Christmas Plays Revisited

I love Christmas, both from a personal standpoint, and from a playwriting standpoint. I have four Christmas plays published, am working on more, and am definitely in a position to appreciate what the holidays can mean to a playwright.

This past weekend, I was part of five productions from Friday night through Sunday night. On Friday, I appeared in a dinner theater murder mystery at a local restaurant. On Saturday afternoon, I appeared as Scrooge in a production of A Christmas Carol. On Saturday night, I attended a production of my adaptation of Miracle on 34th Street. And on Sunday, I again appeared as Scrooge at 2:00 p.m. and again at 7:00 p.m.

While not meant to toot my own horn, this is rather an example of what the holiday season can offer. A large audience comes to Christmas plays when they won't come to plays throughout the other 11 months of the year. Also, many theater companies will produce heartwarming holiday plays, while the rest of their production years contain plays of much different aspects. So the Christmas season offers a lot of extraordinary opportunities.

So, what to do about a terrific Christmas story. Have all the good ones been told? Naturally there's A Christmas Carol, The Nutcracker Suite, and even It's a Wonderful Life. While new variations on these themes may offer some promise, the real trick is too look for something new in the season, or at least something new in the story.

I wrote a cyber-version of A Christmas Carol called A Christmas Carol.com, with Scrooge appearing via the Internet. And The Nutcracker Suite offers some of those same modern possibilities. But don't get caught up in the vision that all the good Christmas tales have been told. A few years ago, I wrote Too Wrapped Up For Christmas and The Christmas Lottery, both original tales that address the holidays in contemporary times, and they've both enjoyed successes.

The version of A Christmas Carol I appeared in was adapted by a local writer, Kris Hipps, and while not significantly different in the basic story line, nonetheless offered new expriences in the guise of live and life-sized puppets.who were also parts of the cast and offered a fresh new aspect to the story.

Now, to you, the playwrights, this means that you can find a steady, annual source of income by creating the next great holiday play. It won't necessarily be easy, but it will be rewarding. Seeing a play of my own, brought to production with no efforts of my own, is a truly satisfying experience. And as for the quality of the production, well, I always offer the same two acid tests: Did the cast and crew have fun producing it? And did the audience enjoy it? If I answer 'Yes' to both of those questions, then the production was a success.

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