Arts Center Theatre on Marco Island is doing something different this holiday season. Instead of staging a full-scale production of a Christmas show, it's reading selections from David Sedaris’ “Holidays on Ice.”
“We've picked four essays,” Executive Director Hyla Crane explained. “Not necessarily the ones that people would think of or would choose. We're not doing ‘Santa Land Diaries.’ We're gonna be doing ‘Front Row Center with Thaddeus Bristol,’ ‘Based Upon a True Story,’ ‘Christmas Means Giving’ and my favorite, ‘The Cow and the Turkey.’ It's not traditional in any way.”
Sedaris is known for snarky storytelling.
“David Sedaris' humor, while very funny, is not for family audiences,” Crane observed. “It's a little dark at times, but still very, very funny. We negotiated with his literary agent in New York and we're able to get the rights for the pieces we want.”
Sedaris himself gave Crane some tips on how to stage the readings, and she’s enlisted Director Brett Marston to bring his essays to life on stage with a mix of actors, visuals and music.
“It's kind of an exciting program, and some very talented performers that Brett has put together. It will be different,” noted Crane. “There are only six performances. It'll run the first two weekends in December, Friday evenings at 7:30 and then Saturday, Sunday matinees.”
Arts Center Theatre is in the Marco Town Center.
MORE INFORMATION:
“Holidays on Ice” opens Dec. 5 and runs through Dec. 14.
For tickets, visit https://www.marcoislandart.org/holidays-on-ice/ or telephone 239-394-4221.
“Front Row Center with Thaddeus Bristol” is a review of a local grade school’s Christmas pageant.
“Based on a True Story” revolves around a member of the media who begs a church congregation for information on a heartbreaking story.
“Christmas Means Giving” is about battling neighbors who try to outdo each other with holiday generosity.
“The Cow and the Turkey” involves a barnyard secret Santa scheme gone awry.
“People are so busy during the holidays, and we wanted something that was sort of bite-size and unique,” Crane divulged. “It's going to be something very different, something that we haven't done before. So, I think it's going to be great fun and we're really looking forward to it.
While the readings will involve multimedia, they are not dramatizations. Instead, Marston’s cast will give voice to Sedaris’ essays.
“David Sedaris has such a unique voice that, at first, I was a little worried about how we would do this with other people giving voice to his work,” Crane conceded. “I did a little research on people having presented David Sedaris' work and it's not done all over the place or all the time. But Brett Marston, as the director, has had some very, very, very clever concepts around it.”
Crane is an unabashed Sedaris fan.
“I met him [on Nov. 2] when he was reading his essays at Artis-Naples,” Crane added. “I talked to him about what we were doing with his four essays. He signed my book and he wrote some notes in it for me, some suggestions on how to present his essays. So, we know we've been blessed at least by the author himself, and we are very excited about that.”
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