‘Stories of the Season’ Plays Into Hands of Audience

Pick a box--and pick a play.

Choosing is half the fun in Robert Alan Beuth and Rob Harrison’s “Stories of the Season,” a festive collection of multicultural and multistyle holiday tales that is playing at Pacific Theatre Ensemble in Culver City. Each night, audience members are asked to select five out of the 10 wrapped packages on display; inside the boxes are the props, masks and wigs that represent each of the particular stories.

“I wanted to get back to that feeling of surprise when you open a present at Christmas,” explained Harrison, 33. After a box/playlet is chosen, the cast of five disappears for a few minutes to get into costume, while directors and hosts Harrison and Beuth offer songs and short Christmas stories. “As a whole, there’s a Western flavor,” Harrison said. “Next year, we hope there will be a Chinese influence or something that deals with Jewish tradition.”

Nonetheless, the current program is quite eclectic. It includes the updated mummers’ verse play “St. George and the Dragon,” Hans Christian Andersen’s “Last Dream of the Old Tree,” the melodrama “Lars Wurmerdam and the Christmas Thief”--in which the audience becomes an active participant by helping the hero solve the riddle--and a Native American fable.

“It’s not about Christmas, but the winter solstice,” said Harrison, who trained at San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theatre with the commedia dell’arte-inspired Blue Lake Players and in Hollywood with the improv group Comedy Sportz. “During those dark months, people were afraid the sun wouldn’t return to its proper position. So to give each other hope, they’d tell stories. The focus is on keeping society together--and it goes back thousands of years.”

The 10 pieces range from 6 to 17 minutes in length. “There is some dark stuff,” he noted. “Christmas is a time of joy--but also a time of need and want, greed and competition. So there won’t be any reindeer.” The writer emphasized that the presentation will not overshadow the work itself: “It’s a minimalist set, with simple lighting and costumes. Some masks are more elaborate than others, but they all fit right over the face. They’re very actor-friendly.”

Co-writer Beuth, 35, is a mask fan from way back.

“I always liked puppets and dolls,” he said. “When I was growing up, I loved to paint and sculpt, build props. I was always making things with my hands, dressing up, doing weird stuff like that.” Since mask-making didn’t feel like a respectable outlet for an adult, however, he shelved that interest and at 19 moved to New York, where he took classes in pottery and made a living painting apartments. It wasn’t until resettling in Los Angeles six years ago that he hooked up with the biannual L. A. Mask Festival and rediscovered his old passion.

The connection with Harrison is also long. The two met on stage 20 years ago, playing opposite each other in a Fresno community theater production of “Tom Sawyer.” Through the years, they stayed in touch. They acted together and in 1990 became a writing team--although until now, they didn’t get a project off the ground. Beuth, who was a member of the Groundlings Sunday company in 1989, joined PTE earlier this year and pitched the idea of “Stories of the Season” to artistic director Stephanie Shroyer.

For the partners, it has turned out to be a labor of love--and far more work than either expected.

“We started in March,” Harrison recalled cheerfully, “and midway through the summer, we looked at each other and said, ‘Whoa, this is going to be a full-blown show.’ ”

Added Beuth, “It was like, ‘Why not put ourselves on the line here?’ Everyone gets so caught up in the business of Christmas that the sense of wonder starts to disappear. It was important to make this show as personal as possible. Whatever religion or culture you are, it’s the idea of celebrating, of communing with each other.”

“Stories of the Season” plays at 8 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays, and at 3 p.m. Sunday and Dec. 20 at Pacific Theatre Ensemble, 8780 Venice Blvd., Culver City, through Dec. 23. Admission: $8.50 to $15. Call (213) 660-TKTS.