Staged Readings Of Truman Capote's Holiday Stories, Even More More Luminous Second Time Around, In Hamptons

SOUTHAMPTON, NY — Rarely does seeing a show again for the second — or third, or fourth — time, strike such a deep emotional chord that each experience feels like the first, with new nuances and heartfelt truths emerging in the retelling.

This weekend, staged readings of Truman Capote's holiday short story collection will once again take place at Center Stage at Southampton Arts Center — giving audiences a second chance to experience one of the most meaningful holiday performances ever executed on the East End.

Directed by the iconic Michael Disher, Truman Capote’s holiday short story collection: "One Christmas" and "A Christmas Memory" will be presented at the Southampton Arts Center, located at 25 Jobs Lane. Performances take place Friday, November 28, at 7 p.m., Saturday, November 29 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., and Sunday, November 30, at 2 p.m.

It's the second year that the show has been presented: Once again, Saturday's performance caps off a wondrous holiday weekend in Southampton Village, with the annual Parade of Lights, which begins at 4:30 p.m., and the tree lighting ceremony, which begins at 5:30 p.m. at Agawam Park, followed by fireworks.

Capote's holiday short story collection, produced through special arrangements with and permission granted by The Truman Capote Literary Trust, brings to life the bittersweet, heartwarming and thought-provoking prose written by one of the 20th century’s greatest and most celebrated American writers.

And the cast, including Daniel Becker, Susan Cincotta, Tom Gregory, Vincenzo James Harty, JoAnna Mincarelli, Jack Seabury, Franco Pistritto, and Elizabeth Wyld, simply captivates, each admittedly touched in ways beyond imagination by the raw honesty and yearning truths in Capote's prose — each word a gem more luminous than the most delicate Christmas ornament hung on a tree, each fragile in their glowing splendor.

Set during The Great Depression of the early 1930s, the tales are based largely upon Capote’s youth in rural Alabama and focus on young Buddy and his lovingly eccentric cousin, Sook. Together, through two Christmases, Buddy and Sook learn much about honesty, love, loss and enduring friendship.

In "One Christmas", young Buddy spends the holiday away from his Alabama family and in New Orleans with his rarely seen father. A "Christmas Memory" is Capote’s love letter to his elderly cousin, Sook, who raised him and taught him much about kindness, sharing and forever.

But although the times and circumstances may differ, Capote is a master, able to paint his works with universal truths — every audience member remembers wanting the shiny toys, the bright green pedal plane with the red propeller, a pearl-handled knife, a box of jigsaw puzzles, a cowboy hat and lasso, a box of crayons. A radio.

Buddy, played with wide-eyed wonder by a captivating Vincenzo James Harty, in "One Christmas," must visit his father in New Orleans; he was reluctant to go and leave his beloved Sook, their tree decorated with ornaments held on by safety pins and decorated with dried cotton from the field, topped with a "good, gnawable beef bone" placed "high in the tree near the silver star" for their faithful dog Queenie.

And yet, Buddy went, and on that journey, learned startling truths about life and love, about Santa — about his father, who although flawed and in many ways broken, kept a letter from his boy forever in his safety deposit box, a letter with the words more precious than gold, "I love you. Buddy."

The piece is heart-wrenching and real. A life lesson that illustrates that life isn't always wrapped as neatly with a bow like so many Hallmark movies — it's messy and tear-filled and imperfect.

But always, the love remains.

And in the end it's not the packages under the tree that leaves us yearning for the past — it's the people we loved, the faces we still search for, under every Christmas tree and in every holiday crowd.

In "A Christmas Memory," Capote breathes life into this childhood Christmases, describing with delicious detail the fruit cakes Sook saves up to buy ingredients for, all year. The scent of vanilla is described so beautifully it transports the audience straight back to the childhood kitchens where cookies baked and Christmas music on Victrolas meant cozy warm rooms and promises kept.

The tree, with its humble ornaments, the gifts Buddy and Sook make for one another — two paper kites, soaring high in the blue sky — all of it means, simply, home.

But there is one undeniable truth: For each of us, those childhood days are fleeting. Our beloved dogs, like Queenie, see their last holidays; the next December may leave them buried in the field beyond. The people around our trees disappear, just as Buddy loses his Sook, in a moment so painful the audience is left sobbing for what can never be again, for hands they will never hold and smiles that will never again illuminate their holiday photographs.

When he learns of Sook's passing, Buddy says: "And when that happens, I know it. A message saying so merely confirms a piece of news some secret vein had already received, severing from me an irreplaceable part of myself, letting it loose like a kite on a broken string. That is why, walking across a school campus on this particular December morning, I keep searching the sky. As if I expected to see, rather like hearts, a lost pair of kites hurrying towards heaven."

Capote's language, it's a rare and precious thing, and Disher's direction, coupled with performances so compelling they're almost impossible to describe, creates an experience that cannot be replicated in any other time or space.

Susan Cincotta, as Sook, says more with a single glance than others who speak volumes, yet say nothing. Cincotta told Patch that the experience of portaying Sook has been the gift of a lifetime.

Audiences, she said, all share the same primal need that Capote has evoked — that aching yearning, to go back. To make just one more fruitcake. To fly just one more paper kite. To go back to a place in time that no longer exists, no matter how far one runs or what acclaim they achieve. To go home.

But, Cincotta said, for one shining moment during the show, audiences can sit and soak in Capote's words, imagery, his exquisitely detailed memories — and find the ones they love again, if only for a heartbeat.

"This cast has had the chance to go back because of the generosity and artistry of this man," she said, of Disher. "It is a privilege. We've been given the opportunity to do something that those of us who do community theater never get — which is to do more. This year, for people who may have missed this show last year or have heard about it — we not only can give this to them, but we can give them more. Who doesn't need that person they loved so much, to be suddenly with them, for that time?"

Tom Gregory, who plays Haha Jones, added, of the show: "It's richer this time than it was last year. The words are so beautiful. I wish I could express life that way. Capote distills living, and all his memories, in this compact, 40-minute piece, and it's just a rush of memory."

The show, he said, has "enriched my life. I'll take it with me."

And he, too, is sent back over years and lifetimes as Buddy makes his beloved fruit cakes, with Sook — he's sent careening back in time to his mother's kitchen. Where he, and we all collectively, began.

Capote's words, he said, are transcendent. "You can write about your life, your husband, your kids, your first wagon or toy — but if I, as a reader, don't relate, it's lost. I think you'd have to be dead not to relate to this. It's humanity, smacking you in the face. The words are just so beautiful."

Each performer brings innate grace and beauty to their singular performances; together, they create a masterful work that's forever seared onto hearts and souls.

And, too, a sweeping score created by Jack Seabury just for the show has audiences humming bits of fondly remembered lyrics from days gone by.

Harty, reprising his role of Buddy, reflected: "It's just so wonderful to be a part, again, of a show that really touches audience's hearts — that brings out an emotional reaction. It's so heartfelt and has such good emotional depth at holiday time. I'm happy to be a part of that."

Capote left a forever legacy on the East End. As the world celebrated Capote during his centennial year in 2024, reflecting upon his literary prowess and larger-than-life persona, in the Hamptons, the author was remembered for the rich treasure trove of memories he created in a place he called home — and where his ashes were spread on Crooked Pond, his essence deeply rooted in the area for eternity.

For Disher, Capote's stories resonate deeply — enough so that he wanted to bring them back for a resounding encore.

"I’ve learned holidays are not all glitter and gold. Some gifts are lifelong memories, traditions and understandings that far outlast papered packages," he said. "These stories will stay with me forever."

Asked about the singular message he believes the works convey, Disher said: "Christmas is what we make it — simple and homespun, bright and garish, beautifully presented with simple cut backyard greenery, a feast or a home-cooked meal — wherever there is love and loveliness to be shared and found, there is Christmas."

As a reviewer wrote last year: "There aren't words strong enough to urge audiences to see this show, and see it again. It captures the true meaning of the holidays in a way that will stay in hearts forever."

The productions are sponsored in part by Stony Brook Southampton Hospital.

For additional information and tickets, which cost $25 for general admission and $20 for SAC members, click here.