Hampton Theatre Company To Present "Joy to the World" Holiday Readings

The Hampton Theatre Company (HTC) in Quogue, now in its 32nd year, has added an additional production to the 2016-2017 season. From December 9 to 11, the HTC will present two festive evenings and one matinee performance of holiday stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, Isaac Bashevis Singer, O. Henry and other celebrated writers, read by members of the company.

Holiday music will be played for the half hour before the readings begin, and in transitions between selections from the different authors. Performances will be at 7 p.m. on Friday, December 9, at 8 p.m. on Saturday, December 10, and at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, December 11.

Beyond the holiday spirit, the pieces to be read and dramatized by members of the company capture the humor and the warmth, the joys and sorrows of our common humanity, however different our holiday traditions may be. From Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson have the holiday season as a backdrop for “The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle.” The fortunes of Bashevis Singer’s “Zlateh the Goat” take a turn in the days leading up to Hanukkah.

The evening also includes the surreal firsthand story of the Christmas Truce in the trenches of World War I; O. Henry’s classic, “The Gift of the Magi;” and, from the pages of The New York Sun in 1897, “Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus.”

For tickets and more information, visit hamptontheatre.org.