National Holiday Theater Announces Two Holiday Shows, Each Celebrating Three Favorite Seasonal Holidays

As its second entertainment, National Holiday Theater will present two readers' Theater Productions, each celebrating three favorite seasonal holidays. Performances will take place on Wednesday and Thursday, December 28 and 29, at the STARLITE ROOM, 1001 Cocoanut Ave. (corner of 10th Street) at 7:30pm. Tickets are available online at www.NationalHolidayTheatre.com for $17, with seating on a "first come, first seated" basis.

The Christmas presentation for December 28th will feature Alan Brasington, reading Dylan Thomas's A Child's Christmas in Wales. This is a prose work, an anecdotal retelling of a Christmas past from the viewpoint of a very young child in a nostalgic and simpler time. "December, in my memory, is white as Lapland, though there were no reindeer."

On the 29th, multiple readers will present Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle, a Sherlock Holmes tale about the holiday season theft of a precious jewel and the strange place it is discovered. That is enough of a mystery to intrigue both Holmes and Watson - and the wild goose chase is on!

On both dates, we will present an adaptation of Shawna Dolansky's The Truth(s) About Hanukkah, seeking to understand multiple points of view about the Jewish holiday, widely celebrated in the USA but never even mentioned in the Old Testament. The story is taken from early Jewish writings (First and Second Maccabees), accepted as inspired parts of the Bible by many Roman and Orthodox churches, but not by the Protestants - or the Jews. And that story about the miraculous jar of oil that burned for eight days - suspiciously inventive.

Also on both dates - humor: a secular and modern approach to merry-making, with an aluminum pole (standing in for a tree) at the center of newly-minted family rituals. Each offering will include a Holiday Party, including recitations, ticketed drawings of presents for the lucky attendees, cookies, and a festive bowl of punch. Be there or be square.

The National Holiday Theater was founded to support entertainments that celebrate the Holidays that are part of our heritage. It recently presented its first performance, a seasonal reading of Ray Bradbury's The Halloween Tree.

The Theatre's co-founders are Alan Brasington and David Coyle.

Mr. Brasington, recently moved to Sarasota, was trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and has had a successful career on Broadway, in major USA Classical Theatres, in film, and in television.

Mr. Coyle, after a lengthy career in Information Technology, settled in Sarasota, where he has been active in theater, most recently as a co-founder of Gotta Van Productions, presenter of the annual SaraSolo Festival.