Mike Floyd

Check out  the first installment of this season's Tea Time with Crumpet, with the star of Actors Theatre's The Santaland Diaries, Bear Brummel as Crumpet the Elf. 

As the Christmas countdown begins, a newly-hired elf enters the coldest circle of retail hell: Macy's Santaland. In real life, Crumpet the Elf is an unemployed actor, but now he's hard at work, greeting children, judging their parents and giving us a hilarious behind-the-scenes tour of the North Pole. Packed with David Sedaris's signature wit, The Santaland Diaries is a delightfully irreverent holiday classic for those of us who prefer our eggnog spiked.

Actors Theatre of Louisville and Artistic Director Robert Barry Fleming announce the upcoming holiday season favorites: Fifth Third Bank's A Christmas Carol, beginning November 23 in the Pamela Brown Auditorium, and The Santaland Diaries, based on the essay by David Sedaris, beginning November 24 in the Victor Jory Theatre. Tickets are now available at ActorsTheatre.org.

XQ and Pop-Up Magazine Productions announce XQ Super School Live - a new, one-of-a-kind, immersive storytelling tour to inspire people to reimagine high schools in their own community. This innovative tour is coming to Chicago's Harris Theater at Millennium Park, 205 E. Randolph Dr.,  Saturday, March 30 at 7:30 p.m. for a night of high school drama - full of stories, selfie confessionals, viral gratitude, and multimedia adventures that celebrate the everyday heroes transforming America's high schools. General admission tickets are available for $19 at HarrisTheaterChicago.org or by phone at 312.334.7777.

Actors Theatre of Louisville announces The Santaland Diaries, by David Sedaris, adapted for the stage by Joe Mantello, and directed by Associate Artistic Director Meredith McDonough, onstage from November 15-December 23. Described last year as "the adventurous yuletide theater-goers should check out!" by Arts Louisville, Sedaris's holiday tale will play to new audiences with an increased number of performances, in the 159-seat Victor Jory Theatre. The Santaland Diaries is brought to you in part by BB&T.

If you have been even remotely close to a mall and/or department store during the Holiday season, you know well the Scene. Often found within the center of the shopping hub-bub and cleverly placed near the toys, an onslaught of seasonal scenery is in sight: adorable gingerbread houses, cotton-candy like 'snow' drifts that are replete with gumdrops and woodland creatures and candy canes that are 4-8 feet tall that line a snow-covered road where you are assisted by happy helpers that support and guide your way. And we all know to whom that road leads...Santa Claus!!! Oh, the excitement builds just thinking about visiting with Ol' St. Nick, or is that anxiety and nausea?

Actors Theatre of Louisville announces The Santaland Diaries, by David Sedaris, adapted for the stage by Joe Mantello, and directed by Associate Artistic Director Meredith McDonough, onstage from November 15-December 23. Described last year as 'the adventurous yuletide theater-goers should check out!' by Arts Louisville, Sedaris's holiday tale will play to new audiences with an increased number of performances, in the 159-seat Victor Jory Theatre. The Santaland Diaries is brought to you in part by BB&T.

This being a Durang play, the characters have offbeat opinions about everything under the sun, but there's anger and regret underneath the quips, and eventually the deeper emotions come to the surface.

New York Classical Theatre will present a free outdoor production of Shakespeare's The Tempest, transforming the Lower Manhattan waterfront into Prospero's fantastical enchanted isle.

New York Classical Theatre will present a free outdoor production of Shakespeare's The Tempest, transforming the Lower Manhattan waterfront into Prospero's fantastical enchanted isle.

Chris Mohr's music drama will receive its first workshop production in New York City on May 2nd and 3rd, 2013 at the historic Theatre at the Riverside Church under the artistic direction of director/choreographer Jeremy Williams. Williams is creating the original staging and choreography in collaboration with the cast and production team as a dance-theatre spectacle. Set to the 1998 recording by the National Symphony and Chorus of Ukraine the workshop explores the story of Mohr's epic tale through movement, dance, and physical acting.

Makaela Pollock will direct the play with music, based on the original by Beaumarchais, February 29 - March 8

Tony Award nominated actress Jane Summerhays, last seen on Broadway in The Wild Party, will join the cast of the new musical Sympathy Jones, which will debut at this year's New York Musical Theatre Festival.