{"id":105337,"date":"2025-12-22T21:03:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T21:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/105337\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T21:03:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T21:03:08","slug":"a-pirates-life-takes-work-even-in-a-merry-mutiny-like-pirates-take-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/105337\/","title":{"rendered":"A pirate\u2019s life takes work, even in a merry mutiny like ‘Pirates take Christmas’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Trampoline jumping, sword fights and even a Santa vs. pirate fight sequence are all part of the holiday fun at Pirates Dinner Adventure<\/a> in Buena Park.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s \u201cPirates Take Christmas\u201d storyline, which runs through Dec. 31, follows the ship\u2019s first mate, Jacob Randolph, who devises a plan to capture Santa and Mrs. Claus, steal all the presents for himself and ruin Christmas forever, according to Pirates Dinner Adventure Show Manager RC Ormond.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce the captain realizes Jacob\u2019s plans, he constructs a plan with the help of Santa and Mrs. Claus and challenges Jacob face-to-face for an all-out battle of good versus evil,\u201d Ormond said. \u201cHow will it end? We will see.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPirates Take Christmas\u201d is an annual show that redesigns the usual pirate-themed dinner-theater production with a holiday twist. For Halloween, the venue puts on a vampire-pirate-themed \u201cVampirates\u201d show.<\/p>\n

These productions change the storylines and action to give guests a new experience with their chicken dinner (vegetarian and vegan options, and meal upgrades are also available). Though the Christmas show is lighthearted and fun, it takes quite a bit of preparation and training to get Santa, Mrs. Claus and the pirates ready for action.<\/p>\n

\"Santa, <\/p>\n

Santa, Mrs. Claus and Holly the elf are captured by pirates.<\/p>\n

(Jessica Peralta)<\/p>\n

\u201cTo transform the main show into the holiday show, it takes a great team of leaders and professionals who are experts in their craft,\u201d Ormond said.<\/p>\n

Cy Mirasol is the stunt coordinator. Jenni Vazquez is the aerial captain for aerial acrobatics. Mariah Santos is the vocal captain.<\/p>\n

\u201cMariah also has years of experience when it comes to her vocal talent,\u201d Ormond said. \u201cShe gives excellent direction when it comes to telling the story through song.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ormond said it can be challenging balancing all the elements of the show.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a lot of extensive and advanced stunts in the show, ranging from amazing sword fights and hand-to-hand combat brawls to high-flying trampoline stunts, and huge melee battles involving everyone on the ship,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s quite a vision when you have 10 people on stage, swinging swords and weapons at each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Two <\/p>\n

Two pirates face off in one of many of the fight scenes in \u201cPirates Take Christmas\u201d at Buena Park\u2019s Pirates Dinner Adventure.<\/p>\n

(Jessica Peralta)<\/p>\n

Mirasol said he\u2019s been overseeing stunts at Pirates Dinner Adventure for about four years now.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe holiday version of our show is much lighter in tone, lots of warmth, silliness and full of heart,\u201d Mirasol said. \u201cIn terms of stunts, our holiday version is still quite technical. The story of the show may have less stakes but we train our cast to treat each stunt with precision and care.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the two big challenges of a dinner-theater stunt show like this are staging and casting.<\/p>\n

\u201cTypically when watching a play or even sitting in a movie theater, the audience is on one side of the room while the stage is on the other,\u201d he said. \u201cIn our venue, the audience is all around us, making it very difficult to make the fights convincing from every seat in the house. Very different from a film [or] movie set with cameras. But our team is great at adapting and we get the job done.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said in terms of casting, they have about 50 cast members \u2014 but for each show there are only 12 characters performing at a time.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of us know two to three roles and take turns each night,\u201d he said. \u201cSo you can imagine how hard it is to get everyone to remember fine details about a character\u2019s moment in [a] 90-minute show. No show is ever the same show. \u2026 The cast is constantly shuffling around, which changes so much of the dynamics. It makes my job even more rewarding when night after night, the moments sell no matter who is on stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

As stunt coordinator, safety is a top priority. He said keeping themselves, scene partners, other department members and the audience safe is their main goal.<\/p>\n

\"Santa <\/p>\n

Santa and Mrs. Claus in \u201cPirates Take Christmas.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Jessica Peralta)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do our best to keep our cast injury-free but from time to time, it happens,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s the nature of the job. Any type of stunt show is full of risks.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said one of the best stunt moments in the show is when two characters are sword fighting while balancing on the ship\u2019s yardarm nearly 30 feet high. But his personal favorite part of the show is the aerial act.<\/p>\n

\u201cSanta is accompanied by Mrs. Claus and Holly the elf,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t want to give it away, but Holly performs an incredible aerial act.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the process of joining the Pirates Dinner Adventure crew is not easy. The audition takes hours and if selected, performers go through several weeks of training.<\/p>\n

\u201cDay one, your trainer covers all the safety aspects of the stage\/ship,\u201d he said. \u201cUsually there is a team of trainers to help spot the big stunts and make sure each performer feels comfortable with the stunt. We try to give them as much information, reps and support as we can and sometimes it takes longer than others. But that\u2019s OK.\u201d<\/p>\n

After weeks of rehearsals and once the new performer is proficient in all show elements, the performer runs through with a full cast before going in front of a live audience.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s actually insane how [many] details go into this show, but as performers we love it,\u201d he said. \u201cThe cast do such a good job at making the show look easy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Samantha Rubin, who is show admin and a trainer, has been performing at the theater for three years and has a background in musical theater. In \u201cPirates Take Christmas,\u201d she plays Treasure the Pirate Queen and Mrs. Claus, depending on the night.<\/p>\n

She said the biggest stunt she performs is as Treasure during the song \u201cPirate\u2019s Life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe start the song singing and by the chorus, we are walking down the boom of the ship to set up for a big rope swing from the center of our ship over the audience,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have very specific training for this stunt that starts with a strength test, and walking through the stunt in sections before piecing it together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rubin said there is a lot of training that goes into a show like this.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom hand-to-hand combat, sword fighting, rope swings, high falls, all while immersing the audience in a 90-minute adventure,\u201d she said. \u201cFor \u2018Pirates Take Christmas,\u2019 we had 10 days of group rehearsals \u2014 going through blocking, fights, dance numbers and eventually piecing it all together in run-throughs to prepare for opening week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pirates Dinner Adventure is located at 7600 Beach Blvd., Buena Park. Phone: (866) 439-2469.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Trampoline jumping, sword fights and even a Santa vs. pirate fight sequence are all part of the holiday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105338,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[56976,163,165,164,56975,1864,43632,9479,56977,20702,26788,56978,21777,4542,3239,35920,1102,72],"class_list":["post-105337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-advanced-stunt","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-annual-show","tag-audience","tag-cast","tag-christmas","tag-mrs-claus","tag-performer","tag-pirate","tag-pirates-dinner-adventure","tag-santa","tag-ship","tag-stage","tag-sword","tag-training","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}