Down-Home Holiday Show CHRISTMAS AT SWEET APPLE Set for Stage Door Players

Stage Door Players (SDP) continues its 44th season with the down-home holiday show, Christmas at Sweet Apple, by celebrated novelist and playwright Phillip DePoy, running December 1-17, 2017 at the Theatre's home in the North Dekalb Cultural Arts Center at 5339 Chamblee Dunwoody Road in Dunwoody. The production is directed by popular actor/director Shelly McCook.

Performances are Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, and Sundays at 2:30pm. Single tickets are on sale now at the box office (770-396-1726), or online at www.stagedoorplayers.net. Tickets are $33; senior, student, and youth discounts are available.

Written by award-winning Atlanta playwright, Phillip DePoy and based on the writings of celebrated Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Celestine Sibley, Christmas At Sweet Apple is a feel-good hometown celebration of the season told through story and song. Originally produced in 2007 at Marietta's Theatre in the Square, the play is filled with anecdotes pulled primarily from Sibley's books Christmas in Georgia and Especially at Christmas. Southern audiences continue to love the wit and practical wisdom of Sibley's stories, and the traditional mountain songs and Christmas carols inspire the holiday spirit in all of us. SDP invites you to take a break from the hustle and bustle of the holiday craziness, and come sit by the fire for a spell.

Celestine Sibley (1917-1999) was a journalist and novelist who worked for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for 55 years. A friend of Margaret Mitchell's in the 1940s, Sibley's role at the paper shifted from reporter to columnist in 1944. She also wrote 25 books, many of which were mystery novels. Upon her death, Bill Kovach, a former editor of the AJC, wrote, ''It was a country-girl-come-to-the-city kind of column ... She was the last voice of the white-glove, tea-and-apple-blossom set that had not a sharp edge on it.'' (New York Times, August 1999).

The talented SDP cast includes Atlanta favorites Karen Drury Howell (Southern Comforts at SDP, M. Fair Ladyat the Lyric, Greetings Friend... at GET), Jeremy Wood (Annie Get Your Gun at SDP, Almost Heaven at GET),Paige Mattox (Annie Get Your Gun and Kiss Me Kate at SDP), Scott Depoy (Shakespeare in Love at the Alliance, The Ghastly Dreadfuls at Center for Puppetry Arts), and Kate Johnson (Black Comedy and Annie Get Your Gun at Elm Street Cultural Arts Village).

Director Shelly McCook returns to SDP having appeared in the holiday hit Let Nothing You Dismay for the last two years. She regularly acts and directs at theatres throughout Atlanta, including recent work at Georgia Ensemble Theatre and Elm Street Cultural Arts Village.

The production/design team for Christmas at Sweet Apple includes Jim Alford (Costume Design), George Deavours (Wig Design), Kathy Ellsworth (Props Design),Rial Ellsworth (Sound Design), A.J. Stevenson (Stage Manager), Hampton Whatley (Production Manager),Chuck Welcome (Scenic Design), and John David Williams (Lighting Design).

Tickets start at $33 and are available online at www.stagedoorplayers.net or by calling the box office at (770) 396-1726. Senior and student discounts are available

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