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Theatre Spotlight By Kevin M. Mitchell|A Very Kerry ChristmasSan Diego’s Lamb’s Players Theatre Kerry Meads goes original every year.‘Tis the season of giving, and Kerry Meads gives the giftthat keeps on giving — an original Christmas play withmusic every year.“It’s a very interesting thing, and has become quite a tradition,”Meads says. “It’s kind of tricky to do — it has to havemagic, wonder, a happy ending and music.”The prolific playwright is also an actress, director and associateartistic director at San Diego’s respected Lamb’s PlayersTheatre. There she and her co-Christmas conspirers concocta holiday show with all the trappings, and has been doing itsince 1978, the year she first joined the ensemble.It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Back when she was astudent at Bethel University in Minnesota, she was studyingmedical technology. Taking a random acting class on a larkput her on the path toward her current career, and she starteddoing theatre professionally in 1971. Today, in addition toeverything else, she also writes non-holiday plays. Currently,she has one running called Boomers, a musical revue aboutthe baby boom generation.Stage Directions: So, you write a new Christmas showevery year?Kerry Meads: I’ve written a total of 15 Christmas shows,and every eight years, we bring one back, which I end uprewriting. This year we’re bringing back one of my mostrequested, and my first one. It’s called Angel’s Arms, which isabout a novelist who is suffering writer’s block and unexpectedlydiscovers the true meaning of Christmas while workingthrough his block.When do you start thinking of what to write?I start thinking about next year’s show when the currentChristmas show opens. I’m an incubator — I incubate ideasfor eight months, then bam, I slam it out in about four to sixweeks. It’s crazy hard!Do you enjoy the process?Actually, I’m a very social person, and writing is lonely. Ifeel vulnerable because it’s just me — there’s no one else toblame!But I’m very blessed with a company that I can bounceideas off of. It’s such a creative environment. Artistic DirectorRobert Smyth is a superb editor. But it’s tough too becauseyou need them to be honest and critical, and that’s uncomfortablesometimes.climax. That’s where the othersin the company come in.See, every character, good,bad or ugly, is part of me,and sometimes I’m a littleafraid to go where the characterreally needs to go. Theothers push me to go whereit’s a little uncomfortable,which is good.It seems daunting to dothis every year — do youfeel more pressure everytime?It is stressful, but verysatisfying, too. It’s a tradition.It’s the type of thingthat is truly a gift we giveto the community. There’snothing else like it.A scene from a previous holiday production,Christmas On My MindKerry MeadsLove blooms in It’s Christmas and It’s Live.How close is your first table read draft to being the finaldraft?It’s about 85 percent there. Usually, it’s just one scenethat needs work — but it’s the most important scene, theA scene from the original production of Angel’s Arms“I incubate ideas for eight months, then bam, I slam it out inabout four to six weeks. It’s crazy hard!” — Kerry Meads18 December 2008 • www.stage-directions.com