Dewey Hall and The Foundry are co-producing a staged reading of a new Christmas play by Tom Truss called Replacing Prancer. This collaboration is a series of milestones: the first time these two venues are combining forces to work together; the first evening-length play written by Great Barrington resident and performer Tom Truss; and its world premiere. Not only are The Foundry and Dewey Hall providing residencies for the development of Truss’s play, they are also planning on fully producing Replacing Prancer in their 25-26 season. Playwright Tom Truss says, “It’s pretty extraordinary that these two venues are saying yes to pooling their resources, instead of competing for audiences. And it’s inspiring that they are creating an incubator for local artists to make new work. That’s uncommon in the Berkshires where so many cultural institutions focus on bringing in outside artists, yet don’t always support what’s in their backyard. I love that everyone involved in these readings are locals!”

Like many Christmases, Replacing Prancer is for all ages, and like many Christmases, it begins with a crisis. In this fast-paced play, each of Santa’s reindeer has a superpower that enables the sleigh to fly, and like the past few years something is off... but this time, it’s waaaay off! Christmas is just ten days away, the reindeer have returned from their mission to "sort things out” and Santa has a meltdown. The clock is ticking and they have an hour to figure out how to right their wrongs or they might end up in a petting zoo.

To complicate matters, some of the reindeer are secretly in love, others not so secretly, some are aging, and some are couch potatoes, but all are racing against time to set their Christmas tree straight before Mrs. Claus shows up and drops a bomb. As Blitzen says, “Santa is joy personified, and Mrs Claus is truth personified, and sometimes the truth is scary!”