“Redesigning Santa” – the performance that never was
Santa faces some uncomfortable truths when he’s subjected to the harsh scrutiny of a focus group. Since I’d had early success getting Red-Nosed Drunk produced in 2024, I decided to try adapting another holiday essay I’d written years ago, this one about Santa Claus getting an image makeover. (You can read the original essay here .) Because there was no actual narrative in the one-page essay, I created a meeting between St. Nick and two marketing professionals. Admittedly, the premise made for a pretty static play. Still, I thought it could work in ten minutes or less. The marketers presenting research that undermined all the tropes of Santa, and his reactions to their bizarre recommendations, seemed surprising, absurd, and funny. One big problem, though: My play, like the essay that inspired it, turned on a pop culture reference that was nearly 50 years old (a popular character from the 1970s-era sitcom, Happy Days ). ...