‘I’ll Be Home for Christmas’

A family musical about life, faith and hope will be presented in Camas.“I’ll Be Home for Christmas” revolves around the announcement of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.

Mark Maguire, pastor of First Christian Church of Camas, said that time involved anxiety and fear associated with the unknown.

“It is poignant for today,” he said. “People are anxious about the unknown. The economy, is it going to crash? What’s going to happen in the world?

“Things are in flux,” Maguire added. “ Society is changing rapidly.”

The play involves loved ones going to war.

Maguire said the musical is also very humorous with great “jazzy swing band music.”

There will be an orchestra and a choir.

“It’s a big production for a little church,” Maguire said.

It was written by Deborah Craig-Claar and Mark Hayes.

The play includes sound effects from radio shows “Fibber McGee and Molly,” “The Lone Ranger” and “The Shadow.”

The cast includes Jeremy Zonker, Emily Hopple and her son Andrew, and Jenn McMillan and her husband Joel. Maguire portrays radio announcer Jerry Brainard.

Maguire is directing the production, and his son James sings in it.

Maguire’s daughter, Anne, is directing the choir and vocalists. She is a graduate of the Boston Conservatory.

Another conservatory graduate, Tabitha Shepherd, is conductor of the orchestra for the play. While working on a master’s degree at the conservatory, she is a student teacher of the symphonic band at Washougal High School.

Many of the choir and orchestra participants in the play are WHS students.