Michael McKeever
stars in
David Sedaris’
The Santaland Diaries

“What’s as much fun as Christmas?” asks Parade Productions’ director Kim St. Leon. “Directing David Sedaris’ wickedly funny script, The Santaland Diaries, with Michael McKeever!”

The Santaland Diaries will open Parade Productions’ second season on December 13^th, and run through December 23^rd at the Studio Theatre at Mizner Park in Boca Raton.

The Santaland Diarieshilariouslyrelates David Sedaris’ experiences when he reluctantly worked as an elf in Macy’s Christmastime Santaland display, and offers an uproarious behind-the-scenes look at how department stores manufacture Christmas spirit.

“The play is witty and smart and tells truths about our heart and our callousness, all the while making us laugh,” St. Leon says. “It truly is a celebration of the human spirit covered in holiday commercialism. And Michael McKeever is a dream to direct.”

Parade Productions’ debut season was an unqualified success. Their production of Donald Margulies’ Brooklyn Boy sold out all twelve performances, and a subsequent reading of Stuart Meltzer’s play, Better Than Damn Good, also did very well.

Candace Caplin, the driving force behind Parade Productions, and the company’s executive director, explains:  “The audience loved Michael Mc Keever in Better Than Damn Good – so we decided to bring him back!  It was a great night – there’s nothing like a group of people coming together and laughing.  We’re excited about SantaLand; you take David Sedaris, and mix in Michael Mc Keever, and you end up with something special.  It should be a lot of fun.”

McKeever is pleased to have the opportunity to revisit Sedaris’ (s)elf. “There’s a reason this play is one of the most produced every year,” he says.  “It’s not only full of sardonic wit and humor, but incredibly insightful as well.”

The versatile McKeever, who recently won a Carbonell Award for Best New Work for his play, Stuff, explores every aspect of the human condition in his work, which incorporates a wide variety of styles and subject matter.  He has been honored with an NEA Residency Grant (New Theatre, Miami) and has been a 3-time finalist for Humana Fest’s nationally renowned Heideman Award. He is the proud recipient of three Carbonell Awards; four Curtain Up Awards; and two Florida Individual Artist Fellowships. Six of his plays have been produced at City Theatre’s prestigious Summer Shorts Festival in Miami. He has been a finalist several times at both the Key West Theatre Festival and the Sarasota Festival of New Plays. He is also an award-winning actor and designer. He resides in South Florida and is a member of the Dramatists Guild and Actors’ Equity.

Humorist, comedian, author, and radio contributor David Sedaris has been described as ‘the rock star of writers’.  He first gained public attention when National Public Radio broadcast his essay ‘Santaland Diaries’ in 1992.  Much of Sedaris’ humor is autobiographical and self-deprecating, and often concerns his family life, his middle-class upbringing, his Greek heritage, unusual jobs, education, drug use, obsessive behaviors, and his life in general. Sedaris has been compared to James Thurber, Dorothy Parker, Spalding Gray, Mark Twain, and Nathanial West and was hailed by the New Yorker as one of the funniest writers in America.  His books and essays have sold well over seven million copies.

Parade Productions is a not-for profit theatre company whose mission is “To produce high quality theatre experiences that entertain, enlighten, inform, uplift, and inspire audiences, sending them home with new thoughts, insights, questions, and ideas.”

The Santaland Diaries opens December 13th, 2012, and runs through December 23^rd, with performances Thursday through Saturday evenings at 7:30 p.m., and Saturdays and Sundays at 3 p.m. Tickets are $35 and $40 ($30 for groups of 15 or more).

Tickets are available at: www.paradeproductions.org, or by calling 866-811-4111.  For Group Sales please call:  561-291-9678. 

The Santaland Diaries
By David Sedaris; adapted for the stage by Joe Mantello
December 13-23
Thu-Sat 7:30 pm, Sat-Sun 3 pm
The Studio at Mizner Park
201 Plaza Real, 2^nd Floor
Boca Raton, FL 33432
Tickets:  $35/$40
Phone:  866-811-4111
Group Sales:  561-291-9678
www.paradeproductions.org
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