The Emerson Theater Collaborative will perform David Sedaris’ “Holidays on Ice” at 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 29 and 30, and at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 1, at Verde Valley School.

“It’s a very different take on the holiday season, and [Sedaris] tackles everyday things that people deal with with a comedic flare, and it can be a little dark, but there’s comedic moments there that make it palatable,” Camilla Ross said, explaining that the show captures the totality of experiences of the holidays.

Ross said that some individuals can find the holidays unpleasant due to family interactions and sadness.

“I think it’s important to show all of the holiday, not just the joyous moments,” Ross said. “People need to remember those that are not in that joyous spirit … The works I’ve chosen for the show, they each have their own moment. They have their own story. And I think it’s important that we sit and enjoy his writing, because I think he’s an amazing writer, and each story has something to teach us.” 

The production will include dramatizations of four vignettes from Sedaris’ book “Let It Snow”: “The Cow and The Turkey,” “Us and Them,” “Christmas Means Giving” and “Santaland Diaries.”

The centerpiece of the show will be Sean Spencer’s reading of “Santaland Diaries,” Sedaris’ account of spending two Christmas seasons working as a Macy’s department store elf in New York. The other selections from Sedaris’ work will be performed by actors, blending narration with pantomime. 

“I explained that I wanted to be an elf because it was one of the most frightening career opportunities I had ever come across,” Sedaris wrote in “Santaland Diaries.”

“Let it Snow” portrays an incident from Sedaris’ childhood in North Carolina in which he described his mother becoming agitated from having her kids home continuously on a series of snow days.

“Normally she waited until five o’clock to have a drink, but for the past few days she’d been making an exception,” Sedaris wrote in the December 2003 issue of the New Yorker. “Drinking didn’t count if you followed a glass of wine with a cup of coffee, and so she had a goblet and a mug positioned before her on the countertop.”

“Each one of [the selections] has a message, and each one of the stories that he writes about affects the human condition and that’s part of our mission as a company is to look at the human condition and allow people to see it in different ways, so that they can be affected by it in order to make change for it,” Ross said. 

The cast will include Emerson veterans James Yaw, Audrey Young, Joan Westmoreland, Sean Spencer, Lisa Glinsky, Matt Egan and Cat Ransom, along with newcomers Terra Shelman, Craig Schneider, Kirstyn Lazur and Kaycee Palumbo. 

Westmoreland said he expects the satirical monologues and pantomime to balance the show’s tone.

“I have not done pantomime before. The challenge is maintaining character with no lines, so that will be an interesting experience for me,” Westmoreland said.

Ross said the production will focus on the story rather than elaborate visuals and will use lighting changes and sound effects to signal time and scene shifts. 

Each performance will be preceded by additional holiday entertainment, with the Red RockApella Ensemble performing on opening night and Sandi Schenholm before the Saturday and Sunday shows.

On opening night, Friday, Nov. 29, there will be a pre-show event, “Sights, Sounds and Sampling of the Holiday Experience,” according to a press release. “Audience members are invited to mingle and jingle with the cast of ‘Holidays on Ice’ while tasting small bites of the season and being treated to the stylings of Jeanie Carroll who has performed to enthusiastic audiences internationally … Join them for some festive holiday spirit of singing, eating and sampling of all things of the holiday from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. $20 with a show ticket for opening night only. $45 at the door. Space is limited to 50 attendees.”

To purchase tickets for the Friday special event, visit bit.ly/etc-sssholidays. General seating tickets for the performance start at $35. For more information, visit EmersonTheaterCollaborative.org or call (860) 705-9711.