The Boston Actors Theater Presents:

The Boston Holiday Show 2010!

The Reviews are in!

The Boston Holiday Show is a true Bostonian experience consisting of 13 monologues by local playwrights that delve beyond Christmas, though you’re sure to see more than one elf roaming around the theatre! If that wasn’t enough, Vinyl Street, a local A Cappella group will be interlaced between the monologues as well as giving a pre-show on selected dates. Vinyl Street is based in Porter Square their style encompasses pop, rock, country and sheer numbers. They have also opened for The Nutcracker at the Boston Opera House.
What and who you will see at The Boston Holiday Show:

Hurry Down the Chimney Tonight

by Diana DiCostanzo

Directed by Danielle Leeber

A little girl awaits Santa into the wee hours of the night...

Featuring: Sydney Penny

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Santa's Helper

by Lauren Foster

Directed by Danielle Leeber

The beginning of The Mrs. Clause Movement.

Featuring: Gabriella Ciambron

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Shelia

by Melanie Garber

Directed by Danielle Leeber

A marry-in discusses her husband and his family's religious holiday traditions.

Featuring: Maggie Carr

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There's Always Tomorrow

by Rick Park

Directed by Danielle Leeber

An Elf retells the events of a dark time that changed his life.

Featuring: David Lucas

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Boxing Day

by Elinor Teele

Directed by Emelia Allen

It's a tradition!

Featuring Phyllis Gordon

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Days of Light

by Richard White

Directed by James Aitchison

A grandfather discusses miracles with his granddaughter.

Featuring: Bill Salem

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2nd Time Around

by Sharon Hart

Directed by James Aitchison

A young woman contemplates the immaculate conception.

Featuring: Carol Grossi

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Christmas in Rio

by Maria ViVardo

Directed by Mikey DiLoreto

Jose returns to the steamy city of Rio de Janeiro to visit his religious mother and, after a meeting a beautiful young man on the beach, he quickly starts to realize that this Cidade Maravilhosa has a dangerous Christmas spirit

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Christmas isn't Religious

by Raj Sivaraman

Directed by Emelia Allen

Your friendly neighborhood Hindu expounds on the joys of Christmas.

Featuring: Stewart Evan Smith

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Xavior

by Sean Clarke

Directed by Danielle Leeber

A gay man putting together his annual holiday party retells the sordid details of last year’s bash.

Featuring: Harry McEreney

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Merry Whatever

by Andrea Fleck Clardy

Directed by Danielle Leeber

A Jewish woman's frustrations come to a head at the post office.

Featuring: Julia Specht

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Dandy's Revenge

by Mikey DiLoreto

Directed by James Aitchison

Tonight on The Chuck Show, the 10th reindeer reveals all!

Featuring: Paul Ezzy

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Finding Christmas

by Stephen Faria

Directed by Emelia Allen

A woman comes face-to-face with the meaning of Christmas.

Featuring: Sierra Kagen

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THE BOSTON HOLIDAY SHOW was an eye-opener for me.

I mean, a baker’s dozen MONOLOGUES …..? ? ? I hadn’t even heard of half the playwrights!

I did want to thank you especially, though, for two of them:

Richard White’s DAYS OF LIGHT And Diana DiCostanzo’s HURRY DOWN THE CHIMNEY TONIGHT.

The two of them looked like “bookends to life” --- with Bill Salem personifying a smiling, fond reflection at the close, and Sydney Penny providing the “alpha” to his “Omega”……

Diana’s brief play was, for me, a re-telling of that “Crisis of Faith” that nearly everyone goes through: a secret waiting beside the fireplace for Visible Proof of Santa’s existence. And Sydney handled All the quick shifts of mood and emotion --- anger, bargaining, pleading, confrontation, bribery --- with both confidence and honesty. (I recognized a bit of that from my own past!)

Mr. Salem --- who looks younger every time I see him! --- finished his monologue as a still-alive cancer victim voicing his character’s joy that he’s lived long enough to get to know a cherished grandchild.

The playwrights couldn’t have known, but looking back on the evening, I can’t help joining the two experiences. I mean, it seems that Sydney Penny is Exactly the kind of young actress that Bill Salem’s grandfather-character --- and I as well --- would be glad to watch as she grows… As it’s obvious she will!

Larry Stark - The Theatre Mirror