On Stage: The Christmas Foundling

We’re having a lot of fun with this year’s Christmas production, adapted from the short stories of Bret Harte. “The California Gold Rush is on and rough-and-tumble miners fill their days chasing fortunes and their nights with story and song. When an orphaned infant appears on their doorstep on Christmas Eve, their carefree existence is turned topsy-turvy and they discover that the greatest wealth sometimes comes in surprising packages.” The show features a friend of Taproot Theatre Company, Grant Goodeve (of “Eight is Enough”, and our local “Northwest Backroads” program and much more) plus an all around great cast. The designers’ rustic cabin and costumes are tops, and the musical direction is grand too.

(What’s more, the initial reviews from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Teen-Tix are great.)

On opening night I found myself having a fun chat with a critic about Christmas plays in general, and some of our interests in selecting plays for the Season.  Let’s face it, you can see several versions of “A Christmas Carol”, a send-up of a Judy Garland Christmas TV Special, “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever”, “The Santaland Diaries” even “You Can’t Take It With You” within a 15 minute drive of Taproot Theatre’s front door.  In contrast to the wild, vulgar, maybe cycnical tendency to create new holiday plays, we’ve looked for plays that embrace the heritage of Christmas (even including its biblical origins where it fits), plays that celebrate the season and we’ve recognized that we serve hundreds of patrons who bring along their families for a special night of theatre.  For some, this is the first time at a play, if not at TTC. This is their entrance to the wonder and relevance of theatre.

The Christmas Foundling, lt to rt: Jason Adkins (Hoke), Danny Helms (Tom) and Casi Wilkerson (Sarah).

And so, opposite to “Bah Humbug!”, we quite happily know that the entertainment element is running high and the audience is going to walk away happy. And in the case of “The Christmas Foundling” they’ll be thankful for their own families and friends, the people who contribute to making their life richer than “the stuff” that  we substitute for love.