JAMESTOWN, N.Y. — The winter holiday family show “Tales of Wonder” played to sold out audiences over three years of seasonal performances at the Penang Performing Arts Center in Malaysia. The man who wrote the production, Mark Sasse, is hoping to capture the same magic at SUNY Jamestown Community College.
“Tales of Wonder,” comes to the Jamestown Campus Scharmann Theatre for six showings starting on Dec. 4. The show brings the holiday season to life in a magical, poignant, and nostalgic way with comedic takes, dramatic moments, historical pieces, and contemporary dramas, explained Sasse, JCC’s Arts programming administrator who is overseeing the production.
“It’s a multi generational look at the holidays,” Sasse said. “It's comedy and it's drama. There's some really hilarious parts that people love, and then there's some really kind of poignant, hard -hitting drama as well. It’s a unique package of emotions.”
Sasse directed “Tales of Wonder” with casts of high school students from 2015 to 2017 in Malaysia while he taught at an international high school there for 11 years. The show was different each year, with new storylines, scenes, and music.
“The audience really loved them,” Sasse said. “What I've done is taken stories from all three of those years and kind of repackaged it all in a very cohesive unit. And then we're adding a bunch of original music to it as well, so there's kind of a musical prologue. It’s like a mini musical where we introduce the characters, introduce the stories that are coming, and that kind of sets the tone.”
Title scenes include: “Sledding,” “Christmas in the Trenches, 1914,” “The Truth About Santa Claus,” and “A Vigil of a Starry Night.”
Sasse was inspired to write “Tales of Wonder” after witnessing the Malaysian drama troupe Footstool Players in action. He said the troupe “had a really neat way of writing short plays and combining stories together.”
“I've never seen anything like it before,” Sasse continued. “That was the genesis of it. Then I started with this high school group, and we had several different shows that weren’t Christmas shows or anything, just different scenes. People really liked the format of the short plays and the different stories being told.
“And once we tried a holiday show one year, my principal at the school said now that you did this, you’re going to have to do Christmas every year. So they went over extremely well. It's unique and fun and it's very relatable to people. I think they’ll really enjoy and relate to the stories very much.”
The 16-member cast includes 14 JCC students, a graduate of the college, and a high school student. They are Olivia Allen, Melissa Deedy, James Distrola, Nick Feldt, Victor Fernandez, Caden Frost, Emily Hallowell, Alexa Holmes, Summer Jones, Brandon Kohlepp, Keaton Noller, Taryn Palmatier, Cinthia Sanchez, Alix Sandberg, and Sunnhi Suber.
The show’s music was written by one of Sasse’s former students in Malaysia, South Korean composer Shin Beak.
“Tales of Wonder” hits the Scharmann Theatre stage at 7 p.m. on Dec. 4, 5, 6, and 7, and 2 p.m. on Dec. 7 and 8. The show is 90 minutes long, with no intermission.
Tickets are $16 for general admission, $13 for Faculty Student Association members and senior citizens, and $8 for JCC students. Admission is 50% off for the Dec. 4 preview show and patrons can receive 20% until Nov. 4 when using the promo code EARLYBIRD20.
Tickets can be purchased by visiting sunyjcc.edu/events and navigating to the date of the showing.