Auditions!
Sunday, October 11 - 2pm-4pm
Monday, October 12 - 6pm-8pm
in the Martin W. Kappel Theater
27 W. Main Street, Norwich, NY
To read the entire script, click HERE
Roles:
Margaret — Mid-70s. Sharp, warm, quietly stubborn, and emotionally complex. The heart of the play. The role spans decades of memory through the character of Young Margaret.
Young Margaret — Margaret in her 20s. Idealistic, observant, spirited, and deeply connected to the natural world. She experiences falling in love, motherhood, devastating grief, and eventually renewal.
Thomas (Tom) — Margaret's husband in the memory sequences. Warm, funny, loving, and grounded. A man who understands that sometimes the best way through grief is simply to keep moving.
Emily — 40. Margaret and Tom's daughter. Organized, overstretched, practical, and defensive. Beneath her competence is a daughter who desperately wants to understand and protect her mother.
Daniel — 38. Margaret and Tom's son. Logical, emotionally guarded, and sometimes blunt. His humor and practicality mask a deep attachment to his family and its history.
Young Emily / Maggie — Emily as a child and, later, the next generation of the family. A role that carries both childhood joy and the continuation of the family's traditions.
Young Daniel / Tommy — Daniel as a child and, later, the next generation. Energetic, funny, curious, and part of the play's generational circle.
Ben Harris — 50s. The caretaker of the tree stand and son of its original owner. Warm, grounded, slightly wry. He has known Margaret and Tom since he was a teenager and quietly becomes the keeper of the family's history.
Young Ben — A teenager when he first encounters Margaret and Tom. Awkward, funny, curious, and beginning the lifelong relationship that makes him part of the family's story.
Why Audition?
This is an ensemble-driven story with opportunities for actors to play multiple ages, generations, relationships, and emotional states. The production relies on honest performances rather than spectacle: actors create the history of an entire family within one physical space.
There is humor, romance, childhood playfulness, family conflict, grief, and ultimately hope.
And, of course, Christmas trees are onstage the entire time.
Come be part of a story about the people we lose, the people we carry with us, and the traditions that remind us who we are.
The Story
Every Christmas Eve, Margaret returns to the same small tree stand—a place where love began, loss was endured, and a lifetime of memories took root.
Now in her mid-70s, Margaret is determined to keep the tradition alive. Her adult children, Emily and Daniel, aren't so sure. They love their mother, but they are tired, worried about her, and increasingly frustrated by a tradition they no longer understand. When they meet her at the tree stand on Christmas Eve, old tensions begin to surface.
As the evening unfolds, the tree stand becomes a doorway into the past.
We see a young Margaret meet Tom, the man who will become her husband. We see their joy as they build a family—and the devastating loss of their infant son, Jacob, just before Christmas. We discover why Margaret and Tom began returning to the tree stand every Christmas Eve: not simply to remember Jacob, but to refuse to let grief erase the joy he brought into their lives.
Over the years, the tradition becomes part of the family's identity. Emily and Daniel grow up among the trees, the lights, the cider, and the memories. But what once felt magical eventually becomes complicated. As adults, they struggle with the weight of a tradition whose meaning was never fully explained to them.
At the center of it all is Margaret: sharp, warm, stubborn, funny, and deeply human. Her journey is not about letting go of the past. It is about learning that remembering someone doesn't mean remaining trapped in their absence.
With the help of Ben Harris, the longtime caretaker of the tree stand and a friend to the family across generations, Margaret finally helps her children understand what this place—and this night—really means.
And in the final scene, years later, the tradition continues with a new generation.
Christmas Eve at Harris Family Trees is a warm, intimate family drama about grief, memory, love, and the traditions that shape us. It moves between present day and memory within one simple, beautiful setting: a Christmas tree stand glowing against a winter night.
At its heart, the play asks:
What do we keep? What do we let go? And what is worth remembering?