and I would already have my show done and rehearsed and would be putting up Christmas decorations at home so that I could be getting in the mood for Christmas.....It was always right around the 18th of November that the "Christmas in the Park" celebration would start, if not the 18th, then the closest Saturday to the 18th would be opening weekend. For the rehearsals I would drive in to the theater and see everyone alive with the Christmas spirit and in their costumes training for whatever they would be doing during Christmas. A lot of the vendors would be driving in and stocking and decorating their shops with trees, tinsel and Santa's everywhere. You could walk around the park and smell the wood burning as they were getting the new employees trained to make the coffee and the hot chocolate and the other items that would be sold.

Most of the time, I would buy a new coffee maker and a new heater for the back of the theater and then stock up on hot chocolate and coffee so that I could serve the guests that would come visit after the shows. During Christmas I had a basket that sat on the table in my dressing room and I would fill it with candy canes, red and green M&M's, and other sweets for any children that would visit after shows.

Bags and bags of Christmas decorations had to be packed into my trunk to be taken to the theater as I always wanted to add decorations to what the park had already put up. The day before "Christmas at Opryland" would open we would have a "dry run through" or we would pretend that we were open and everyone would do their job and see what shows still needed rehearsal and what employees still needed more training. The "dry run through" was always really very neat in a way, the upper management would walk around the park and order things and go see shows, while at the same time taking notes on what things needed more decorations or what needed to be improved upon. My show was one of the lucky ones, some years they would walk to my theater and just say "Thank You" for being a part of the Christmas program and I wouldn't have to do a run through of the show at all. Other years the management team would come through and surprise me by showing up on opening day and watching the show with a theater full of people!
Either way I felt very lucky to be included and really felt that the management trusted me enough that they didn't need to "approve" the show I had put together for Christmas.

My direct supervisor for "Christmas in the Park" was Stan Stout, and he was the very best !!! He always greeted you with a huge smile, looking like a million dollars, and always had some kind of Thank You gift to let you know that he appreciated your hard work!! I'm not really sure what happened to Stan after the park closed but really enjoyed working with and for him during the Christmas shows!

Directly across from my theater was the "American Music Theater" which was playing the show "A Gift For Santa" and that show was always very excellent! thus that is why the video is included. Really miss the good ole' days with all of the above mentioned, but yet at the same time am still looking forward to our Christmas as it is now.

This early I have not put up any decoration and probably won't until later in December but am still looking forward to Santa coming and bringing good Football games for us to watch after we are stuffed with Mom's cooking!!!!

Thanks for reading!
Rodney
www.rodneykelley.com