Stories on Stage presents “Making Merry” December 11, 2011

STORIES ON STAGE

MAKING MERRY

Stories on Stage presents “Making Merry” Saturday, December 10 at 2:00 p.m. at The Dairy Center for the Arts in Boulder and Sunday, December 11 at 1:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. in Denver at the Seawell Ballroom at the Denver Performing Arts Complex. Single tickets are $25.Tickets for December 10 in Boulder are available by calling the Dairy Center at 303-444-7328 or online at www.thedairy.org ; tickets for December 11 in Denver are available by calling 303-494-0523 or online at www.storiesonstage.org. Student tickets are $15; tickets for groups of 10 or more are $20 per person and LoDough (scholarship) tickets are also available.



The talents of Jacqueline Antaramian, Sam Gregory, and John Hutton bring warmth to the season with classic holiday stories and songs in Making Merry.



The Boy Who Laughed at Santa Claus by Ogden Nash

Auggie Wren's Christmas Story by Paul Auster

read by Sam Gregory



Ogden Nash was an American poet best known for writing pithy and funny light verse. At the time of his death in 1971, the New York Times said his "droll verse with its unconventional rhymes made him the country's best-known producer of humorous poetry". His first job in New York was as a writer of the streetcar ads for a company that previously had employed another Baltimore resident, F. Scott Fitzgerald. Nash loved to rhyme. "I think in terms of rhyme...and have since I was six years old," he professed. He had a fondness for crafting his own words whenever rhyming words did not exist.



Paul Auster is known for works blending absurdism, existentialism, and the search for identity and personal meaning in works such as The New York Trilogy (1987), Moon Palace (1989), The Music of Chance (1990), The Book of Illusions (2002) and The Brooklyn Follies (2005). Mr. Austeris also the author of numerous screenplays, and works of non-fiction. His other titles include poet, translator and film director.

Sam Gregory is a Denver Center Theatre Company member. He has performed on stage at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival and regionally with the Seattle Repertory Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Cleveland Play House, San Jose Repertory Theatre and the California Shakespeare Festival. Mr. Gregory has appeared in daytime dramas One Life to Live and As the World Turns. He received Westword’s 2011 Best Of Award for Best Season for an Actor.



A Visit from Saint Nicholas (in the Ernest Hemingway Manner) by James Thurber

Christmas Eve at the Slash Y by Jack Schaefer

read by John Hutton



James Thurber The author of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and the creator of numerous New Yorker magazine cover cartoons, was born in Columbus, Ohio on December 8, 1894. One of the foremost American humorists of the 20th century, his inimitable wit and pithy prose spanned a breadth of genres, including short stories, modern commentary, fiction, children's fantasy and letters.



Jack Schaefer

American writer and journalist, a master of the novella, whose best-known book Shane (1949) has been considered the ultimate achievement in creating a mythical western hero with a shady past. His journalistic career spanned nearly 20 years but in 1949, Schaefer quit his newspaper job to write full-time. Several of his short stories appeared in various periodicals and other papers, such as Argosy, Bluebook, Boy's Life, Collier's, Fresco, Gunsmoke, Holiday, and the Saturday Evening Post. In the late 1960s he moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico and devoted himself to writing of mankind's effect upon the environment.



John Hutton begins season 20 with the Denver Center Theatre Company. Some of his recent credits include Trip to Bountiful, Richard III, A Prayer for Owen Meany, Measure for Measure, Plainsong and The House of the Spirits. Other Regional Credits include The Goodman Theatre, Centerstage, Huntington Theatre Company, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, Roundabout Theatre, The Old Globe and Curious Theatre Company. He received the 2007 Best of Westword for Best Actor in a Comedy (Fiction). John also played Peter Love on Another World.



Who Can Retell by Myra Goldberg, read by Jacqueline Antaramian



Myra Goldberg's bestselling first novel, Bee Season, was a New York Times Notable Book for 2000, winner of the Borders New Voices Prize, and a finalist for the Hemingway Foundation/PEN award, the NYPL Young Lions award, and the Barnes & Noble Discover award. Her second novelWickett’s Remedy grew out of her fascination with the 1918 influenza epidemic, and her third, The False Friend, concerns a woman trying to untangle a 20-year-old memory. Ms. Goldberg's short stories have appeared in Harpers and Failbetter, among other places. In addition to her novels, she has written an essay collection and a children’s book



Jacqueline Antaramian’s Broadway credits include Mary Stuart, Coram Boy, Julius Caesar andWrong Mountain. She has been seen in episodes of Fringe, Lipstick Jungle, Third Watch, Law & Order and The Sopranos and in the movie The Siege. Ms. Antaramian has performed leading roles in more than 60 regional productions, including nine years at the Denver Center Theatre Company, and was awarded the 2006 Barrymore Award for Best Actress for her performance inNine Parts of Desire. Additionally, Jacqueline Antaramian enhances this event with holiday songs, accompanied by Gary Grundei on piano.



Celebrating their 11th Season, Stories on Stage has great actors bring stories to life by combining literature with theater.



Making Merry is sponsored by Les Crispelle and Glenn Tiedt and sponsored in part by the Citizens of the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD), Colorado Creative Industries, Gay & Lesbian Fund for Colorado and the Ralph and Florence Burgess Trust.



Stories on Stage presents “Making Merry” - Award-winning actors bringing warmth to the season with holiday stories and songs.

Saturday, December 10

2:00 p.m.

@ The Dairy Center for the Arts in Boulder

$25 Adult; $15 Student

303-444-7328 or online at www.thedairy.org



Sunday, December 11

1:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.

@ Seawell Ballroom at the Denver Performing Arts Complex.

$25 Adult; $15 Student

303-494-0523 or online at www.storiesonstage.org.