The Santaland Diaries
A Holiday Event for the Big Kids
by David Sedaris
adapted by Joe Mantello
directed by Jonathan Bohun Brady
December 6 – 23, 2011
The UpStage Cabaret’s wildly successful production returns for a fourth smash season. Meet the quintessential elf gone bad as he relives a series of less-than-merry misadventures in David Sedaris’ hilarious antidote for holiday havoc. Spend some time with the irreverent Crumpet – one of Santa’s little helpers during the Macy’s Christmas shopping rush – as he copes with thousands of shoppers and their kiddies with his whacked out, wicked wit.
This production contains adult situations and is not recommended for young audiences.
"Whether you’re looking to laugh your way into the holiday spirit or merely need a break from the humdrum of a crappy job, The Santaland Diaries are sure to please." –Lenise Willis, YES! Weekly
Running time: approximately 65 minutes, with no intermission.
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CastCrumpet
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Creative TeamAuthor
Adaptor
Director
Scenic Designer
Costume Designer
Lighting Designer
Sound Designer
Stage Manager
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Biographies
Cast
Creative Team
| David Sedaris (Author) With sardonic wit and incisive social critiques, David Sedaris has become one of America’s pre-eminent humor writers. The great skill with which he slices through cultural euphemisms and political correctness proves that Sedaris is a master of satire and one of the most observant writers addressing the human condition today. He is the author of the bestsellers Barrel Fever and Holidays on Ice, as well as collections of personal essays, Naked, Me Talk Pretty One Day and Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, each of which became immediate bestsellers. There are a total of seven million copies of his books in print and they have been translated into 25 languages. He is the editor of an anthology of stories, Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules: An Anthology of Outstanding Stories. His essays appear regularly in Esquire and The New Yorker. Sedaris and his sister, Amy Sedaris, have collaborated under the name “The Talent Family” and have written several plays which have been produced at La Mama, Lincoln Center and The Drama Department in New York City. These plays include Stump the Host, Stitches, One Woman Shoe, which received an Obie Award, Incident at Cobbler’s Knob, and The Book of Liz, which was published in book form by Dramatists Play Service. In 2008, he published a collection of essays titled When You Are Engulfed in Flames, and he just released another collection of stories, Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary. Sedaris’ original radio pieces can often be heard on This American Life, distributed nationally by Public Radio International and produced by WBEZ. In 2001, he became the third recipient of the Thurber Prize for American Humor. He was named by Time magazine as “Humorist of the Year” in 2001 and was nominated for two Grammy Awards for Best Spoken Word Album (Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim) and Best Comedy Album (David Sedaris: Live at Carnegie Hall). | |
| Joe Mantello (Adaptor) Directing credits include Nine to Five; Assassins (Tony Award); Wicked; Take Me Out (Tony Award); Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune; A Man of No Importance; Design For Living; Terrence Mc Nally and Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking for the San Francisco Opera; The Vagina Monologues; bash; Another American: Asking and Telling; Love! Valour! Compassion! (Tony nomination); Proposals; The Mineola Twins; Corpus Christi; Mizlansky/Zilinsky or Schmucks; Blue Window; God’s Heart; The Santaland Diaries; Snakebit; Three Hotels; Imagining Brad and Fat Men in Skirts. Mr. Mantello also directed the film Love! Valour! Compassion!. As an actor he appeared in Angels in America (Tony nomination) and The Baltimore Waltz. He is the recipient of the Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, Helen Hayes, Clarence Derwent, Obie and Joe A. Callaway awards. He is a member of Naked Angels and an associate artist at the Roundabout. |
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| Jonathan Bohun Brady (Director) Triad Stage: “For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls” (director); Beautiful Star and Bell, Book and Candle (assistant director). Other productions include Orpheus Descending, The Stonewater Rapture, Measure for Measure, Bus Stop, The Rimers of Eldritch and The Clean House. Education: UNCG, MFA in Directing. Jonathan is currently on faculty at Bennett College. He is a proud active member of Paper Lantern Theatre Company - www.paperlanterntheatre.com. In addition to producing several of Paper Lantern’s plays, he is directing their upcoming production of the 2010 Tony Award-nominated play, Next Fall, opening in The UpStage Cabaret in January. | |
| Amanda Warriner (Scenic Designer) Triad Stage debut. Local/Regional: Pump Boys and the Dinettes (Winston-Salem Theatre Alliance). Collegiate: Thoroughly Modern Millie (Lynchburg College); Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead (Lynchburg College). Education: B.A., Lynchburg College. Other: The Tempest (Assistant Designer, Lynchburg College). | |
| Andrew Landon Cutler (Costume Designer) graduated in 2008 from Greensboro College with a BA in Costume Design for the Theater. This is his sixth show designing costumes in The UpStage Cabaret. | |
| Matthew Sale (Lighting Designer) is currently a Theatrical Design graduate student at UNCG. He received a BA from Averett University and also attended the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and The School of Visual Arts in New York City, where he studied Computer Art and Animation, Visual Effects, and Film. His most recent design credits include Scenic Design for Threepenny Opera (UNCG), Lighting Design for Souvenir (Paper Lantern), The Bomb-itty of Errors (THTR 232), and Pericles (UNCG), and Associate Lighting Design for A Christmas Carol (Triad Stage). | |
| Patrick Calhoun (Sound Designer) grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina and attended Greensboro College for undergraduate work where he received a B.S. in Technical Theatre. He is currently pursuing his MFA in Sound Design at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and has worked in theatre professionally for the Utah Festival Opera, the Utah Shakespeare Festival, Theatre West Virginia, and in the operations department for JHE Production Group doing events and pre-race shows for NASCAR. Last year for Triad Stage, Patrick designed The Santaland Diaries and was the Assistant Sound Designer for Educating Rita. This year Patrick is the Sound Supervisor for Triad Stage and will also be designing New Music on The MainStage. | |
| Emily J. Mails* (Stage Manager) Triad Stage: The Mystery of Irma Vep (2011), The America Play, Billy Bishop Goes to War, Oleanna, Blackbeard, Mad at Miles, The Santaland Diaries (2008–2010), Dracula (2008) and “MASTER HAROLD”...and the boys. Regional: A Thousand Cranes (North Carolina Shakespeare Festival); Rigoletto (Greensboro Opera); Crime and Punishment, Merry Wives of Windsor, Into the Woods (Orlando Shakespeare Festival). Education: BFA in Technical Production, University of North Carolina at Greensboro. |
*Member of Actors Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States.
