Community Theater Christmas (2019)

Community Theater Christmas: Directed by Melissa Vitello. With IsaBeall Quella, Marissa Pistone, Sid Noelle, Veronica Wylie. A community theater competes for a state grant that is needed to keep the doors of the theater open. Meanwhile, they race to get their first, original Christmas play up and running while everything falls apart.

“The opening dedication is pitch perfect in setting up what youu0026#39;re about to see: Tongue-in-cheek irony about a community theater competing for a grant with an original Christmas play written by one of its members.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eShot like an amateur documentary with lots of pieces missing, each character is so perfectly imperfect, it becomes a lighthearted look at human ego in action with all its fears, egoisms, self-importance, searches for meaning, self-aggrandizing, and spiteful power games. If youu0026#39;ve ever been involved with community theater–either backstage or in the audience–youu0026#39;ll recognize it in your bones. Plus, the actors all look like amateur actors and play it so over-the-top NORMAL with an excruciatingly bad Christmas play, there are times you forget its not a real documentary.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIn fact, as the rehearsals and play progressed, there were a few times I stopped to wonder if the actors were really that bad or were they that brilliant? And therein lies the beauty of the film. Itu0026#39;s different. And hits the bullseye of what it set out to do: Entertain you with tongue-in-cheek irony.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI canu0026#39;t remember the last time I saw a film through which I wore a smile all the way to the end. Watch it.”