Christmas - The American Century Theater

Director’s Notes: An American Century Christmas
It wasn’t so long ago that the Christmas season only seemed to arrive when Bob Hope, Bing
Crosby, Andy Williams, Perry Como and any number of other popular entertainers hosted
their annual “Christmas Specials.” The shows varied widely in quality from year to year,
but not in format and spirit. Familiar songs, both religious and secular, were sandwiched
around skits, stories and dramatic scenes portraying various aspects of Christmas in America,
past and present. Accompanying these variety shows were either new or repeated animated
specials, many of them using the “Puppetoons” that were the trademark of producer George
Pal. Of course, the regular variety shows-and once they were as thick on the networks as
passenger pigeons-had special holiday installments too: Ed Sullivan, the Hollywood Palace,
Red Skelton, the Bell Telephone Hour and the Hallmark Hall of Fame, to mention just a few.
Then there were the Christmas movies, as familiar as Santa himself: Alistair Sim (or Reginald
Owen) as Scrooge in A Christmas Carol. Bing and Rosemary Clooney in White Christmas.
Young Natalie Wood and a bearded Edmund Gwenn in the non-colorized Miracle on 34 th
Street. The look and feel and sound of Christmas in America, in those days, was a collage of
memories, brought to our families by beloved performers who were always welcome in our
living rooms.
Time marches on, and, at least in the view of The American Century Theater, not always
to a more pleasant place. TV holiday specials became a casualty of the gradual decline and
extinction of the television variety show. Hollywood today still turns out Christmas movies
every year, but they are increasingly less about the holiday itself than about the hectic nature of
it: last minute shopping (Jingle All the Way); annoying family members (National Lampoon’s
Christmas Vacation); celebrating Christmas in families of divorce (The Santa Clause). Every
season, TV critics express amazement at the ratings racked up by well-worn Christmas fare
like It’s a Wonderful Life and A Charlie Brown Christmas. Why are they amazed? We are
trying to hold on to our memories of what Christmas used to be like, and it is becoming more
and more difficult. The memories are fading, as the 20 th Century rapidly recedes from view.
We at The American Century Theater felt that this year of so much upheaval, stress and
change, both good and bad, would be an appropriate time to consider how Christmas felt in
the 20 th Century, to brighten some of those fading memories, and perhaps to make this 21 st
Century Christmas a little more joyous and meaningful to grownups and children alike. And
so we assembled a show we call An American Century Christmas, stuffed it full of Christmas
tunes, moments and stories, and found just the right members of The American Century
Theater family to perform it for you.
It is our Christmas Special, presented in the home of the Day family, whose saga we are telling
in our other holiday production, Life With Father. No matter what holiday you celebrate this
time of year, be it Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa or something else, the message of the
season, and the message of our show, is the same for all Americans, and it is a message that
we can only hope lasts all year long:
Joy to the world. Peace on Earth. Good will toward men and women and children, too.
And “God Bless Us, Every One!”
Jack Marshall,
Artistic Director
Director of An American Century Christmas
THE AMERICAN CENTURY THEATER
BOARD OF DIRECTORS AND STAFF
Chair: Wendy Kenney
Vice–Chair/Secretary: Steven Scott Mazzola
Treasurer: Ann Marie Plubell
Board: Richard Barton, Elizabeth Borgen Rebecca Christy, Kimberly Ginn
Vivian Kallen, Peri Mahaley, Jack Marshall, Loren Platzman
Jack Marshall, CEO and Artistic Director
Rhonda Hill, Production and Casting Manager
Steven Scott Mazzola, Associate Artistic Director
Jason Beagle, Volunteer Manager
Rip Claassen, Community Programs/Outreach
Brian Crane, Database/Communications Manager
Deborah Rinn Critzer, Front of House/Volunteer Manager
Karen Currie, Group Sales
Ellen Dempsey, Controller
Bill Gordon, Web Marketing/Podcasts
Rebecca Hunger, Director of Operations
Tom Fuller, General Counsel/Resident Musical Director
Michael Null, Technical Director
Trena Weiss–Null, Technical Director
Yvonne Hunger, Marketing Director/Publicist
Ginny Tarris, Director of Development
Michael Sherman, Graphic Artist & Design
Robert McElwaine is the Residential Playwright of
The American Century Theater
Still to come ...
Don’t miss the rest of TACT’s 2008-9 Season
by Howard Lindsay
and Russel Crouse
January 8 – 4, 2009
by Richard Wright and Paul Green — April 14 – May 9, 2009
by Edward Albee — July 30 – August 22, 2009
Visit www.AmericanCentury.org or call 703-993-4555