The Porch's "Holiday Feast" to feature iconic holiday sitcom episodes in Cambridge
CAMBRIDGE - Get ready for a blast from the past this holiday season. The Front Porch Arts Collective is working on a "Holiday Feast," staged readings of classic Christmas episodes from the '70s and '80s, including "The Jeffersons," "A Different World," "Family Matters," and "Amen."
The Porch's co-producing artistic director, Maurice Emmanuel Parent, says he has great memories of watching the shows when they first aired.
"It was a time when Black culture wasn't seen on television as often, so when 'Amen' or '227' or something like that came on, it was really special. It wasn't about trauma, it wasn't about slavery, it wasn't about oppression. It was about us living full, truthful, authentic lives," Parent says.
A show of beloved comedy episodes
For the second year in a row, actors with the scripts in front of them, will stage readings of the beloved comedies.
It's something Malik Mitchell is thrilled to be a part of, telling us, "It's a very special thing to be able to bring these characters to a stage where it's festive and everybody who knows these characters and who grew with these characters is able to experience them. They're so relatable. I know a Dwayne, and I know an Eddie Winslow."
Parent says, "They're written to be family-friendly. They're written to be accessible, They're written to be hilarious." But he wants to be sure to highlight that "we're not impersonators. We're not going to do impersonations of these characters. We're going to evoke them for you."
But what does an actor who starred in one of these sitcoms think about the performance?
"I think it's fantastic. I wanna know who's playing Steve, though," said Jaleel White, who played Steve Urkel in "Family Matters."
You can see the Front Porch's "Holiday Feast," Thursday, December 12th through Saturday, the 14th, at Central Square Theater in Cambridge.
