‘TIS THE SEASON TO BE BEARDED!
AN INTERVIEW WITH PLAYWRIGHT
KATHERINE HARROFF by tim parks
ANYONE who is familiar with the perennial holiday
classic,A Charlie Brown Christmas, is aware that Linus railed against the commercialism of the holiday season. Just imagine what it would be like to be on the frontline of that beast, as a mall Santa, seeing the demand-and-supply nature of the holiday. That’s the concept behind the Circle Circle dot dot’s (CCdd) production
of Bearded!, the play is culled from interviews with real-life mall Santas and their sometimes strange tales as they donned the jolly fat man’s beard and red suit. The Rage Monthly caught up with playwright Katherine Harroff, who
is also the artistic director of Circle Circle dot dot, to talk about how the production company has as they say, “the ability to allow the world to see and understand itself through stimulating, informative and highly entertaining art” and of course, all things holiday.
What was your inspiration for writingBearded!? For the past two years Circle Circle dot dot has been producing shows
around the holiday season that never had anything to do with the holi- day. It was always hard to market them to audiences who were wanting to be enchanted in Christmas delight. Since we’re a community-based company, we focus on developing plays that are based on true stories— something that doesn’t always lend itself to a seasonal theme. However, I had known a couple of people who have taken on the gig as a
Santa at one point or another and the idea just popped into my head one day. I would seek out true stories about the bizarre job of playing Santa and turn that into CCdd’s first-ever holiday production! The result is this ridiculous and touching whirlwind of a play that I think really captures the modern spirit of Christmas. How did you go about collecting the stories of the real-life mall Santas? I was really lucky to know a couple of ex-Santas before I started writing. I
approached those folks, we chatted over coffee and I asked question after question about what it was like to be the man behind the beard. As you can imagine, I got some pretty insane stories. None of the Santas I interviewed held anything back and it was wonderful. After I collected
22 RAGE monthly | DECEMBER 2013
the bizarre job of playing Santa and turn that into Circle Circle dot dot’s first-ever holiday production!”
all the stories, there was one interviewee whose story and experiences stuck out the most for me. Based on that, I went to work on finding a plot—this guy first started working as Santa when he was only 19! He put on the beard, the fat suit and it really didn’t matter how young he was. He worked in the role for many years and just had such a wonderful connection to his time with it. His story became my base, with many crazy moments in the piece sprinkled in from various other interviews. What do you hope audiences will come away with from experiencingBearded!? Joy and love for a new and modern Christmas story! The biggest under-
lying theme that surfaced from this piece is that kids are pretty incredible and Christmas really should be about having compassion toward them and everyone! We get so stressed-out about the to-do list we have throughout the
holidays and visiting Santa and the mall has become one of the biggest stresses for families. To me this piece says, “slow down, enjoy the moment no matter how brief and love each other.” That’s the spirit of Christmas that I wanted to explore and it really came to light through the eyes of these amazing Santas whom I interviewed. I believe it comes to light in Bearded! as well. What is your favorite aspect of the holiday season? To me the spirit of the Holidays means being together, connecting and
having compassion for each other. Things tend to slow down a little and allow time for that right around now. Everyone hugs you a little harder and conversations last a little longer. I love that. BEARDED!runsFriday, December 6 through Saturday, December 21 at the 10th Avenue Theatre, located at 930 10th Avenue. For more information, or to purchase tickets go
tocircle2dot2.com.
“I would seek out true stories about
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