TUTA Theatre To Stage Thornton Wilder's THE LONG CHRISTMAS DINNER

TUTA Theatre has announced it will stage the infrequently produced Thornton Wilder drama THE LONG CHRISTMAS DINNER for the 2024 holiday season.

It was written in 1931 when Wilder was 34 years old and dividing his time between writing and teaching at the University of Chicago. In one long act and continuous action, THE LONG CHRISTMAS DINNER chronicles the lives of several generations of an American family by representing the Christmas dinners they celebrated over 90 years. The characters age in front of the audience's eyes as we witness births, deaths, and the welcoming of new family members.

TUTA Co-Artistic Director Jacqueline Stone will direct the production, one of the first productions to be fully staged at the Bramble Arts Loft, Beatrice Theatre. The brand new theatre, at 5545 North Clark Street, boasts a comfortable lobby, lounge area and bar. Previews are Tuesday, November 26 and Friday, November 29. The press opening on Saturday, November 30 at 7:30 pm will be a benefit for TUTA. The ticket price range for that evening will be $60-$100 and will include an opening night reception with festive drink and food, in addition to the performance.The run will continue through Sunday, December 29.
 
Joan Merlo (of TUTA's HEDDA GABLER) will play Mother Bayard and Cousin Ermengarde. Matt Miles (of Paramount's PETER AND THE STARCATCHER and BILLY ELLIOT) will be Roderick and Roderick II. Huy Nguyen (ROMEO AND JULIET at Oak Park Festival) and Charlie Irving (The Artistic Home's upcoming BY THE WAY, MEET VERA STARK) will play the siblings Charles and Genevieve. Wain Parham (TUTA's HEDDA GABLER) has been cast as Cousin Brandon and Sam. Seoyoung Park (of TUTA's ATTEMPTS ON HER LIFE)  will play Charles' wife Leonora and Alexis Primus will play Lucia and Lucia II. Understudies are Nicholas Bryan Carter, Jinyue Yuna Hu, and Julia Stemper.

The artistic team, in addition to Stone as Director, includes Keith Parham (Scenic and Lighting Design), who was responsible for the lighting design of BETWEEN RIVERSIDE AND CRAZY on Broadway); Willow James (Sound Design), whose recent credits include sound design for Writers Theatre's THE HOT WING KINGS; Jeff Award winner and six-time nominee Rachel Sypniewski (Costume Design); Wain Parham (Music Direction), who provided music direction and original composition for ATTEMPTS ON HER LIFE and many other previous TUTA productions; and longtime TUTA company member Helen Lattyak (Properties Design). The Production Team also includes Becky Warner (Stage Manager), Austin Ryan Hunt (Assistant Director), Sharon Ammen (Dramaturg), and Jamal Howard (Casting Director).
 
THE LONG CHRISTMAS DINNER, in its first published form, was included in the volume THE LONG CHRISTMAS DINNER AND OTHER PLAYS IN ONE ACT and first performed jointly by the Yale Dramatic Association and the Vassar Philaletheis Society. It was produced on Broadway in 1993 as one of three one-act plays in the program WILDER, WILDER, WILDER. An operatic adaptation of the play, with music by Paul Hindemith, premiered at the Juilliard School of Music in 1963. The play and opera were performed together as a double-header at Lincoln Center in 2014. The opera was performed by the Chicago Fringe Opera in 2018.
 
The SUNDAY TIMES of Dublin, Ireland, in its four-star review of a 2022 production by the vaunted Abbey Theatre, said that the play is ‘a gently paced reflection on the idea that every present moment comes from the past.” The EUGENE SCENE said of a 2018 production in Eugene, Oregon, that the play “is unabashedly serious and does not hide from the dark side of Christmas as a method of reminding us what the light of Christmas is.”
 
Seats for all performances of THE LONG CHRISTMAS DINNER can be reserved by purchasing in advance. Prices for all performances (excluding opening night) are $20,  $45 and $60 (plus a $3.00 per ticket fee). Any seating not reserved in advance will be available the day of the performance for in person, pay-what-you-choose tickets at the door 30 minutes before curtain time. Additional information on TUTA Theatre's ticketing is available at https://www.tutatheatre.org/the-long-christmas-dinner-tickets. There is no late seating. Tickets are on sale now at www.tutatheatre.org.

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