Celebrate the holiday season with Key City Public Theatre as they bring back the award winning holiday musical, Spirit of the Yule Nov. 30-Dec. 23.
Spirit of the Yule runs November 30th through December 23rd, 2017, Thursday through Sunday. Tickets cost $20 for Thursday/Sunday matinees, and $24 for Friday/Saturday. Spirit of the Yule is an all ages show, however, for families with younger children, we recommend that you attend one of the two family shows, which feature special pricing, treats for the kids, and a chance to get their pictures taken with characters on stage. Family shows are at 11:00 am on December 9th and 16th. All other matinees begin at 2:30 pm, and evening shows at 7:00 pm. To purchase tickets, or find more information on special events and pricing, please visit www.keycitypublictheatre.org, or call the box office at (360) 385-KCPT.
Directed and co-written by KCPT’s Artistic Director, Denise Winter, with music and lyrics by acclaimed local composer, Linda Dowdell, Spirit of the Yule is a new take on Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, set in historic Port Townsend, when the lumber boomtown was eagerly awaiting the railroad connection that would make it the preeminent port city in the Pacific Northwest. This musical is steeped in the history and cultural legacy that defined Port Townsend as “the city of dreams.” But more than rooted in this town, Spirit of the Yule takes inspiration from Dickens to recast an old tale in the familiar trappings of the American west. Expansion and speculation, boom and bust loom large in this frontier tale.
Dowdell and Winter, the co-creators of the musical, delved deep into the archives of the Jefferson County Historic Society to find the details in the forty year span of the city’s history when the Northern Pacific Railroad was due to connect Port Townsend to Tacoma, giving the city the enviable position of the Puget Sound port city closest to the open ocean. While the railroad never made it to town, the remnants of that time remain recognizable in the names etched on famous landmarks, the Rothschild house, Chetzemoka Park, and the Delmonico Hotel, whose sign still hangs at 832 Water St. The people who built and inspired those places make their presence felt in the play, in some cases, quite forcefully.
This year’s iteration of the musical will feature both new and familiar faces. Angela Poynter returns as Henrietta Maynard, the proprietor of the Delmonico Hotel, an iconoclastic, hard nosed, twice divorced, businesswoman who loves shooting, drinking, and profit. KCPT musical veteran, Leah Finch returns as the hopeful and romantic Young Henrietta. Patricia Willestoft, Selah Martha, Consuelo Aduviso, Tomoki Sage, and Henry Veitenhans appear as ghosts that lead Ms. Maynard in an enlightening search through time and space. To provide more performance opportunities for local actors Willestoft and Vietenhans will perform on alternating weekends with Martha and Sage. Ed Miller makes his KCPT debut as Jacob Marley, Ms. Maynard’s recently departed business partner. Jon Plueard and Zoe Cook debut on the KCPT stage as Bob Cratchit and Maddie Mae, Maynard’s downtrodden employee and his ailing child. Brendan Chambers, KCPT’s artistic apprentice is Miz Maynard’s affable Nephew Fred. Rounding out the cast, we find Miranda McClave as Pearl.
Spirit of the Yule is a story that will bring out the generous spirit of the holidays in anyone who attends, and gives a special thrill to the patrons who will see the history of the Olympic peninsula spring to life, and burst into song