CAMBRIDGE – Prepare 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 fond memories of watching the shows when they first aired.
“It was a time when black culture wasn’t on television as much, 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 living full, truthful and authentic lives, Parent says.
A show with beloved comedy episodes
For the second year in a row, actors will perform readings of the beloved comedies with the scripts in front of them.
It’s something that Malik Mitchell is thrilled to be a part of. He tells us, “It’s really special to be able to bring these characters to a stage where it’s festive and everyone who knows these characters and has grown with these characters can 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 make sure that “we’re not impersonators. We’re not going to mimic these characters. We’re going to evoke them for you.”
But what does an actor who starred in one of these sitcoms think of the performance?
“I think it’s fantastic. I want to know who plays Steve,” said Jaleel White, who played Steve Urkel in “Family Matters.”
You can see the Front Porch’s “Holiday Feast” from Thursday, December 12 through Saturday, December 14 at the Central Square Theater in Cambridge.
Courtney Cole
