{"id":417357,"date":"2025-12-01T14:24:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T14:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/417357\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T14:24:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T14:24:13","slug":"the-night-shift-before-christmas-returns-to-alley-theatre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/417357\/","title":{"rendered":"The Night Shift Before Christmas Returns to Alley Theatre"},"content":{"rendered":"

Once again Alley Theatre offers The Night Shift Before Christmas<\/strong> as alternative programming to the more kid-friendly A Christmas Carol and director KJ Sanchez (<\/strong>Private Lives, American Mariachi) <\/strong>says it\u2019s better than ever.<\/p>\n

Not that the script has changed. This is still the story of Margot \u2014 with Briana J. Resa expertly playing her \u2013 a worker who\u2019s become a bit stuck in the fast-food service world. She has signed up for another overnight Christmas Eve shift, but this time she\u2019s possessed by a series of ghosts.<\/p>\n

Margot lost her mom on Christmas so the annual holiday doesn\u2019t hold perfectly happy memories for her. \u00a0Despite this, the ghosts are urging her to leave and go to her cousin\u2019s Christmas party.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a good two weeks to re-rehearse,\u201d Sanchez said. \u201cBriana Resa gets better every time she gets on stage. We mostly worked on deepening the acting moments, making more connections between characters, leaning into the jokes,\u201d said Sanchez.<\/p>\n

This is still 75-uninterrupted minutes of fast-food action with Margo fielding drive-thru orders and handling a working grill on stage.\u00a0 Actor Orlando Arriaga supplies the various Voices, with a lot of mumbles along the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had so much fun being actually able to grill real burgers on stage,\u201d Sanchez said. \u201cWe were just talking at our break in rehearsal; we were asking each other who\u2019s worked in the food industry. Most of us had.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was a teenager I worked in a place very similar to Happy Burger. It was called Circle T. Working at one of those little mom and pop burger joints is just very nostalgic. \u00a0It brings us back to a very fun childhood memory.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe get to live vicariously through Margo who has a lot of attitude about the customers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think what Isaac did beautifully, [playwright Isaac G\u00f3mez] is that it\u2019s also a love letter to the people who do those jobs .It doesn\u2019t cast aspersions or say anything bad about having that job. These are the essential workers.\u00a0 These are the people who are making our food while everybody else is getting dressed for the party. And it\u2019s a love letter to those people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked what she hopes audiences get from seeing the play, Sanchez said: \u201cThat everyone\u2019s back story is beautiful and we can also trust that the ones we love are still with us.\u00a0 So it\u2019s okay to keep moving on. It\u2019s a play about resiliency and where to find that resiliency in ourselves. \u201c<\/p>\n

Asked about the reason for its success, Sanchez said: \u201cI think because it appealed to a lot of people like me who have very mixed feelings about Christmas. They want to go out and do something fun for Christmas but they something a little different. This is a fun way to go out with your friends and have a drink and kind of embrace the cranky parts of Christmas.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI also think it\u2019s popular because it\u2019s just a funny, fun show,\u201d Sanchez said. \u201cIt\u2019s a warm, fun, lovely thing\u00a0 for people who don\u2019t think traditional Christmas is uncomplicated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Performances are scheduled for December 3-28 (no performance on Christmas Day) at various times including 7 p.m. Wednesdays through Fridays and December 22-23; 1:30 and 7 p.m. Saturdays; 1:30 p.m. Sundays; and 7 p.m. Monday, December 22 at Alley Theatre, 615 Texas. For more information, call 713-220-5700 or visit alleytheatre.org. $45-$71.<\/p>\n

This article appears in Jan 1 \u2013 Dec 31, 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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