Echo Theatre Company Announces SANTALAND DIARIES As Their Holiday Show Beginning Dec 4th

Trapped in Vocational Hell, an Elf Provides Chestnuts Roasted on an Open Pit of Satire.

Echo Theatre remounts their popular production of David Sedaris' The Santaland Diaries in an actual mall.

Echo Theatre Company provides a funny, refreshingly tart look at the sugar-sweet holiday season with The Santaland Diaries by best-selling author and humorist David Sedaris, adapted for the stage by Joe Mantello. Featuring Eric Little as the disgruntled Macy's elf and directed by Ben Nordstrom, the comedy runs December 4-20, 2009. The production will be held in Echo's performance venue, Theatre 134, in the ArtSpace at Crestwood Court. The theater is located in the Crestwood Court shopping center at the corner of Watson and Sappington Roads.

The Santaland Diaries comes from Mr. Sedaris' best-selling book, Holidays on Ice, in which he shares the sardonic tale of his employment as "Crumpet", an elf in Macy's Santaland. Sedaris' reading of this story on National Public Radio generated one of the largest responses from its listening audience ever. As a stage piece, The Santaland Diaries has also met with huge success in theatres nationwide.

Full of wry insight, the play explores the collision of Christmas and American consumerism at that popular Santa stop: the department store. Crumpet joins other elves-in-training and gets caught in the Yuletide lunacy that brings out the best and worst in people. Frightened children, bored elves, grumpy Santas, overworked managers and camcorder-toting parents make up the well-known picture of the holiday rush with the colors only Sedaris can mix so brilliantly. (The play is not appropriate for children.)

Echo's Artistic Director, Eric Little, who is reprising his role as the Elf, said, "When Echo produced the St. Louis premiere of The Santaland Diaries in 2004, the response was tremendous. Almost every show sold out. Since Sedaris' story centers on his adventures in Macy's Santaland, we thought it would be fun to bring it back in our new home - Crestwood Court Mall."

David Sedaris made his comic debut with The Santaland Diaries on National Public Radio. Named humorist of the year in 2001 by Time Magazine, Sedaris' sardonic wit and incisive social critique have since made him one of NPR's most popular and humorous commentators. In addition to his radio commentaries, David Sedaris is the author of the bestsellers Barrel Fever, Naked, Me Talk Pretty One Day, and his most recent book, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim.

Tickets for The Santaland Diaries are available through Brown Paper Tickets at 1.800.838.3006 and on-line through Echo's website at www.echotheatrecompany.org. For more information, call 314.225.4329.

Performance dates are December 4-20, 2009. Show times are at 8:00 p.m. on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays and at 3:00 p.m. on Sundays.

Single tickets are $20 general admission and $15 for senior adults and students.  Tickets for students with a valid ID are 2/$20 at the door.

Echo Theatre Company is an artist-driven company whose mission is to champion bold, contemporary works that provoke, excite and entertain.  In addition to professional productions, Echo develops and nurtures new theatre audiences and artists through the Imagination over Limitations children's hospital outreach, a free play reading series and their Next Generation educational programs.

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