Albany Civic Theater unwraps classic 'Miracle on 34th Street' to delight audiences young and old

Christmas is coming early this year. Albany Civic Theater has unwrapped a new look at a classic American movie, just in time to remind young and old to look for the magic in the holiday season.

Four-time community theater director Jackie Tasker has, quite fittingly, brought together a cast of 34 actors, to stage "Miracle on 34th Street," a play adapted by Will Severin, Patricia Di Benedetto Snyder and John Vreeke from the novel by Valentine Davies.

Of course, most people will be more familiar with either the 1947 film starring Maureen O'Hara as single mother Doris Walker, Natalie Wood as her 6-year-old daughter Susan and Edmund Gwenn as Kris Kringle or the 1994 Hollywood remake with Elizabeth Perkins, Mara Wilson and Richard Attenborough.

ACT's performance stays in line with all of the major plot points of the film versions. "I'm not going to change a winner," Tasker said.

"What's been a challenge is the number of scenes," said assistant director Mat Genuser.

With 17 scenes in the first act alone and not even a stage left wing in the theater, the set designers got creative, splitting the stage into two levels and four rooms for the first act.

The basic story follows the fortunes of Kris Kringle, who is either a nice old man with some peculiar beliefs or Santa Claus himself, depending on who you ask. Either way, he's the personification of good will and holiday spirit, and the reindeer at the zoo seem to like him.

When he unexpectedly lands a job as Macy's holiday Santa, he enchants children and shoppers so completely that he is deemed dangerous by fellow employees who question his competency and plot to ruin him.

Eric Czernowski, who plays Kringle, has both the real life experience and the beard to pull off a great feat as the warm-hearted fellow, at the center of the play's conflicts.

His character, while bringing holiday cheer, also provides a reflection of the world around him. At one point in the play, in a not-so-veiled commentary on commercialism and the pace of the holidays Kringle notes, "Christmas and I have sort of gotten lost in the shuffle."

Also notable in the cast is the Duddlesten family. Not only does mom Meghan play the pivotal role of hardworking Macy's employee Doris, but her daughter Molly plays the part of Doris' skeptical

6-year-old daughter Susan, and her husband Lance is playing the part of idealistic young lawyer Fred, who is both Doris' neighbor and love interest during the play. Another daughter Ava, has a part as a newsie.

In the play Doris, provides a litmus test of sorts for Kris Kringle.

She has one wish, but it's a big one: A house with a swing.

"If you're really Santa you'll get it for me," she says.

In the meantime, Casselle LaTourette steals scene after scene, as Macy's employee Miss Adams, who prances around the stage with jingle bells on her ankles as she goes about her work as a secretary and providing much of the play's comedic elements.

The chameleon-like Oliver Anderson also turns in a brilliant performance as both the high-pitched toy department manager Mr. Shellhammer and the solemn judge who must decide if Kris Kringle is indeed Santa Claus in a climactic courtroom decision.

Again and again play probes meaning of faith, and what happens when ordinary people find themselves faced with miracles.

"Faith is believing in things when common sense tells you not to," Doris says to Susan at one point.

Audiences will be sure to leave with a little more lightness in their step and a twinkle in their eye, just like you know who.

Check it out

'Miracle on 34th Street,'

8 p.m. Nov. 28-29, Dec. 5-6, 11-14 and 18-20, 2:30 p.m. Dec. 7 and 14, Albany Civic Theater, 111 First Ave. S.W.,

Albany. Admission: $11 for adults, $8 for students and seniors. Tickets available at Sid Stevens Jewelers in Albany and Rice's Pharmacy in Corvallis.

Information: albanycivic.org.