Second Scene Editions

Playwrights Canada Press • Toronto

Dear Santa © Copyright 2002 Norm Foster

“This is My Christmas” © Copyright 2002 Steve Thomas and Norm Foster.

Playwrights Canada Press

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We acknowledge the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council (OAC), Ontario Creates, and the Government of Canada for our publishing activities.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Foster, Norm, 1949-

Dear Santa / Norm Foster.

A play.

ISBN 978-0-88754-695-2

1. Santa Claus--Drama. 2. Children--Drama. I. Title.

PS8561.O7745D42 2008

C812’.54

C2008-901675-0

Chapbooks are published on demand.

First appearance in this format—March, 2008.

Printed and bound in Canada.

Production Editor, Michael Petrasek.

Norm Foster was born in Newmarket, Ontario in 1949. He attended West Hill Collegiate High School in Toronto. He studied Radio and Television Arts at Centennial College in Toronto, and at Confederation College in Thunder Bay. Norm wrote two plays for Malcolm Black, then Artistic Director of Theatre New Brunswick. Those two plays, Sinners and The Melville Boys, were enormously successful for Theatre New Brunswick. The Melville Boys has made Foster one of Canada’s most produced playwrights. The Affections of May, Sinners and The Melville Boys have been translated into French.

Dear Santa was first produced at Theatre Orangeville, December 5 to 22, 2002 with the following cast.

John Dolan

SANTA CLAUS

Avery Saltzman

ALGERNON GLADSTONE

Douglas Chamberlain

LOU FLAPDOODLE

Stephen Guy-McGrath

BOZIDAR

Siobhan O’Brien

KIT BISHOP

Lezlie Wade

OCTAVIA

Elves

Katelyn Cassin

BALDERDASH

Nancy Robinson

FIDDLESTICKS

Nicole Jedrzejko

PIFFLE

Dean Harris

YEEGADS/MICHAEL BISHOP

Ariel Little-Alcorn

SKIFFLE

Olivia Turley

PHOOEY

Cheyanne Vandervoort

SHORT STACK

Directed by David Nairn

Set design by Stephen Degenstein

Lighting design by Simon Day

Stage manager Laura-Lynn Reid

Original song: “This is My Christmas”, music by Steve Thomas, lyrics by Norm Foster.

Characters

SANTA CLAUS

ALGERNON GLADSTONE Santa’s Chief of Staff.

KIT BISHOP A young girl in her late teens.

BOZIDAR Santa’s foreman. He speaks with a Russian accent.

OCTAVIA Santa’s housekeeper.

LOU FLAPDOODLE Sleigh salesman.

MICHAEL BISHOP Kit’s brother.

Elves

PHOOEY

BALDERDASH

FIDDLESTICKS

PIFFLE

SKIFFLE

YEEGADS

Non-speaking parts: Mrs. Bishop, choir, assorted elves.

Note: The inhabitants of the North Pole are ageless, whether they have worked there for fifty-eight years or three hundred years.