Portland Center Stage is finally filing "The Santaland Diaries" back to the bookshelf. It's not as if David Sedaris' sardonic holiday one-elf one-act wasn't popular, but after 11 winters, the show's appearance in the Ellyn Bye Studio was becoming as predictable as Portland drivers freaking out over the first snowfall.
"It's fantastic and people love it and Sedaris is amazing," says Brandon Woolley, an associate producer at Portland Center Stage. "And the litany of people we've had performing it -- ending with Darius (Pierce) the past few years -- it's great. But we were just wondering, what would something else look like?"
Judging by a recent rehearsal at the Armory, that "something" looks and sounds completely different from "Diaries" -- and just about every other seasonal show in town. Opening Friday, Nov. 24, "A Christmas Memory," a stage adaptation of the Truman Capote short story, pairs with "Winter Song," an original music presentation created by Woolley and singer and multi-instrumentalist Merideth Kaye Clark.
The double bill charts a different sonic and emotional journey than peppier holiday musical revues or salty Christmas skewerings like "Santaland Diaries." As Clark says during a spoken-word break in the rehearsal for "Winter Song": "Winter is a complicated season. It unearths a lot of feelings."
The set list for "Winter Song," curated by Woolley, Clark and musical arranger and accompanist Mont Chris Hubbard, won't dash you through the snow on a one-horse open sleigh or count down the 12 days of Christmas.
Instead?
A deep cut from Carole King's "Tapestry." Early Steve Winwood. Classic Simon & Garfunkel. And an underscore composed by Hubbard, with drifts of Christmastime standards.
It's material that's "a little more earnest, heartfelt, sitting around the hearth, warm, reflective, without it being a traditional Christmas production," says Clark, who previously collaborated with Woolley for a concert-style presentation of Joni Mitchell's "Blue" album. "We salute Christmas. But mostly it's about relationships and people and home -- and how you get through this time, whether you love it or hate it."
"A Christmas Memory" embodies and expands the bittersweet flavor of Capote's short story. Set in 1930s Alabama, the story of a boy and an aging cousin preparing for the holiday illustrates "nostalgia, true friendship, and selfless small acts of love," says Woolley. He directed a similarly intimate piece, "Mary's Wedding," earlier this year in the Armory's downstairs performance space.
"Memory" was produced with "Santaland Diaries" at the Ellyn Bye for three years in the early 2000s. Since then, audiences have been yearning for the former's return. This time, Leif Norby portrays the Capote-esque narrator. Norby then joins Clark for duets in "Winter Song." Audiences will write down their own holiday memories, which Clark will read between numbers.
That kindred audience interaction emerged from questions the show's creators asked early on.
"How can we harness those feelings of isolation and loneliness or utter joy and excitement that is sort of all-encompassing with winter, when it's dark at 5 p.m., but then there's a fun party to go to as well?" says Woolley. "People carry a lot of baggage with it or they just freakin' love it. So how do we make a space where we're able to give opportunity for all of that to be felt?"
If this all sounds like one big Christmas pity party, it's not.
Watching Clark jump into an ebullient cover of Simon & Garfunkel's "Homeward Bound" with Norby during rehearsal is enough to send winter blues packing.
(Not to give away too much of the set list, but there's also the chance for audience members to write down a few of their favorite things.)
"Will it be a bit more melancholic? Possibly," says Woolley. "Will you still leave at the end and feel like you've experienced something distinctly uplifting and joyous? I think so. I hope so."
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"A Christmas Memory & Winter Song"
Where: Ellyn Bye Studio, Gerding Theater at the Armory, 128 N.W. 11th Ave.
When: Opens 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 24 and continues 7:30 Tuesday-Sunday, noon Thursday, 2 p.m. Saturday-Sunday through Dec. 31
Tickets: $25-$60, $20 rush tickets available 15 minutes before curtain depending on availability, pcs.org or 503-445-3700