Nashville Rep Opens A CHRISTMAS STORY Tonight

This holiday season, Nashville Repertory Theatre will once again present Nashville's All-American Holiday Tradition A Christmas Story adapted by Phillip Grecian and based on the motion picture by Jean Shepherd, Leigh Brown, and Bob Clark. A Christmas Story runs tonight, November 29 - December 21 at TPAC's Johnson Theater (with preview performance on November 28).

Humorist Jean Shepherd's memoir of growing up in the Midwest in the 1940s follows 9-year-old Ralphie Parker in his unflappable campaign to get Santa (or anyone else) to give him a "legendary official Red Rider carbine-action, 200 shot range-model air rifle." Ralphie pleads his case before his mother, his teacher and even Santa Claus himself at Goldblatt's Department Store. The consistent response: "You'll shoot your eye out."

Many of the favorite elements from the motion picture are in the production: the family's temperamental exploding furnace, the school bully Scut Farkas, the dare to place a wet tongue on a cold lamppost, the Little Orphan Annie decoder pin, the "major award" of a lamp shaped like a woman's leg in a net stocking, the imaginative fantasy scenarios and more. This irresistible piece of Americana is a cult classic and is guaranteed to warm the heart and tickle the funny bone.

"For many people, it isn't Christmas until they see the movie A Christmas Story," says Nashville Rep Producing Artistic Director and director of A Christmas Story René D. Copeland. "We've quickly learned (and heard from our patrons) that in Nashville, it isn't Christmas until you have seen our live and theatrical version of Ralphie's quest for the Red Rider bb gun. This is a story we have come to cherish, and I could not be more thrilled that it has become important to the way Nashvillians want to celebrate their holiday. We truly love hearing from those who return every year how Nashville Rep has become a part of their family holiday tradition and relish the connection that happens when we tell you this story in our unique way, and frankly, it does as much to make our holiday complete as it does that of our patrons."

Veteran Nashville actor Samuel Whited once again stars as "Ralphie."

Whited says: "If you are very very lucky as an actor, you might find a role that you fit and that fits you. You might find a role that calls for you to create and live something on stage that you really want to share and the audience, happily, wants to share with you. You might even manage to find a role that is very well known and recognizable, yet never feel you have inhabited all of it--that there are parts of the journey onstage that are just as intriguing (occasionally baffling) as the very first time you presented it. For me, playing 'Ralphie' in A Christmas Story has been all this and more.

"I've gotten to divide my time between presenting nostalgia to one part of our audience and seeing much younger eyes widen with the immediacy of a story that takes place in 1940. I love the idea that the more things change, the more they stay the same. The outrageous fortunes of winter weather and bullies haven't vanished. The overwhelming need of that ONE present for Christmas is still a motivational force that is barely containable. I live next door to an 'old man' who is an absolute fiend for turkey and major awards. We see ourselves and others we know in these stories. It only follows that we would want to gather together, again and again, to share it all.

"At some point, everyone has worn the pink bunny suit. Everyone. Everyone has had to stand in front of someone with their cheeks flushed and their stomach aching with upset. I am proud to stand tall and face those who can't catch their breath; cackling at the sight of a 40-something man of dubious weight clad in bismuth pink fake fur. If nothing else, it's lovely to see the relief on the faces of those who are thankful it's not them."

In addition to Whited, Nashville Rep's production features an ensemble cast including David Compton, Geoff Davin, Jamie Farmer, Andrew Kanies, Eric D. Pasto-Crosby, and David Wilkerson.

Since 1985, Nashville Repertory Theatre has been a critically acclaimed regional theatre, creating the highest quality professional productions and by serving as a prime cultural, educational, and economic resource within the Nashville and Middle Tennessee communities. Nashville Rep produces work that is designed, built, and rehearsed in Nashville by highly skilled actors, designers, directors, and technicians. A non-profit organization, Nashville Rep is committed to consistently delivering thought-provoking theatre each year while creating "Ah-ha!" moments that inspire empathy, prod intellectual and emotional engagement, and expand the creative capacity of audience and artists though the dynamic connection unique to live theatre. For more information on Nashville Repertory Theatre, please visit www.nashvillerep.org.

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