An Italian Christmas Eve Feast Comes to Garde Arts Center

It’s an arts writer’s go-to method — using “hybrid” or “mashup” to combine two or more existing artists or films or whatever to describe something new.

“Joss Stone sounds like a mashup of Bonnie Raitt and Aretha Franklin,” for example.

Or: “‘Stranger Things’ is a mashup of H.P. Lovecraft rewriting Stephen King’s ‘It” for the producers of ‘Lost in Space.’”

In that spirit, how about a play described as “Neil Simon meets Federico Fellini”?

Wild!

As in: what the hell is that?!

It’s “An Italian Christmas Eve Feast,” a delightful two-act family comedy coming to the Garde’s Oasis Room for presentations Dec. 4-7.

Even better? This is a “hometown” concept set right here in New London and featuring an actual dinner theater experience.

Written, produced and directed by Connecticut’s own Anna Maria Trusky, the play focuses on the Christmas Eve when everyone in the far-flung Pescatore family finally makes it home for the traditional Feast of Seven Fishes. The reunion promises warmth and hilarity — if they can all reconcile a variety of dreams and hopes and differences across time.

But the Pescatores won’t be the only ones feasting.

Ticketholders will partake in salad, pizza and cannoli prepared by Old Saybrook’s most excellent Luigi’s Wood Fired Pizza Risto. To complete the spirit of the event and the season, audience members are invited to bring non-perishable food items (hey, why not dried pasta, jarred sauce, and non-refrigerated grated cheese?), which will be donated to the United Way’s Gemma Moran Food Bank. 

For photos and interviews, please contact Jeanne Sigel, (860) 961-4106, jsigel@gardearts.org.

About The Garde Arts Center:

Founded in 1985, The Garde, Southeastern Connecticut’s non-profit home for the performing arts and cinema, in the heart of downtown New London, CT, presents a full spectrum of music, dance, film, and special events at its restored historic (1926) 1425-seat Garde Theater movie palace and the 120-seat Oasis Room. The Garde also hosts performances by regional arts organizations and provides educational programs for more than 8,000 young people each year. Under the leadership of Steve Sigel, executive director since 1988,  the Garde owns an “arts block” of adjacent buildings, including the Mercer and Meridian Buildings and the Garde cottage, to further the Garde's mission as a major catalyst for the cultural and economic revitalization of New London and the region.

In 2022, the Garde singly received the Outstanding Historic Theatre in America award from the League of Historic American Theatres.

Learn more at https://gardearts.org/.