Among the Top 15 Highest Rated Shows Currently Running in Chicago!
“Top 10 Holiday Shows to See!”
- Chicago Tribune
“Reader Recommended!”
- Chicago Reader
"..the audience is forced to ask: What makes us dwell on life’s direction and meaning in the first place? Isn’t true happiness actually a distraction when we lose ourselves in the moment?"
- Around The Town Chicago
"...Thank god for TUTA Theatre and their production of Thornton Wilder's 1931 one-act The Long Christmas Dinner…”
- Third Coast Review
"Hooked and left wanting more, this is successful theatre."
- Chicago Stage and Screen
"...The Long Christmas Dinner is like a river we have stepped into at some point. It was clearly flowing before we entered and it and its tributaries will continue to flow after we leave its shores."
- Chicago Theatre and Arts
"In a time and landscape where holiday entertainment options are virtually endless, The Long Christmas Dinner counts as an especially rewarding option from a company who has a knack for curating works of discreet brilliance."
- Buzz Center Stage
Written by Thornton Wilder
Directed by Co-Artistic Director Jacqueline Stone
November 26 - December 29, 2024
All performances at Bramble Arts Loft, The Beatrice Theatre
5545 North Clark Street, Chicago
The Long Christmas Dinner - nine decades long in just One Act - showcases the lives of several generations of the Bayard family. Wilder breaks the boundaries of time as we measure it, and invites us to partake in “one long, happy Christmas dinner” - past, present and future. As generations appear, have children, wither, and depart, only the audience sees what changes and what remains the same.
”Every last twig is wrapped around with ice. You almost never see that,” young Genevieve marvels, not realizing her mother made this same observation years earlier, and that one day her daughter-in-law will do the same.
Join TUTA for this fully produced holiday production, and reflect on family, tradition, and music with TUTA’s ensemble.
Read the full feature story in The Sun Times
Read the full feature story in Block Club Chicago
FEATURING
Charlie Irving: Genevieve
Joan Merlo: Mother Bayard/Ermengarde
Matt Miles: Roderick/Roderick II
Huy Nguyen: Charles
Wain Parham: Cousin Brandon/Sam
Seoyoung Park: Leonora
Alexis Primus: Lucia/Lucia II
Bryan Nicholas Carter: Male Understudy
Jinyue Yuna Hu: Genevive/Leonora Understudy
Julia Stemper: Lucia/Mother Bayard/Ermengarde Understudy
DESIGN & PRODUCTION
Music Direction: Wain Parham
Scenic & Lighting Design: Keith Parham
Costume Design: Rachel Sypniewski
Sound Design: Willow James
Property Design: Helen Lattyak
Stage Manager: Becky Warner
Assistant Director: Austin Ryan Hunt
Dramaturg: Sharon Ammen
Associate Lighting Designer: Josiah Croegaert
Associate Lighting Designer: Quinn Chisenhall
Scenic Construction: Tom Daniel
Casting Director: Jamal Howard
Creative Producer: Helen Lattyak
Co-Artistic Director: Aziza Macklin
Co-Artistic Director: Aileen Wen McGroddy
Co-Artistic Director: Jacqueline Stone
Managing Director: Brad Gunter