Sierra Rep’s ‘Christmas’ mingles family, humor in Sonora

Sierra Repertory Theatre is tying up this holiday season with the warm bow of a family singalong.

Set on Christmas Eve 1941, “Sanders Family Christmas” centers around a musical clan known for putting on an annual holiday show. The production opens Friday and runs through Dec. 21 at the Fallon House Theatre in Columbia.

Directed by past Sierra Rep artistic director Frank H. Latson, the show is filled with humor and nostalgia, as well as dozens of songs performed by the cast. The actors play all of their own instruments live on stage, as they have in several other company shows this season, including “Pump Boys & Dinettes” and “A Murder, a Mystery and a Marriage.”

Portland-based performer MJ Jurgensen plays family matriarch Vera Sanders. The Sierra Rep veteran, whose past productions include “The Buddy Holly Story,” “Spitfire Grill” and this season’s Mark Twain-based murder-mystery musical, also serves as music director of the new production. She said having the actors play their own instruments in the piece makes it more accessible to the audience.

“The audience is not hearing a track that is a distant recorded thing. Or you are not seeing a pit,” she said. “It shows not only the versatility of the performer, but it’s even more exciting to the audience member to see a person walk right in front of you and play a guitar.” Jurgensen plays not only guitar but also piano, banjo, mandolin, ukulele, autoharp and bass in the show.

In the piece, Vera and her husband, Burl Sanders (Jef Canter), are preparing for the concert with their adult children: twins Dennis (Isaak Olson) and Denise (Noel Pederson) and their sister June (McKenna Liesman).

Dennis has just enlisted in the Marines following the attack days earlier on Pearl Harbor. The specter of the war hangs over the family as he will ship out soon after their Christmas performance at the North Carolina Baptist church. Still the group is determined to lift spirits though their performance filled with gospel and bluegrass holiday favorites.

June is the only nonsinger of the group and signs the words to the songs instead of singing, even though she is not hard of hearing. Liesman said the technique is June’s way of being part of the family without using her voice. The use of sign language was something the Chicago-based actress related to closely, as she is studying to be a sign interpreter.

“It goes back to being really young for me; my aunt is hard of hearing and she started signing around the house,” Liesman said. “With June, all her life she was told she doesn’t sing. But they’re a tightknit singing family. So her mission was to find a way to be a part of this family and be included in a family of singers. So she became the percussion and then her link is to sign all or most of the songs.”

Liesman said like their fictional counterparts, the cast has grown tightknit over the course of rehearsals. She said she hopes audiences get caught up in the energy of the show.

For an added area connection, the show marks the West Coast return of Turlock native Olson, who plays Dennis. The Turlock High grad has been living in New York for the past three years.

“There is something so in tune with the family because of the music. There’s a sense of community in that it ties all of us together,” he said. “(The production) is a great time to be with your family.”

This story was originally published November 13, 2014 at 1:00 AM with the headline "Sierra Rep’s ‘Christmas’ mingles family, humor in Sonora."