Anna Dvorak is among the cast of "Holiday Souvenirs" at P.K. Yonge Performing Arts Center.
he stage is set for the holidays in Gainesville, and that stage, it appears, is crammed with ballerinas, songs of discovery, horses and eight very peeved reindeer.
And, man, that's just the beginning.
As I write these words, a tattered yellow note clings to my desk outlining the coming weeks in arts and entertainment. It is packed; news is scrawled in corners and question marks are splattered across it like spilled globs of cocoa.
These festive question marks, of course, frame my professional credo as this newspaper's entertainment editor: "Holy $*#@! Who is going to cover all this?!!?"
In this issue and others to follow, we'll give it a shot in a holiday arts season that echoes with soul-quenching classics and the dysfunction I have come to expect on local stages.
So let's take a gander at some of the stage offerings:
Certainly the most intriguing dichotomy unravels at FantasyLand Theatrical Productions in Newberry. This is where you'll find the very dark comedy "Eight Reindeer Monologues," opening tonight, and the very happy family musical "A Seasonal Celebration," opening Friday.
"The Eight Reindeer Monologues" comes from an off-off-Broadway show. The local version debuted last season in Newberry with its sordid tale of, ah, sexual harassment at the North Pole.
"It really is just for adults," said Lowrie Fawley, who plays Vixon the accuser. Written by Jeff Goode, this play features a gay reindeer, a "sold-out-to-Hollywood reindeer," trial by the media and, Fawley said, echoes of Linda Tripp and Monica Lewinsky. The play runs Thursdays only through Dec. 16.
"A Seasonal Celebration," on the other hand, is very family-friendly, a Disney-style musical revue that features students from Newberry and Buchholz high schools and a few adults. This musical runs Fridays and Saturdays through Dec. 18.
At the new Performing Arts Center at P.K. Yonge, former New Yorker Sherwin Mackintosh (also a theater critic for The Sun) rolls his perspectives of Gainesville into an original musical called "Holiday Souvenirs," running today, Friday and Saturday. Backed by holiday music from gospel to Guaraldi, this story weaves through the lives of very diverse families in - notably - a Gainesville ablaze with real-life seasonal trappings.
This musical is fueled by 80 PKY students, two horses, one beagle and real snow.
Director Tammy Meyers connected the musical series of vignettes known as "Songs for a New World," a work written by Jason Robert Brown and opening Friday night at the Gainesville Community Playhouse second stage location. That's a store space, for those not keeping track - temporary digs while the new Vam York Theatre is completed on GCP's existing lot along NW 16th Boulevard.
But the smaller space is not exactly a liability here. With a show that revels in epiphanies and emotions, "Songs for a New World" depends on intimacy with its audience. "It's more of a black-box show," said Susan Christophy, one of nine cast members.
"Songs for a New World" rings with a bit of the butterfly effect, Meyers said; one decision has a ripple effect on the next and so on. The show runs Wednesdays through Sundays through Dec. 12.
And, as far as theater offerings with a seasonal twist this weekend, that's where my crumpled yellow outline ends. Of course, there is much more on the holiday entertainment front; I highly recommend combing through the holiday calendar.
Oh, and Gallagher's in town next week, which has absolutely nothing to do with the holidays other than, well, a break from said holidays that is sure to include smashing stuff.
he stage is set for the holidays in Gainesville, and that stage, it appears, is crammed with ballerinas, songs of discovery, horses and eight very peeved reindeer.
