Strip Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol down to its bones and you’ll find the story of a haunted man who comes to terms with his past and finds redemption. It’s that essence that director Andrew Ceglio wants audiences to find in his production of Scrooge, through January 3 at Cabrillo College’s Crocker Theater.

“It isn’t a Christmas show,” Ceglio said of the Cabrillo Stage production. “It’s a ghost story with Christmas as the main setting.”

The musical, by Leslie Bricusse of Dr. Doolitte fame, takes audiences through the life of misanthropic miser Ebenezer Scrooge via visitations by three spirits on Christmas Eve….

Gina Marie Hayes was five years old when she first saw Camelot. It was the first stage musical the native Santa Cruzian, now the founder and producing artistic director of Red Egg Theater, ever saw.

The show, with its magic and mystery, was a turning point in her life. “From then on, it was complete and utter dedication to theater.”

Now Hayes is putting her own spin on the knights of the Round Table with (puppet)Camelot, December 23 through 27 at Actors’ Theatre. A preview of the family-friendly Red Egg Theater production will be held 7: 30 p.m. December 15 at Capitola Book Cafe….

So this is Santa Cruz. And what have we done? Another year of holiday shows and traditions just begun. Stages around town carry proof through the night that there’s always something to bring seasonal delight. A complete day-by-day listing of holiday events — without rewritten John Lennon lyrics — can be found here.

WE THREE SHOWS….
A play, a musical and a ballet bring out different aspects of the holiday season for Santa Cruz theatergoers.

A killer wielding a candy cane rocks the caroling community of Seattle in The Last Noel, winner of the Actors’ Theatre Full Length Play Contest…

The holiday season is here, with its incessantly joyful music, lights aplenty and sparkly trimmings. But underlying the red and green, at least in America, is a swath of consumerism — the need to buy buy buy in order to give give give.

That latter sentiment led four artists to curate The $1 Burger Wars, opening December 4 at The Mill Gallery. Two-by-two paintings by more than 16 artists depicting cheeseburgers, greed and chain stores will deck the gallery walls. The pieces, two by each artist, are all for sale at the fixed price of $332.29, 32 percent less than the actual cost to produce the work….

Somewhere in the middle of each Michelle Chappel performance comes the moment when she looks into the audience and asks “Do you have a dream? What is it?” Following your passion is of the utmost importance to the singer-songwriter, whose fifth album Shine was released earlier this year. If Chappel hadn’t followed her bliss, she would still be teaching college psychology instead of singing December 6 at Don Quixote’s International Music Hall.

It’s been more than a decade since Chappel discovered her musical inclinations, and five years since she taught her last class at UC Santa Cruz, where she was once named “Most Inspirational Professor of Psychology….”