The Bella Vista Bunch

May peace and joy be yours during this wonderful season and the coming New Year.

Happy Holidays!

This month you could steal away from the mall, from gift-wrapping and from entertaining the outof-towners, and spend a couple hours with the musically inclined Sanders Family. White Rock area resident CHERYL DENSON, director of “Sanders Family Christmas” — a OneThirty Productions play that runs through Dec. 18 at the Bath House Cultural Center — promises you’ll have fun. Here, the theater veteran fills us in on what makes this holiday production a not-to-bemissed sensation.

How did you get involved with “Sanders Family Christmas”?

I have been working in theater for a long time, used to act, but now I am a freelance director. One Thirty Productions has hired me for a second year to direct this play, which was incredibly popular last year, and we expect it to be even more popular this year. The producers are old friends of mine. “Sanders Family Christmas” is the first musical they have put on. Musicals are a little more difficult and a little more expensive than the non-musical show. I was brought in because musicals are a specialty of mine. This play is not new — no new script, no new actors — so it will not be redirected, but remounted. It will grow.

What can the audience expect?

It’s a show you can bring your family to and not worry. And it is shown on a unique schedule. One Thirty Productions is named for its interesting showtimes: always 1:30 p.m. matinees. That’s the only program of its kind in the area. It’s friendly for older people and families. It is such a special opportunity that no one else is offering, and they present four shows a year at the Bath House Cultural Center. >>