After a global catastrophe wipes out virtually all human knowledge, can humankind rediscover the true meaning of Christmas?” ... Welcome to the webpage for the musical, "For Christmas to Come," a new dystopian family Christmas tale somewhat off the beaten sleigh tracks, a new lens through which to view the ever-treaded “Meaning of Christmas” theme.
So, one day it struck me how hard it would be to explain mistletoe to people not familiar with Christmas. Would they instead think of toes rocketing through the air behind fighter jets or something like that? I thought to myself , “Who are these people?” It was then that I made contact with Effex Duesey, an interdimensional consciousness from the future, who told me the story of how Christmas will someday need to be rescued from obscurity, after being almost entirely forgotten.
Will these aftertold (as opposed to foretold) dytopian humans get the long lost holiday of Christmas to come out right? Do the botched details matter, or is it the spirit of Christmas that counts? If you would like to start looking for the answers to these questions, below you will find the synopsis, some script and score samples, demos, and some workshopped scene selections. Thanks for visiting!
Cast: 4 Male, 4 Female, 8 Flexible plus 1-14 Chorus members (minimum of 2 teen and 2 youth actors for leads.)
Performance Time: Approximately 124 minutes, 119 pgs.
Once upon a time, a long time ahead...
After a future global catastrophe in an alternate quantum dimension, the humans who’ve managed to survive have forgotten all things related to their old culture and heritage -- related to our present quantum dimension that is -- including Christmas!
The worst of a “Great Hibernation” is over, and humans have begun to emerge, including one small circle of people known as "The Copians", along with a group of feral humans known to be often skittish. Also present is a mysterious renegade known as “The Antediluvian”, whom the Copians hate for ignoring their preservation laws and for hoarding foodstuffs and medicines in his stronghold.
As the story begins, Dajee has learned about some of the practices of what used to be known as “civilization,” which he wants to revive! Unfortunately, because of the circle’s strict rules limiting anything that would waste resources or human energies, he is finding this to be difficult.
Whardin, the circle’s Chief Mother, has even thrown him in a cage for his most recent attempts, from where he enlists the help of his daughter, Ainjee, to implement his latest scheme: a Christmas celebration!
Against the Chief Mother’s wishes, most all in the circle secretly go along with this plan, preparing a Christmas Eve pageant, which some believe may awaken the Christmas God and bring forth the Santa Claus as well as any number of Christmas miracles! Alas, it is not to be, as their plans to distract Whardin fail, and she discovers their plot right before the Xmas Eve pageant is to begin.
In a confusion of Copians running scared for fear of Whardin’s reprisal, Ainjee’s snow machine is knocked over and goes berserk. The next day, Christmas day, Whardin’s son Kemdin agrees to find and disable the renegade machine, as Ainjee is now in the cage with Dajee.
While trying to neutralize the machine, Kemdin is injured and enters a coma. No one in the circle can heal him, and so it falls on Ainjee to explore the last avenue anyone can think of: she must somehow enter the Antedilluvian’s stronghold and find a way to enlist his help ...
"For Xmas to Come" - Demo Tracks
(Author Favorties: 01, 03, 10, 11)
"For Christmas to Come takes an interesting approach to an interesting idea -- why do we need ritual, and what happens to us without it? This show gives us a fully realized world, so different from ours, but familiar enough to engage us in this weird, funny quest for human connection."
-Scott Miller, New Line Theatre