Star Wars Trumps Christmas at the Aurora Fox Arts Center This Holiday Season

Holiday theater offerings typically involve sugar plum fairies and Tiny Tims, but the Aurora Fox Arts Center is taking a different approach to its holiday season, inviting visitors on a nostalgic journey through the Star Wars universe. In a galaxy just outside of Denver, you can grab your lightsabers and attend the Colorado premiere of Canadian playwright Stephen Massicotte’s new play, The Jedi Handbook, which runs from Friday, November 25, through Sunday, December 18.

The epic space opera franchise began its legacy in pop-culture history when George Lucas debuted A New Hope in 1977. Since then, it has expanded into twelve feature films (with more being developed by Disney), numerous television series, video games, novels, comic books and theme park attractions. The series became a global phenomenon, forever changing the film industry and winning the hearts and minds of young people worldwide. The passion that surrounds it is at the forefront of The Jedi Handbook, a coming-of-age story about a boy whose life was saved by Star Wars after he moved to a new city.

Audiences will experience the thrilling adventures of Star Wars through the eyes of the play's two young protagonists, best friends who connect over the films and must deal with something more terrifying than Darth Vader and more hideous than Jabba the Hutt: maturing. Jedi is part of Aurora Fox Arts' 38th season, and seeks to celebrate the human spirit through nostalgic yet challenging insights.

“I was unaware of The Jedi Handbook until Helen Murray [former executive producer for the Aurora Fox] reached out to me about doing their seasonal show, but I have always loved Star Wars,” says director Geoffrey Kent. “I like how the Aurora Fox counter-programs the holidays with something that’s an escape from the candy canes and Christmas colors but still full of hope and joy.”

And in the case of Kent, the story reflects his real life and interests. The director saw A New Hope when he was six years old, and has vivid memories of using household objects to reenact scenes from the movie. After he finished reading the Jedi script, he sent the Aurora Fox team a video of himself as a kid acting out a lightsaber fight as proof of his qualifications to direct the show.

A New Hope may have been his entry point to the series, but Kent says Rogue One is his favorite Star Wars movie. He's heard the argument that The Empire Strikes Back is the best, but contends that it doesn’t stand alone without the filmmaking and storytelling elements from A New Hope and Return of the Jedi.

Kent also loves all the Star Wars-related television shows coming out, such as Andor. “It's gripping, well cast, and wonderfully diverse,” he says. “Sci-fi does its best work when it speaks to the time, and it’s exciting to see the new trilogy, spinoffs and TV shows allow Star Wars to reflect our time.”

When Kent was offered the position to direct The Jedi Handbook, he knew he wanted to emphasize that the Star Wars universe is for everyone — and that includes people who have had no previous exposure to the franchise. The two lead actors who play the kids, Mykail Cooley and Rashad Holland, didn’t grow up with Star Wars.

“To be honest, The Jedi Handbook was my first real Star Wars experience,” Cooley admits. “I remember seeing the little toys in Happy Meals, which were pretty cool, and so was that one scene where Anakin is burning alive. But I didn't really know the story of Star Wars. I grew up in the ’hood. Star Wars wasn't a big selling point to kids in my tax demographic.”

Cooley was drawn to the project because of his positive experience working with the Aurora Fox on Dontrell, Who Kissed the Sea earlier this year. He described the audition process as being incredibly rewarding. Even though he didn't have a personal connection to the world of Star Wars, he was drawn to the creative environment cultivated by Kent.

The director says that during the casting process, he set out to find people who reflected diversity within the nerd community. “There are some toxic elements within the fandom, filled with people who are unwilling to let these stories adapt or change. This play is not for them,” he explains. “The Star Wars universe should be for everyone, because anyone can be a nerd.”

To help the cast get up to speed on the various pop-cultural references in the script, Kent hosted a “Nerd College” at rehearsal. The cast went through the script together while Kent acted as the “nerd dramaturgy,” taking the time to explain all the references to lines from the Star Wars films and other aspects of nerd culture.

While there wasn’t enough time to watch the films together as a cast, Kent asked the actors to check out some of the films on their own; he even specifically asked them to stomach the Star Wars Holiday Special. “Even though I’d recommend audience members avoid the Christmas special,” he says, “I asked the cast to watch it because I realized that, in a way, we’re making our very own Star Wars holiday special.”

While the cast needs to understand all the niche references, Kent promises that audience members do not, as the play explains everything they'll need to know about the movies to understand what's going on. In fact, in the very first scene, the children recap the entire history of the Star Wars franchise.

“It’s a play that utilizes the allegory of Star Wars and the love of nerd culture to tell a unique, original story,” Cooley says. "Although it makes references to Star Wars, it's really a story about the feeling of childlike wonderment, first friendships and the joys of imagination.”

Kent has been leaning into a childlike sense of play in the rehearsal room and during the design process. “The first thing we did at our initial design meeting was all play with lightsabers,” he says. “I can honestly say that this is the first production meeting I’ve ever attended that started with playing with toys. The whole design team is a group of self-proclaimed nerds that love what they do.”

Brandon Case, Aurora Fox technical director and the scenic designer for The Jedi Handbook, wanted to create a location that looked like what a child would see in their imagination while playing on a playground. The effect is achieved by contrasting Case's physical scenic design with projections of illustrations from the kids' notebooks. “It’s kind of like what I would do when I used to make forts out of things I found around the house," Case says. "I [didn't] see it as cardboard and plywood I pulled out of the trash — in my head, it was a very real thing. My set design allows the audience to see what the environment looks like inside the children's minds.”

Case looks forward to seeing the audience’s reaction to the set and all of its surprises; the technical components are quite elaborate. “This is a new medium for us,” he says. "I don't believe anyone in town is doing this live on stage...except maybe at a rave." He and his team will be running at least five projections, have plans to make the set come to life and completely disappear, and are setting up lasers on stage for one of the fight sequences.

Kent acknowledges that when working with so many technical elements, such as smoke, video projectors, lasers and lightsabers, there's the potential for them to upstage the production. “But I’m lucky,” he adds. “I’ve worked with Brandon before, and he understands that the set has to help tell the story.” Everything is designed to evoke a sense of schoolyard camaraderie and show how fandoms can bring people together.

Cooley is enjoying the rehearsal process. It's a dense play, which means he has a lot of lines to memorize, but he says it's been a joy to collaborate with the team because “everyone is just having fun. It’s hard work as an actor, but it's always a beautiful thing when hard work can [mean] a great time for the audience.”

Whether you’re a Padawan, a Trekkie or a theater freak, your heart is sure to be warmed by the play’s theme: Don't sacrifice your inner child to become an adult. “You don’t even need to be a fan of Star Wars to appreciate The Jedi Handbook,” says Kent. “People can just come to watch kids have fun playing pretend on the playground. It’s a family-friendly love letter to your inner nerd that anyone can connect to!”

The Jedi Handbook, Friday, November 25, through December 18, 7:30 p.m. Friday through Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, Aurora Fox Arts Center, 9900 East Colfax Avenue, Aurora. Get tickets and more information at aurorafoxartscenter.org.