The Christmas Truce

CTPA lines up diverse array of acts for new season

The Columbia Theatre will offer a group that performs dances from India, a Broadway musical that's new to the community and veteran actor Ed Asner during the season that starts in September.

The nine-performance season also includes an evening of jazz, a musical play set during World War I and some wacky men and women in kilts.

The theater has started selling single tickets for shows, which range in price from $25 to $45 for most shows, with discounts available for multiple events.

Last season, the theater offered 10 shows, and the lineup in years past has inclulded as many as 17 shows. But theater Executive Director Gian-Paul Morelli said the overall audience stays about the same from year to year, so the theater holds down expenses by presenting fewer shows with higher average audiences.

The average attendance for CTPA-produced shows last season was 623, or 78 percent of the hall's capacity.

Last season, Morelli said the only show that didn't sell enough tickets to meet revenue projections headlined impersonator Rich Little. Though Little was a major TV attraction in the 1960s, his appeal is probably too narrow these days, Morelli said.

He thinks the "big name" of the upcoming season, Asner, will do better. Though Asner's biggest TV roles were in the 1970s, he's stayed active voicing cartoons. "His career path is much wider," Morelli said.

Though the city of Longview owns the Columbia Theater, a non-profit organization operates it and presents the shows. The theater also is rented to outside presenters, which last season staged such acts as the Pioneer Lions Cabaret and Elvis tribute artist Justin Shandor.

Morelli and the theater board have been working on a "brand" for the venue. Rather than one genre of act, such as Broadway shows or Celtic, the theater hopes to build a brand based on high-quality acts in a variety of styles, he said, adding "There are many different ways you can come to the Columbia Theatre."

Again this year, the theater will send out 50,000 brochures to potential ticket buyers from Chehalis to Vancouver. But the marketing campaign is shifting south. The CPTA will advertise in Portland Opera brochures and maybe with other Portland classical music organizations.

"Our brand has to reach way beyond this community," Morelli said.

To attract audiences from the Vancouver area, the theater is emphasizing its relatively intimate size compared to major Portland venues.

The Christmas Truce of December 1914

On the outbreak of World War I in 1914, most believed it would be concluded by Christmas. Patriotic teenage men were keen to join the army as soon as possible as they presumed they would miss out on the action. However, history has confirmed that their confidence was misdirected as the war would not finish right up until 1918. The German advance was stopped at the 1st Battle of Marne and the drive for the sea started out as the Allies and Germans both dug in. It was the start of the trench warfare of the Western Front.

The end result was lines of trenches running from the North Sea to Switzerland along a 440 mile front. The battle lines moved very little as a battle of attrition broke out. Original trenches were not well built and were prone to cave in. Even by trench warfare standards, 1914 was pretty horrendous. As winter approached, the soldiers on the front line knew that the war would not be all over by Xmas after all.

The Western Front ran through Belgium and France with infantry from France, Belgium and Great Britain guarding a number of sectors. In certain positions, the German trenches were less than 30 yards away. Being in such close proximity allowed the infantry to shout at their opponents or even display signs. On the German belt buckles was the inscription “Gott Mitt Uns” (God is with us). The British reply was “We’ve got mittens too”. Some of the shouting matches were a bit more black humour. A volley of shots would bring the shout “Missed” or “Right a bit”.

Regardless, it was these exchanges that laid the foundations of a handful of surprising scenes along the length of the Western Front on 24th December 1914. The Germans celebrate Christmas on the 24th as opposed to Great Britain and France who celebrate on the 25th). The weather had got better and on the 24th, the sounds from the German trenches were completely different. They began singing carols and positioned Christmas Trees across their trenches. Soldiers started calling to each other and eventually, some ventured into no mans land where they spoke and exchanged cigarettes, food and souvenirs. Reports of the ceasefire varies as there were in fact a handful of truces up and down the lines. They were mostly in the sections manned by the British as the Germans were occupying Belgium and French soil so the Christmas spirit was less in evidence amongst these soldiers.

The Xmas Truce of 1914 was not official but as many as 100,000 men were believed to have been involved. As well as fraternisation, the chance was also taken to recover and bury the dead. One of the most famous parts of the truce was the football match between the British and Germans. There are a number of inconsistant accounts concerning the game with a number of finals scores. This would suggest there were various games at different places.

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