TUTA Theatre has announced it will remount its successful 2024 production of the Thornton Wilder drama THE LONG CHRISTMAS DINNER for the 2025 holiday season. In one 75-minute act and continuous action, THE LONG CHRISTMAS DINNER chronicles the lives of several generations of an American family by representing the Christmas dinners they celebrated over 90 years. The characters age in front of the audience’s eyes as we witness births, deaths, and the welcoming of new family members. TUTA Co-Artistic Director Jacqueline Stone will again direct the production, which will return to the Bramble Arts Loft, Beatrice Theatre, at 5545 North Clark Street. Previews are Monday, December 1 and Tuesday, December 2 at 7:30 pm each evening. The press opening will be Wednesday, December 3 at 7:30 pm. The run will continue through Sunday, December 28.
From the 2024 production. L-R: Huy Nguyen, Charlie Irving, Joan Merlo, Alexis Primus, Seoyoung Park, Matt Miles. Photo by Josh Bernaski.
TUTA’s 2024 staging of THE LONG CHRISTMAS DINNER was named by the CHICAGO TRIBUNE as one of the “Top Ten Holiday Shows to See” and was recommended by the CHICAGO READER. BUZZ CENTER STAGE said, “In a time and landscape where holiday entertainment options are virtually endless, THE LONG CHRISTMAS DINNER counts as an especially rewarding option from a company who has a knack for curating works of discreet brilliance." THIRD COAST REVIEW wrote "...Thank god for TUTA Theatre and their production of Thornton Wilder's 1931 one-act THE LONG CHRISTMAS DINNER…"
From the 2024 production. L-R: Huy Nguyen, Seoyoung Park, Charlie Irving, Joan Merlo. Photo by Josh Bernaski
TUTA has enjoyed a string of acclaimed productions since returning in 2024 after a COVID hiatus. ATTEMPTS ON HER LIFE won the Jeff Award for Ensemble of a Play, and this year’s rep of TOM & ELIZA and WHITE RABBIT, RED RABBIT were both extended through September following critical raves. Many of the actors from those productions will appear in THE LONG CHRISTMAS DINNER. Bide Akande and Clifton Frei were in the award-winning cast of ATTEMPTS ON HER LIFE and also appeared in the Rep: Bide Akande and Aziza Macklin were both among the rotating one-night-only performers of WHITE RABBIT, RED RABBIT, and Clifton Frei played Tom in TOM & ELIZA. Akande will appear in THE LONG CHRISTMAS DINNER as Cousin Brandon and Sam, Macklin will play Charles’ wife Leonora, and Frei will play Roderick and Roderick II. Huy Nguyen, who will again play Charles, was the opening night performer of WHITE RABBIT, RED RABBIT. Joan Merlo, another of the performers in WHITE RABBIT, RED RABBIT, will repeat her 2024 roles as Mother Bayard and Cousin Ermengarde. Charlie Irving will return as Genevieve and Alexis Primus will recreate her roles of Lucia and Lucia II, Understudies are Austin Ryan Hunt (of WHITE RABBIT, RED RABBIT) and Julia Stemper.
Top row L-R: Charlie Irving, Joan Merlo, Clifton Frei. Huy Nguyen, Bide Akande.
Lower row: L-R: Aziza Macklin, Alexia Primus, Austin Ryan Hunt, Julia Stemper.
The artistic team, in addition to Stone as Director, includes Keith Parham (Scenic and Lighting Design), who was responsible for the lighting design of BETWEEN RIVERSIDE AND CRAZY on Broadway; Jeff Award winner and six-time nominee Rachel Sypniewski (Costume Design); four-time Jeff Award winner Jeffrey Levin (Sound Designer), whose numerous credits include projects in Chicago Equity and Non-Equity theaters as well as regional companies outside Chicago; Wain Parham (Music Direction), who provided music direction and original composition for ATTEMPTS ON HER LIFE and many other previous TUTA productions; and longtime TUTA company member Helen Lattyak (Properties Design). The production team also includes Becky Warner (Stage Manager), Austin Ryan Hunt (Assistant Director), Sharon Ammen (Dramaturg), and Jamal Howard (Casting Director).
THE LONG CHRISTMAS DINNER, in its first published form, was written in 1931 when Wilder was 34 years old and dividing his time between writing and teaching at the University of Chicago. It was included in the volume THE LONG CHRISTMAS DINNER AND OTHER PLAYS IN ONE ACT and first performed jointly by the Yale Dramatic Association and the Vassar Philaletheis Society. It was produced on Broadway in 1993 as one of three one-act plays in the program WILDER, WILDER, WILDER. An operatic adaptation of the play, with music by Paul Hindemith, premiered at the Juilliard School of Music in 1963. The play and opera were performed together as a double-header at Lincoln Center in 2014. The opera was performed by the Chicago Fringe Opera in 2018.
The SUNDAY TIMES of Dublin, Ireland, in its four-star review of a 2022 production by the vaunted Abbey Theatre, said that the play is ‘a gently paced reflection on the idea that every present moment comes from the past.” The EUGENE SCENE said of a 2018 production in Eugene, Oregon, that the play “is unabashedly serious and does not hide from the dark side of Christmas as a method of reminding us what the light of Christmas is.”
Seats for all performances of THE LONG CHRISTMAS DINNER can be reserved by purchasing in advance. Prices for all performances are $20, $45, $60 and $100 (plus a $3.00 per ticket fee). Any seating not reserved in advance will be available the day of the performance for in person, pay-what-you-choose tickets at the door 30 minutes before curtain time. Additional information on TUTA Theatre’s ticketing is available at https://www.tutatheatre.org/the-long-christmas-dinner-tickets. There is no late seating. Tickets are on sale now at www.tutatheatre.org.
LISTING INFORMATION
THE LONG CHRISTMAS DINNER
by Thornton Wilder
Directed by TUTA Co-Artistic Director Jacqueline Stone
December 1 - 28, 2025
Previews Monday and Tuesday December 1-2 at 7:30 pm each evening
Press opening Wednesday, December 3 at 7:30 pm
Beginning Saturday, December 6, performances will be Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30 pm and Sundays at 3:00 pm, with Saturday matinees at 3:00 pm on December 20 and 27; and additional performances on Monday, December 22 and Tuesday December 23 at 7:30 pm. No performance on Christmas Day, December 25.
Ticket prices $20, $45, $60, $100 (plus a $3.00 ticket fee)
Performances at Bramble Arts Loft, The Beatrice Theatre, 5545 North Clark Street, Chicago.
Audience advisory: Rated PG.
Info and tickets at https://www.tutatheatre.org/the-long-christmas-dinner-tickets.
THE LONG CHRISTMAS DINNER - nine decades long in just one 75-minute act - showcases the lives of several generations of the Bayard family. Wilder breaks the boundaries of time as we measure it, and invites us to partake in “one long, happy Christmas dinner” - past, present and future. As generations appear, have children, wither, and depart, only the audience sees what changes and what remains the same. Join TUTA for this lively and musical holiday production, and reflect on life, death, and the family traditions we celebrate and endure with TUTA's ensemble.
BIOS
Jacqueline Stone (Director, Co-Artistic Director) is honored to be Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of TUTA. She recently served as the Artistic Producer of TUTA's hit production WHITE RABBIT RED BABBIT. Her TUTA directing credits include the Chicago premiere of Thornton Wilder's THE LONG CHRISTMAS DINNER, the world premiere of HEDDA GABLER (as well as adaptor), Chicago and New York premieres (59E59 Theaters) of Adam Rapp's THE EDGE OF OUR BODIES, world premiere of THE ANYWAY CABARET (AN ANIMAL CABARET), and U.S. premiere OF THE SILENT LANGUAGE. Her TUTA performance credits include FULTON STREET SESSIONS, BAAL, THE WEDDING (1996, 2010, 2011), UNCLE VANYA (2008, 2009), A STILL LIFE IN COLOR, THE BIRDS, THE SWEET LITTLE PRINCE, ALICE, and THE HOUR.
In addition to TUTA, Stone currently serves as Producing Artistic Director of Breckenridge Backstage Theatre in Breckenridge, CO. BBT directing credits include EVERY BRILLIANT THING, the Colorado premiere of Jim DeVita and Josh Schmidt’s musical adaptation of THE GIFT OF THE MAGI, MT Cozzola’s A LADY’S GUIDE TO MOUNTAINS (Denver Fringe), and A CHRISTMAS STORY. This summer she will direct MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS.
From 2016 - 2020, Stone served as Artistic Director of Emerald City Theatre Company, Chicago's largest professional theatre serving young audiences. ECT directing credits include the Chicago premiere of FANTASTIC MR. FOX, the Chicago premiere of KEN LUDWIG'S TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS (Broadway Playhouse), the Chicago premiere of THE SNOWY DAY & OTHER STORIES, the world premiere of MOTHER GOOSE'S GARDEN, world premiere of PETER RABBIT (also adapter), JUNIE B. JONES, RAMONA QUIMBY, and the world premiere of Mo Willems' DON'T LET THE PIGEON DRIVE THE BUS.
Select Chicago directing credits include Strawdog Theatre, Chicago Dramatists, Chicago Immersive, Broadway in Chicago, Piven Theatre, The Second City, Mudlark Theater, Akvavit Theatre, Step Up Productions, 20% Theatre Company, You & Me Productions, and DCASE. Jacqueline is co-founder of Sirens, the longest running all-female improv group in the country. She has appeared and created over 200 original shows with them.
Stone taught acting and improvisation at The Second City for ten years and Columbia College Chicago for five years. She spent twelve years as Emerald City Theatre's Education Director, building and fostering new acting programs for young people ages 3.5 - 13 years old. Other select teaching credits include The Faculty of Dramatic Arts (Belgrade, Serbia), Chicago Improv Festival, Miami Improv Festival, Duke University's FUQUA School of Business, UCLA, and University of Chicago.
Thornton Wilder (Playwright) Born in Madison, Wisconsin, and educated at Yale and Princeton, Thornton Wilder (1897-1975) was an accomplished novelist and playwright whose works explore the connection between the commonplace and the cosmic dimensions of human experience. THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY, one of his seven novels, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1928, and his next-to-last novel, THE EIGHTH DAY, received the National Book Award (1968). Two of his four major plays garnered Pulitzer Prizes, OUR TOWN (1938) and THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH (1943). His play THE MATCHMAKER ran on Broadway for 486 performances (1955-1957), Wilder's Broadway record, and was later adapted into the record-breaking musical HELLO, DOLLY! Wilder also enjoyed enormous success with many other forms of the written and spoken word, among them translation, acting, opera librettos, lecturing, teaching, and film (his screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock's 1943 psycho-thriller, SHADOW OF A DOUBT remains a classic to this day). OUR TOWN will be revived on Broadway in the 2024-25 season in a production directed by Kenny Leon and starring Jim Parsons and Richard Thomas
ABOUT TUTA THEATRE
TUTA Theatre was established in 1995 in Washington, DC by co-founders Zeljko and Natasha Djukic, who brought a unique sense of artistic expression from their European homeland. In 2002, they relocated the company to Chicago. In the ensuing 23 years, TUTA has presented numerous US premieres of foreign plays from France, Russia, Austria, and Serbia. TUTA has produced seven world premieres, eight US premieres, four Midwest premieres and many modern re-imaginings of classics. In 2012, longtime company member Jacqueline Stone stepped into the role of Artistic Director, and TUTA added productions for youth with the US premiere of THE SILENT LANGUAGE. TUTA’s productions have been listed on Chicago critics’ ‘best of the year’ list eight times in the past 10 years and have been produced nationally (in NYC and LA) and internationally (in Serbia with the National Theatre in Belgrade). Aileen Wen McGroddy and Jacqueline Stone are Co-Artistic Directors and Brad Gunter is Managing Director.