The holiday season is upon us once...

The holiday season is upon us once again, and once again you will have the opportunity to watch “It’s a Wonderful Life” or “Miracle on 34th Street” almost every other day. To break the holiday rut, watch a different kind of Christmas story. The Original Theatre Works of Cerritos College will present the Lee Korf award-winning comedy “Your Father Owned a Reindeer” on selected dates beginning Friday through Dec. 15 in the Burnight Studio Theatre.

New York playwright Richard Holland has written an offbeat story revolving around the holiday celebration of the eccentric Scavulo family. The assorted cast of characters includes Rebecca Bailey as Carol Scavulo, the oldest Scavulo daughter; Charles Gorman as Izzy, Carol’s anthropologist husband; Dorothy McClane as Martha, matriarch of the Scavulo clan; Fred Lanciloti as Sal, the Scavulo patriarch; Susan Alderette as Sharon Scavulo and Jeff Tucker as Brian, her lover, a musician and waiter; Cliff Schneider as Doug Scavulo, the perpetual salesman; and Alecs Vildosola as Donnie Scavulo, a fashion designer.

The play is set in Izzy and Carol’s living room, adorned with various archeological and anthropological artifacts that are decorated by Carol with traditional Christmas trimmings. Martha lobbies for her first grandchild by giving Carol a sexy negligee as a present. Sal celebrates Christmas in his own special way, by betting on a horse named Christmas Tree. But personal quirks and hard-fought attempts at communication do not dampen the family’s expectations of a happy holiday.

More than 200 plays were submitted nationally for the Lee Korf Playwriting Award, and this one by Holland was one of three winners. Holland became a professional playwright in 1981. He has served as assistant director for “The Chosen,” Chaim Potok’s $3.5-million off-Broadway musical, co-founded Stagewrights, a nonprofit playwrights’ theater, and has had finalist entries in the O’Neill Competition and the Rosenthal New Play Prize. Holland is currently working on a musical adaptation of Mark Twain’s “The Prince and the Pauper,” which is expected to play Broadway in the fall of 1992.

“Your Father Owned a Reindeer” will be presented at 8 p.m. Friday, Saturday, Dec. 13, 14 and 15 and at 2:30 p.m. Dec. 9. Burnight Studio Theatre is on the Cerritos College campus, 11110 Alondra Blvd., Norwalk. Tickets are $7.50 and can be purchased at the door. This play contains some adult language and may not be suitable for children. For more information, call 924-2100.