The four delightful “Casserole Ladies” will tempt you with song, dance and sweet potato casseroles at The Santa Diaries.
Woody, Frisdee and Bud, the three volunteers firefighters in “The Santa Diaries” are shown ready for duty.
Authors of the Vanity Theater’s Christmas Play, “The Santa Diaries,” Mala Burt and Laura Ambler, are shown preparing for their arrival on opening night.
So what do you say when you are asked, “What do you want for Christmas?”
What do we really want for Christmas? What will fill the holes in our lives? What will make our life have meaning or purpose or fulfillment?
This is what the Christmas play at the Vanity Theater, “The Santa Diaries,” seeks to answer. The play leads us to understand that what we really want for Christmas is that which brings peace to our souls.
The play centers on the longing of the current Santa Claus (Sandy Hawes) for his son, Will, to “take up the family business” and become the next Santa. However, Will, has followed his own dreams of becoming a big star in Hollywood. As the play opens, Will has come home, not for Christmas, but because Dad has fallen and broken his leg. Then this successful and self-absorbed Hollywood actor is coerced into directing the community holiday play and rediscovers the joy of Christmas, finds a lost love and learns to embrace his inner Santa.
Most of this is played out on either the stage of the local community theater or in the home of Sandy. Filled with songs, inept dancing, struggling acting efforts, volunteer firemen turned set builders and the petty dramatics that seem to be a part of all human life, four story lines swirl toward a climax through the filter of a nightmare.
That this is a play about a small town community theater doing a Christmas play makes it feel that it is about us.
The play features Vanity veterans Kurt and Carol Homann, Keith James, Jim Servies, Michael Patton and Cheri Clark. There are also a host of “emerging Vanity regulars” such as Evelyn Kaelin and her daughter, Liberty, Andy Plemons and his daughter, Emma, and son Jacob.
Almost all of the Lora Burris and David and Jennifer Tyo families are in the cast. Twenty-five young people bring energy to the cast, but there are also a number of senior citizens. In keeping with the theme of the play, there are also a number of first timers on the stage.
The play is directed by Keith Strain and produced by Kym Bushong, the duo who were responsible for the comedy, “Rumors.”
“The Santa Diaries” was written by Mala Burt and Laura Ambler, based on a book they had assembled about the small town Christmas memories of St. Michaels, Maryland. They deliberately set the story in a small town community theater because they regard places like the Vanity as the cultural centers of communities.
Burt and Ambler plan to attend the show this weekend and will be welcomed on opening night by Mayor Todd Barton.
The show, designed for all ages, runs Friday and Saturday and Dec. 6-9. All shows will be at 7:30 p.m., except for Sunday, which is at 2:30 p.m. Tickets can be reserved by calling 765-362-7077 or purchased online at www.sugarcreekplayers.org. The box office will open each day from 4 to 6 p.m. or one hour before each performance.
