“Harlequin and the Green Christmas Gown” brought a holiday feel to the Charleston Alley Theatre this past weekend.

The play told a story of a young woman, Rosaura, who is the daughter of a rich miser and is in love with a handsome knight named Florindo.

The play revolves around who gets to wear a certain green dress at a Christmas party and the antics that follow.

Rosaura is played by Sarah Mims, an early childhood development graduate student at Eastern.

This is Mims’ sixth or seventh show at the Charleston Alley Theatre.

“When I got my part, I was told my character was the ‘in love, ballerina-like’ character, so I asked myself how I could make that funny,” Mims said. “I added that she was not very bright and that she messes up words a lot. I was able to use physical humor as well.”

The style of the play is a unique style called “commedia dell’arte,” which is a comedy style that uses a lot of improvisation.

“You have a stock character and you come up with a lot of your own dialogue in this style,” she said.

Darkeith Lofton played the part of Rosaura’s wealthy father, Pantalone, who does not approve of Rosaura’s love of the knight Florindo because he does not have much money.

In the end of the play, Florindo, played by Brendan Hughes lies to the father, and tells Pantalone that he is rich so Pantalone allows him to marry Rosaura.

“I like that these type of plays do not have a script, but more of an outline,” Lofton said. “It gives you more room to say things and is fun and different. My character wants his daughter to marry above her class and the ideas for most of his other traits came from other people in the play.”

Nicole Shoffstall, communications major at Eastern, played the role of Columbine, one of Pantalone’s servants.

“I was looking for something to take up my time where I could be constructive,” she said. “I was told that I had to be myself, but stereotype myself at the same time. Most of our rehearsals were funny plots and some lines were memorized, but not all.”

The humorous love story between Columbine and Pantalone’s other servant Harlequin, played by Timothy Travous Jr., was another plotline within the play.

“I thought, ‘What would I do if I loved someone, but had to keep them in line?'” Shoffstall said.

She said the good aspect of improvisation was that if something bad happened during the show, the cast could find a way to make it work.

“No two shows are the same,” Shoffstall said.

Heather Holm can be reached at 581-7942 or haholm@eiu.edu.

Sarah Mims, playing the role of Rosaura, and Brendan Hughes, playing the role of Florindo, bow for applause at the end of the production “Harlequin and the Green Christmas Gown” at 2 p.m. Sunday, December 6 at the Charleston Alley Theatre. (Heather Holm/

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