Santaland in the news and a trip down memory lane

There was a lovely article about The Santaland Diaries in the Gazette today. Read it here.

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The Hagerstown Herald-Mail also has an article about the show. Read it here.

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As I was searching for the article online, I came across this piece about MET from Christmastime 2003. It's just a brief summary of all the shows we had going at the time, but it proves that the holidays have always been the busiest time of the year for MET. I heard once that when you're in show business, the only way you know it's a holiday is that you do two shows instead of one!

Santaland Tech Week

It's Tech Week for Santaland! This is the time when all the technical components - lights, sound, costumes, set, props, etc - come together with the performance. The director works with all the designers to get everything just right.

The set is still going up - it has to serve for three different shows: Santaland Diaries, 4 Eggnogs and an Apology and The Snow Queen.

Santaland director Suzanne Beal gives notes to Rona Mensah after rehearsal.

Suzanne, Rona and the designers/technicians talk about the show.



Rona takes notes. The swirly blue on the walls behind her are for the Snow Queen set.
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I'm still not sure how everything is going to fit together and work for each show, but I know that our set designers (Ken Poisson, Joann Lee and the Comedy Pigs) and our technical director (Mark Barnhart) having been working together closely will find a way to make it fabulous!

Crumpet the Elf a.k.a. Rona Mensah

Longtime Ensemble Member Rona Mensah will star in the one-person show, The Santaland Diaries, this holiday season. Who is Rona and how did she come by this amazing opportunity to memorize a 40 page monologue? Here, in her own words, is Rona's life story...the Reader's Digest version:

I came to Frederick to study at Hood College. While there, I participated in the Hood Theatre group. At the time, there were no Theatre Arts courses at Hood so I chose something equally creative: Interior Design and Retail Management.

Even though I was studying something different, I spent much of my free time working on the theatre productions and helping to build the sets, coordinating the properties and acting. Since I didn't stray too far from the campus, I was clueless to the number of theaters in Frederick's bustling arts scene.

After I graduated, I moved to Frederick and quickly learned there were a number of theatre groups in the area and saw a few productions. After about 2 years, I knew I wanted to get back into the theatre scene and wanted to hit the stage again.

I began working for Key 103 radio in Frederick and came into contact with an audition notice for Fredericktowne Players' production of Camelot. It was exactly the jolt I needed to return to the stage. I was lucky enough to get roles onstage with Fredericktowne Players, Other Voices, and Feste Productions theatre groups.

While performing in Feste's Skin of Our Teeth, I came in contact with Maryland Ensemble Theatre founder, Tad Janes who approached me about taking acting classes with The Ensemble School...MET's Educational arm. I started taking classes in Acting and Improvisation with the MET, and in the process grew to learn much more about Theatre Arts and the Ensemble Theatre model.

In 1997, we debuted our premier piece, an original work called "Finally Heard: Feminine Heroes of an Uncivil War". In the 10 years that I've been involved with the MET, we've created 5 original shows and have another one we are creating for the 2008-2009 season. The group has grown and continued to expand our boundaries by creating new original plays, and adapting classic plays with a new twist. It's such a great group to be involved with.

I really love living and working in Frederick. It's such an interesting and eclectic town. There's so much to explore in the arts, from music, to visual and performing arts, one could always be occupied with experiencing the arts in Frederick!

David Sedaris on Letterman

David Sedaris reads an essay on the Letterman Show. Not Santaland related, but you get a sense of his humor.

David Sedaris

David Sedaris, author of one of MET's holiday shows - The Santaland Diaries, is a busy man:

For a brief bio, go here or here.

For a 2004 interview with Mr. Sedaris, go here. I think the highlight is at the end when he talks about finally getting a computer: "When I was working on a typewriter and I whited out a line, often I would choose a word to go in the space just because it fit. Now I don't have to do that."

For an interview about his 2001 book, Me Talk Pretty One Day, go here.

For a review of his latest book, When You Are Engulfed in Flames, go here. You can also listen to Mr. Sedaris read from the book.

Other books by Daivd Sedaris:
Naked
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim
Barrel Fever
He has also co-written several plays with his sister, Amy Sedaris.

David Sedaris will be at the Weinberg Center in April, 2009.

Santaland Diaries First Read Thru

On Wednesday, November 5th we had the first read thru of The Santaland Diaries by David Sedaris. As usual, we had a potluck dinner first, then settled into the theatre to listen to the script.

The production team, plus a few others: Sarah Shulman (ASM), Mak Nichols, Suzanne Beal (Director), Karina Wright (Stage manager), Joann Lee (Set designer), Tom Majarov (sound designer) and Sarah Straw.

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The Santaland Diaries premiered on November 7, 1996 at the Atlantic Theatre Company in New York City. MET has produced this show once before, in 2004 (our first Christmas in our current space) with Kevin Corbett as the elf.

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Santaland director, Suzanne Beal, talks about the show.

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The playwright, David Sedaris, was discovered reading his diary (which he has kept since 1977) in a Chicago club by radio host Ira Glass, who asked Sedaris to appear on his weekly local program The Wild Room. Sedaris's success on The Wild Room led to his National Public Radio debut on December 23, 1992, when he read a radio essay titled "SantaLand Diaries", which described his experiences working as an elf at Macy's department store during Christmastime in New York. "SantaLand Diaries" was an immediate success with radio listeners, and launched Sedaris's career as a writer, playwright and comedian.

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Santaland is a one person show, and MET's version features ensemble member Rona Mensah. Rona basically has to memorize a 30 page monologue!