Sedaris' Classic 'SantaLand Diaries' Returns To Ferndale
Who says it's wrong to re-gift? In the case of humorist David Sedaris' classic "SantaLand Diaries" and "Season's Greetings" tales, sometimes a gift is best when it keeps giving.
Sedaris' popular "SantaLand Diaries" and "Season's Greetings," written in the 1990s, returns December 18 to Ferndale's Ringwald Theatre for an exclusive four-day engagement. The play was adapted from Sedaris's story for the stage by acclaimed director Joe Mantello, featuring Joe Bailey and Joe Plambeck.
In it, a young man arrives in New York with dreams of being a writer for soap opera "One Life to Live" and instead lands a part-time job as a Macy's Christmas elf named Crumpet.
From humiliating interview to elf indoctrination to scrapes with miscast Santas and obnoxious customers, the author's real-life experiences detailed in The SantaLand Diaries are described by the theater as "merrily subversive and fall-on-your-knees funny."
In companion piece "Season's Greetings," a determinedly sunny Mrs. Jocelyn Dunbar takes pen to paper recounting the joys and unexpected surprises of the past year - including the arrival of her husband's illegitimate, golddigging,Vietnamese daughter on the doorstep. Twisted, tragic and hilarious in its lurid revelations, Season's Greetings is an antidote to the chipper holiday newsletter of yore.
Sedaris is the author of the best sellers "Barrel Fever," "Me Talk Pretty One Day," "Naked," and "Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim." He taught writing at the Art Institute of Chicago for two years, and his essays appear regularly in The New Yorker and Esquire. Sedaris' original radio pieces can often be heard on public radio's This American Life.
The SantaLand Diaries & Season's Greetings will open at 5 p.m. Sunday, December 18, and continue from Wednesday, December 21 through Friday, December 23.
Ticket prices are $10 for all performances. They can be purchased at www.TheRingwald.com or at the theatre box office. The Ringwald box office opens 45 minutes before performances and tickets can be purchased with cash or Visa/Mastercard.
