Just the Donkey: Tidings of the Season

dt-logo

Logline

A hybrid theatrical Christmas experience combining film, live music, audience participation, and candlelight ritual.

On Christmas Eve, twelve days sober and alone in a roadside motel, Wyatt Stone struggles through the longest night of the year and finds his way toward community, recovery, and hope.

Production Identity

Tidings of the Season is a Blue Christmas / Longest Night theatrical experience combining film, live music, audience participation, and candlelight ritual.

The story follows Wyatt Stone, a man twelve days sober on Christmas Eve, as he journeys through the longest night of the year toward community, recovery, and hope.

Through original folk, country, gospel music and traditional carols, and audience participation, attendees experience not only Wyatt's story, but their own place within it.

What This Show Is

Tidings of the Season is a Blue Christmas / Longest Night event.

It is designed for people who find the holidays difficult:

people in recovery
veterans
the grieving
the lonely
the searching
anyone carrying a burden through the season

The audience does not simply watch Wyatt's journey. They participate in it. By the end of the evening they become the carolers arriving at Wyatt's door.

Core Themes

Recovery

The show is fundamentally about recovery.

Not addiction alone, but recovery in the broadest sense:

grief
trauma
isolation
spiritual exhaustion
rebuilding a life

Community

Nobody survives the longest night alone. The audience gradually becomes part of Wyatt's community. The show's central invitation is simple: you do not have to be perfect to belong.

Ordinary Grace

The show avoids sentimentality. Its miracles are human:

a meeting
a conversation
a song
a prayer
a candle in the dark

Principal Characters

Wyatt Stone

A man twelve days sober on Christmas Eve.
Funny, stubborn, wounded, and deeply human.
His journey forms the spine of the evening.

Earl Earl Narration

A veteran in long-term recovery.
Narrator, witness, and guide.
Earl tells Wyatt's story while quietly revealing his own.
His role is not to preach.
His role is to accompany.

Key traits:

Midwestern warmth
dry humor
hard-earned wisdom
emotional honesty

Structural Overview

Act I — The Longest Night

Audience enters.
Wyatt's story begins.
Songs alternate with audience participation.
The audience remains primarily observers.

Key songs:

Jingles
Santa's Wavin'
Mama's Rum Cakes
Father Christmas
A Dry Christmas
Just the Donkey
On Christmas Day (immediately goes into Glory Glory Hymn)

During On Christmas Day, choir starts from back of theater, slowly moves up to front and behind screen (or backstage). Video shows carolers arriving at Wyatt's motel door. At end of On Christmas Day, closeup of Wyatt's hand opening the door, screen goes dark (midnight blue) with simple lyrics for Glory, Glory. Choir & live Wyatt character emerge from behind the screen (or from backstage). During Glory, Glory, they move back through the audience while the audience's candles are illuminated in stages via remote control. This is the emotional climax of the evening.

Traditional Carol: It Came Upon the Midnight Clear
Traditional Carol: God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
Instrumental Carol: Silent Night (Guitars4vets)

Act II — Dawn

Intermission represents the passing of the night. Morning arrives. Wyatt reaches his meeting. Screen is a time lapse of desert sky turning from midnight to 7am.

12 Step Shuffle
Anyway
Walk Easy (Tidings of the Season)

The show concludes with hope rather than certainty.

Signature Theatrical Device

The Live Wyatt Reveal

At the climax:

screen goes dark with lyrics only for Glory, Glory
live Wyatt appears with choir
choir & Wyatt move through audience
faux candles illuminate outward via remote control
The audience becomes the carolers from the story.

Audience Participation

Participation is invitational, never mandatory. The audience is asked to:

sing
hold light
clap and move rhythmically
witness
reflect

The goal is communal experience rather than performance.

Visual World

The aesthetic is:

warm
handmade
weathered
humble
hopeful

Visual touchstones:

candlelight
winter blue
pine branches
motel neon
church basements
coffee mugs
worn coats
Christmas lights

Nothing should feel polished or commercial.

Everything should feel lived in.

Music

The score combines:

original alt-country/folk songs/gospel
traditional carols

The music should feel communal rather than performative. The audience's voice is part of the score.

Why It Exists

Tidings of the Season creates space for people who often feel excluded from holiday celebrations.

It is not a Christmas pageant.
It is not a church service.
It is not a concert.
It is a shared act of keeping watch through the longest night and welcoming the dawn together.
At its heart, Tidings of the Season is an invitation.
To keep watch through the longest night.
To carry light for one another.
To remember that no one walks the road alone.