Image via Facebook / American Players Theater
Hark! The joys of the holiday season have been embraced by American Players Theatre. The Spring Green troupe once again has opted for online performances, this time of seasonal favorites old and new to provide an emotional and entertaining balm much needed by audience and artists alike.
APT is offering two productions available through the Broadway on Demand streaming platform designed to tickle the funnybone and touch the heart. APT Holidames: Tangled in Tinsel is a world premiere performance by core company members Tracy Michelle Arnold, Sarah Day and Colleen Madden that blends, singing, celebration, holiday hilarity and poignant prose drawn from Christmases past.
Meanwhile, This Wonderful Life, adapted by Steve Murray from the famous Frank Capra Christmas fantasy, finds core company member Nate Burger single-handedly recreating all the film’s characters, from Jimmy Stewart’s kindhearted George Bailey to Henry Travers’ bumbling angel Clarence Odbody to Lionel Barrymore’s evil Mr. Potter. Burger’s bravura performance allows fans to experience the film classic in a new way.
The price of $24 per performance, or $45 for both, provides the actors and company some much needed income. It also offers the artists an emotional release similar to that experienced by the audience, says APT artistic director Brenda DeVita.
Grateful in Dark Times
“Creating is the artists’ go-to defense in dark times,” DeVita says. “Because creating stories is what we love and what we do, we are grateful to do so in whatever format is available to us.”
Access to the shows runs from Dec. 2 until 11:59 p.m. on Dec. 29. Subscribers will receive an email with links to the play and redemption codes. Once activated, the performance will be available for 24 hours. Visit americanplayers.org/tickets for more information.
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“The one thing that keeps coming up from the actors and everyone who works here is how much we’re missing the audience, and the energy that they bring to every show,” DeVita adds. “My message to everyone is to stay safe, stay hopeful, and keep engaging with all the things that make you happy. Once we’re able to get shows safely back on the stage, it will be a hell of a party.”
