On the set of “A Christmas at Aunt Ida’s” are (left to right) Huntington Playhouse Director Tom Meyrose, column author Richard Feagler, playwright Anne McEvoy, and actor Noah Holmes, who portrays Feagler as a youth in the play.

‘Christmas at Aunt Ida’s’ revives the spirit of holidays past
By Cynthia Schuster-Eakin
Insights
Published Nov. 22, 2006

Many of us treasure keepsake memories of the magical Christmas holidays of our childhood, when extended families gathered together to celebrate the season.

Huntington Playhouse brings the ghosts of Christmas’ past back to life with its production of “Christmas at Aunt Ida’s.” The world-premiere production is based on a newspaper column written in 1993 by Dick Feagler. David Hall, then the Plain Dealer editor, was so touched by the column that he declared it would run annually at holiday time. Now, it is coming to the stage.

The transition from newsprint to theater production did not happen overnight. The idea was born a couple of years ago, when columnist Feagler and Huntington Playhouse Director Tom Meyrose were conversing. Feagler mentioned that he thought his “Christmas at Aunt Ida’s” column would be a great stage play, but he had no idea if it was workable.

“We sat and chatted about it in great detail over several visits and social gatherings,” Meyrose said. “Dick made it clear that if the column was going to be made into a play he was not to be the focus. He stressed that, ‘the family should be what’s important.’ He went on to explain that this is a reminiscence of the first Christmas gathering when all the men in the family were home for their first holiday after World War II.”

Asked if he believed the column would make the transition to the stage, Feagler said that he certainly knew he would not be able to write it. So, Meyrose turned to friend and experienced stage writer Anne McEvoy. A full-time writer and editor for the creative division of American Greetings, Inc., McEvoy has a background in the theater and has worked for more than 40 years in the area as a director, playwright, composer, lyricist, choreographer and actor. She is also an author of children’s books.

She began the two-year project of turning a 700-word column into a 69-page play by immersing herself in the characters. Feagler invited her to watch home movies, sift through old snapshots and hear family stories.

“I tried to make the characters real and three-dimensional to honor Richard,” McEvoy said. Feagler, Meyrose and McEvoy also did considerable research into the 1945/46 era, “melding the memories,” they said.

There are 17 characters in the play. It is one of the largest casts for a play ever presented at Huntington Playhouse. Meyrose said that it is also the first world-premier, original play Huntington has produced.

According to Meyrose, the first draft of the play, “is nothing close to what we’re working with now.”

As director of the production, “I told the cast at the first rehearsal to plan on the show being rewritten in some cases right up to a week before we open.”  That turned out to be a bit of an exaggeration, but there were two revisions before rehearsals began in September. At the first reading, the performers made it clear to Feagler that he had to be in the production, because no one could deliver the lines from that column the way he could. So, Feagler is in the play, “doing kind of an ‘Our Town’ narrator part,” as he describes it. He urges the audience, “Let’s go to my Aunt Ida’s house. Come on. It won’t take long. You’ll be home in time for the 11 o’clock news, I promise you.”

If you go, you will meet Cousin Stanley of big cigar and 10-inch television fame, Uncle Ziggy, Cousin Billy and, of course, Aunt Ida and other men, women and children, including Richard Feagler as a child. Many of the characters are not mentioned in the column, but are on stage as part of the Feagler family tree. McEvoy’s script is dotted with funny lines and local references that should evoke laughs and smiles and memories, Meyrose said.

Feagler noted that the play is particularly poignant for him. “It’s spooky to have these people reading these lines,” he explained. “This play is very difficult for me to get through without choking up. I never thought I would have to worry about crying on stage, but I am.”

The entire play takes place during the course of one night. Feagler said he was actually 7 years old at the time of Aunt Ida’s Christmas. “That Christmas was especially vivid because it was the first Christmas after the war,” he said. “During the war, I was raised by all women. Naturally, they petted me and pampered me. I was not so sure how I felt about these guys coming back.”

He said that he has two relatives who will be attending performances of the play. His sister, who was not yet born for the Christmas celebration at Aunt Ida’s, and his Aunt Jean, who is portrayed in the play as a young woman just engaged to be married, will be seeing the production.

Feagler said that when he first sat down to write his Christmas column more than a dozen years ago, he had no idea it would elicit so much reaction from his readership. “I’ve been writing a column for 35 years and I take advantage of every holiday, no matter how archaic or remote,” he said. “I wouldn’t have written it if I didn’t think it would strike a chord, but apparently with this one, I struck the mother lode.”

He said that he makes slight revisions to the column each year to update it with references to current events. But, the theme never changes.

“Readers of ‘Christmas at Aunt Ida’s’ tell Feagler by mail and e-mail that it brings back wonderful memories of holidays and those relatives that time tried to erase, but never really does,” Meyrose added.

Feagler’s final lines of his column and of the play say it best when they speak of, “those simple people who loved us and took care of us. They left us blessings we too rarely count. And, if we let them, they come back at Christmas with gifts of everlasting life.”

The Huntington Playhouse production of  “A Christmas at Aunt Ida’s” opens tomorrow and runs every Friday and Saturday night through Dec. 17. There are two Sunday matinees on Nov. 26 and Dec. 17. An extra performance has been added for Dec. 14 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $17 for adults and $10 for students.  Phone the playhouse, located at 28601 Lake Road in Bay Village at (440) 871-8333 to reserve tickets, or visit www.huntingtonplayhouse.com.

The play is being co-sponsored by The Kendall of Northern Ohio.