By AARON KRAUSE

It is nearly midnight on a pitch-black Christmas Eve. Everybody is sound asleep, and it’s deathly quiet. Suddenly you feel lonely and dreadful. But then a soft yet reassuring voice from the radio fills the vast space and instantly puts you at ease.

Such a scene may spring to mind when you experience New City Players’ (NCP) upcoming world premiere production of Tyler Johnson Grimes’ new play, The Last Christmas.

If you’ve witnessed NCP’s holiday productions in 2022 and 2023, then The Last Christmas will mark the final leg of a journey you’ve taken with the nonprofit professional Ft. Lauderdale-area theater company. More specifically, you have been an audience member at WNCP’s live radio broadcasts of holiday classics.

WNCP is the fictional radio station that NCP invented for its 2022 production of It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play by Joe Landry and 2023’s adaptation of A Christmas Carol by Grimes. Both productions used the play within a play format. In other words, in both cases, an NCP cast portrayed WNCP radio actors who played the characters populating It’s a Wonderful Life and A Christmas Carol.

WNCP returns for a third year in 2024. Only this time the station is not doing radio theater. Instead, in Grimes’ The Last Christmas, it is hosting a call-in radio talk show that lonely people throughout the country are calling into to connect with someone.

The Last Christmas will run from Dec. 7-22 at Island City Stage’s intimate black box theater space in Wilton Manors. This is where NCP stages its productions.

“No worries if you missed the last two (plays), you can hop right into this one and get caught up,” Grimes reassures.  “We hope that folks who have joined us these past several years will enjoy the conclusion to this trilogy, while new audience members can enjoy this story on its own.”

“The Last Christmas pretty much began as soon as we opened our adaptation of A Christmas Carol last year,” Grimes says. “We knew very quickly that we wanted to get the band back together the following Christmas season to cap off our trilogy of holiday plays set within this growing WNCP-Universe.”

Grimes included several WNCP radio characters from It’s a Wonderful Life in the following year’s production of A Christmas Carol. However, this time just two characters made it over to The Last Christmas from A Christmas Carol.

“They are impactful ones,” Grimes says, referring to the characters who made the final jump.

The Last Christmas takes place on Christmas Eve in 1999. The play follows Eve Hart. She is a temporary host for the long-running call-in radio show Calling Claire. With her are her producer, Ruth Dillon, and her sound engineer, Izzy Flores. With the legendary host Claire Phillips in poor health, Eve struggles to fill her shoes as lonely listeners from across the country call in to share their holiday memories.

“Throughout the night, Eve and her team discover the unexpected beauty in imperfect connections, all while navigating their own doubts and fears as the new millennium looms,” Grimes says.

He adds that The Last Christmas is timely because it reflects a moment of great change and uncertainty.

“Y2K was a time when people collectively questioned what was coming next, which I definitely think we are all doing now,” Grimes says. “In 1999, the personal computer was already isolating people at an unfathomable rate. Suddenly, everyone was alone with the entire world right in front of them. We still feel that isolation today with social media and our personal bubbles. As we become more and more isolated, it becomes an act of rebellion to reach out and try to connect with someone.

“The characters in this play keep trying to connect. We still can, too. (The Last Christmas is) also timeless because it deals with universal themes of longing, connection, and the need to be heard, which resonate across decades.”

What can audiences expect?

“Audiences can expect a heartfelt, humorous, and nostalgic experience,” Grimes says. “It’s a play filled with memorable characters, touching stories, and the cozy intimacy of a late-night radio broadcast. Expect to laugh, maybe cry, and leave with a renewed appreciation for the connections that keep us grounded. But (audiences) can also expect a lot of things that look like their own individual holiday memories.

“I hope audiences leave feeling a little less alone,” Grimes says. “The play reminds us that even in our most isolated moments, there’s beauty in reaching out, in being heard, and in listening. I want people to remember that it’s often the simplest, most fleeting connections that mean the most.”

Grimes says he appreciates everybody’s work in bringing The Last Christmas to life.

“Every single member of this team has done incredible work and sacrificed a great deal of personal and professional time, during a period of the year where time is hard to come by, to make this show happen. These past few Christmases have created a tradition unlike any other. I’m honored to have been a part of it.”

One person who has been involved in the effort is dramaturg Ali Tallman. She was “amazing” and “invaluable to the development process,” Grimes says.

Basically, a dramaturg is a behind-the-scenes resource person for directors, actors, and playwrights. Among other things, dramaturgs provide context, research, and feedback to help improve the quality or accuracy of plays and productions.

IF YOU GO

WHAT: New City Players’ world premiere production of The Last Christmas by Tyler Johnson Grimes.

WHEN: Dec. 7-22. Performances are at 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, and 3 p.m. Sunday

WHERE: Island City Stage’s intimate Blackbox theater space, 2304 N. Dixie Highway in Wilton Manors.

TICKETS: Go to https://onthestage.tickets/show/new-city-players/668b29ec9090857f26cb1205.