Edmond Town Hall was certainly abuzz on Thursday, December 11, when friends and family members of TransitionCT individuals filled in the theater of the historic Main Street building to enjoy “Seasons of Joy,” this year’s annual holiday show.

TransitionCT is a transitional program for adults with special needs that offers student programs and schools, vocational/work/career programs, and day programs/services. This is TransitionCT’s fourth year presenting a winter concert.

Program Director Dawn Gray said many of this year’s participants “have never had an opportunity to participate in a show in their lives.” The winter concert allows the individuals at TransitionCT to learn music, exercise their voices, and strengthen their public speaking skills, as many, many individuals have speaking parts throughout the show.

The show took place over three acts. The first act was a “unified act,” according to Gray. Staff joined TransitionCT members on stage to present a total of 110 choir members. Before the show started, Gray and Ann Ramos, director of operations at TransitionCT, welcomed everyone in.

Gray explained that in each program given to audience members, there was “a little extra love.” She was referring to the handmade ornament inside each program. TransitionCT has a new art studio that opened, and every individual participated in making ornaments for the show.

Following the welcome by Gray and Ramos, the show began with a welcome in English and in Spanish — the choir then launched into “Feliz Navidad.” Directed by Kierstyn Bourdeau, the choir then sang “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” while three choir members — Hope Piorkowski, Megan Gereda, and Gwen Smith — performed the song in American Sign Language.

During “You Are My Sunshine,” some choir members proudly displayed handmade sun props that soared about the choir. They glittered and gleamed in the stage lights as they bounced up and down to the music. Tyler Soule helped with the props for the show. Candles were passed out during “Silent Night,” which featured soloist Sarah Masotta. As the song progressed, the lights faded, and the choir was illuminated only by the electric candles each performer held. The candles continued to dance around as the first act was wrapped up with a lively rendition of “This Little Light of Mine.”

The second act featured a slideshow with photos and videos compiled throughout the year at TransitionCT. It showed the TransitionCT staff and individuals at Castle Hill Farm in Newtown, as well as Newtown’s Animal Shelter and Senior Center. Pictures showed individuals gardening, working at various locations, and day trips to Quassy Amusement Park. There were, of course, lots of dance clips from the summer and Halloween parties.

When the slideshow was over, the third act started with “Jingle Bell Rock,” and the choir had a costume change. At first, the entire choir was wearing navy blue shirts with “Joyful” printed in white. Each letter had an ornament hanging from it. When the curtain pulled back for act three, the ladies wore white shirts and red skirts with a fuzzy white trim. Scarves were elegantly draped around their necks and Santa hats were perched on their heads.

The gentlemen wore white button-down shirts, black slacks, and red sequined ties that read “Merry Christmas” on them. The elf hats they wore were matching — red sequined and with a jingle bell at the tip of the hat. Many choir members rang jingle bells during the third act, too.

Costumes were put together by Max Sheldon, Maria Roman, Jio Williams-Poole, Ethan Gerstein, Sean Jenkins, and Ray Prega.

During “Frosty the Snowman,” Larry Hughes III played Frosty and acted out coming to life after the classic silk hat was placed on his head. Caleb Bain played Rudolph during “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.” The choir then sang “Here Comes Santa Claus.” Then, the show was disrupted.

Santa Claus himself came down the center aisle of the theater, laughing, smiling, and spreading holiday cheer. The choir, and the audience for that matter, exploded with cheers and claps as he made his way to the stage. Gray rejoined the stage and asked if Santa would sing the last song of the night with them, “Have a Holly Jolly Christmas.” Despite his busy, busy schedule, Santa agreed to sing with the choir.

Following the concert, Gray thanked everyone for coming and thanked the staff for helping the individuals shine during the concert. As the crowd slowly filled the gymnasium in the basement of Edmond Town Hall, Gray said, “I was really surprised.” She said when she got into the gym, she could not see through the crowd of people.

Gray estimates about 300-400 people attended the show, and even more people tuned in on Facebook Live. She said she saw about 680 people tuned in at one point.

Gray wanted to present a show that promoted peace and love this year, she said.

“We were feeling like this is a really good year to love each other … that’s why our first act was all about peace and love,” she added. After the performance, Gray said many parents told her they “were brought to tears of joy.” The show is meant to be the TransitionCT participants’ “time to shine,” and show how hard they worked for the concert.

The work, however, is not done yet for TransitionCT. Admission for the concert was a toy for the toy drive. Though Gray was unsure of the exact number of toys, she believed there were over 200 collected. Four big boxes were overflowing with toys by the end of the night.

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Reporter Sam Cross can be reached at sam@thebee.com.