Forget visions of sugarplums and carols sung fireside, Playhouse on the Green has an alternative way to keep things jolly this holiday season - irreverent comedy! The 54-year-old Bridgeport theater company continues its 08-09 season with the hilarious play The Santaland Diaries - a sardonic "one-elf show" - and Season's Greetings, a one-act monologue that describes a "typical" housewife's holiday season gone terribly wrong! Both plays are by award-winning American humorist David Sedaris. The Santaland Diaries and Season's Greetings are seen on the Playhouse stage December 5-22.
Adapted for the stage by Joe Mantello, director of Nine to Five, Wicked, The Ritz, Glengarry Glen Ross, and other Broadway shows, The Santaland Diaries is based on National Public Radio commentator Sedaris' 1992 essay recounting his bizarre experiences working as a Macy's "Elf" during the holiday season. Playhouse on the Green's production stars Scott R. Brill of Shelton as Crumpet the Elf, the long-suffering victim of vicious children, nasty parents, and manipulative co-workers. Packed with witty, dry insights into crass commercialism, The Santaland Diaries is welcome antidote to the schmaltz of the season.
Season's Greetings is Sedaris' biting satire of a Martha Stewart-like housewife whose annual holiday letter reveals some very disturbing details. This dark-humored one-act stars Kim McGrath of Woodbridge.
Parental discretion is advised for dark humor and some edgy subject matter.
Scott R. Brill, who plays Crumpet the Elf, received his Masters in Theatre Directing from Emerson College in Boston where he directed Man of La Mancha, The Ruffian on the Stair, four plays by Samuel Beckett and numerous one-acts. As a performer, Scott's roles onstage include Allan Felix in Play It Again, Sam (for which he won the Square One Theatre Subscriber's Award for Outstanding Actor); Antony Wilding in Enchanted April (New Canaan Town Players); Gonzalo in The Tempest, Hortensio in The Taming of the Shrew (Putney Players); Ko-Ko in The Mikado (Musicals at Richter); Wes Hurley in Fifth of July, Lloyd Dallas in Noises Off, Jesus in Godspell (Wilton Playshop); Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet, Prince Dauntless in Once Upon a Mattress (SHU Center for the Performing Arts), and Albert in The Secret Garden (Warner Theatre). Scott also originated the roles of Father Ferriera in the musical Fatima (Mertens Theatre) and Miles Standish in Pilgrims, the Musical (Long Wharf Theatre, Stage II). Scott's directing credits for area theaters include Da, What the Butler Saw, ART, Vanities, The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940, Rumors, Our Town, Blithe Spirit, Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella, The Sisters Rosensweig, The Real Thing, As Bees In Honey Drown, The Actor's Nightmare, Gypsy, South Pacific, Jeffrey, and Burn This. Scott has taught acting at Sacred Heart University where he also directed a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Scott is an Associate Member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers and last season served as President of the Westport Community Theatre. He will be directing a production of Steel Magnolias for the Darien Players in May, 2009.
Kim McGrath plays Mrs. Jocelyn Dunbar in Season's Greetings. Kim has appeared on stage in various theaters in the region as well as in Dallas where she received theater and voice-over training with Jeff Alexander. Local theater credits include the title role in A Portrait of Edna St. Vincent Millay and Sally in Lenny (The New Haven Theatre Co.); Emma in Mackerel (Theatremania); Mrs. Bragman in Blithe Spirit and Amanda in Private Lives (Eastbound Theatre); Charlotte in Moon Over Buffalo and Karen in Dinner with Friends (The Wilton Playshop); Dr. Seward in Dracula (Actor's Ensemble); and Iris in The Putney Players' production of The Tempest.
David Sedaris has become one of America's pre-eminent humor writers. He is the author of the bestsellers Barrel Fever and Holidays on Ice, as well as collections of personal essays, Naked, Me Talk Pretty One Day, and Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, each of which became immediate bestsellers. Sedaris and his sister, Amy Sedaris, have collaborated under the name "The Talent Family" and have written several plays which have been produced at La Mama, Lincoln Center, and The Drama Department in New York City. Sedaris' original radio pieces can often be heard on This American Life on NPR. In 2001, David Sedaris became the third recipient of the Thurber Prize for American Humor and he was named by Time magazine as "Humorist of the Year". David Sedaris was nominated for two Grammy Awards.
