Recipe for Great Food and Entertainment

Release Date: 11/3/2000. Expired: 12/22/2000

Christmas Seasonings Adds Spice to Holidays

Mix one part cheese and one part nuts. Add a teaspoon of southern spice along with a pint of merry music and holiday humor. This is the recipe for Christmas Seasonings, The Renaissance Center’s holiday offering in the Gaslight Dinner Theatre every Friday at 6:30 p.m. and running through December 22.

“Christmas Seasonings is going to be a wonderful mix of music, comedy and overall fun,” said Pacer Harp, one of the show’s producers who also has starring roles in several of the skits. Other familiar Renaissance Center favorites are featured in the show as well.

The show will feature parodies of classics such as Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” and the O. Henry classic “The Gift of the Magi.” Audiences may recognize similarities between Dickens’ character and ‘Ebegeezer Scrudge’ portrayed by Harp, as well as the zany entourage of ghosts played by Elaine Sherrill, director of music education, Jan Dial, director of theatre, and Joe Leavitt, Renaissance Rep Company. Rumor has it that Elvis even makes an appearance.

Dial and Leavitt also star in the O. Henry parody, but rather than selling hair and watches to buy each other Christmas gifts, this loving couple are pawning prized possessions in order to purchase a gun rack and a set of Caruso rollers.

Christmas Seasonings was written by Kim Leavitt, who also plays “Mistletoe”, a licensed elf trainer who educates elf wanna-be’s on the rigors of working for Santa.

“This skit is a comical look at what department store elves must go through in order to accommodate aggravated parents and screaming children who just want a picture with Santa,” states Leavitt.

Leavitt regards the different characters in the script as “a fruitcake of different personalities and quirks.”

She adds, “People’s attitudes change around Christmas. You suddenly find yourself talking to strangers or being nice to people who normally would irritate you. Shopping for loved ones or thinking about old friends makes everyone nostalgic, and the character of Martin Cathey realizes this and puts it all into perspective at the end of the show when he remarks that it takes all kinds of people to season the holidays. Some are a little nutty, some are a little fruity, but Christmas would be much less flavorful without all of them.”

The production combines a hilarious script with favorite holiday songs like “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas”, “Jingle Bell Rock”, and “Walkin’ in a Winter Wonderland.”

“The skits will make you laugh and the music will truly move you,” Harp added.

The show is a wonderful combination of Christmas classics and seasoned to perfection with holiday humor for an evening of delightfully good fun to get everyone in the spirit of the season. Adding to the ambience of the Gaslight Theatre, the set for Christmas Seasonings includes a 12-foot Christmas tree at the entrance, a stage decorated with poinsettias, and a beautifully painted snow scene drop, rendered by Renaissance Center Gallery Curator, Curtis Southerland.

“The center’s art department has been wonderful about helping us design the set,” stated Leavitt and Harp. “We described to them what we needed and they came back with props and set pieces far exceeding our expectations.”

Dinner for Christmas Seasonings is catered by King’s Court and the production is being sponsored by Jim Marvin Enterprises, Inc., both of Dickson.

Reservations for Dinner Theatre must be made by noon on the Friday of each performance. The cost for dinner and the show is $25 per person. For more information, call (615)740-5600. For a special booking of Christmas Seasonings, contact Leann Polk, Director of Events, at (615)740-5503.

Visit the Gaslight Dinner Theatre page for more about dinner theatre.

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