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Show Christmas plays team for double bill at Plum Alley ,. ( , , y 17.... il "The Last Wise Man" and "The Littlest Angel" are Christmas characters that may seem to have little in common. But Plum Alley at Promised Valley Playhouse in Salt Lake City will bring together the two children's plays one serious, the other light-hearted for a production produc-tion that will run through Dec. 21. , The story about a fourth wise man came to its author, Henry Van Dyke, one sleepless night after his father died, he said. "I do not know where it came from out of the air, perhaps," he said.. "One thing is certain. It is not written in any other book, nor is it to be found among the ancient lore of the East. And yet, I have never felt as if it were my own. It was a gift." The play is about a fourth wise man who sees the star and sets out to join the Three Wise Men who are bringing gifts to the Savior's cradle in Bethlehem. Perry Coe will play Artaban, the other wise man who spends his life searching for the newborn King because he cannot ignore the cries for help from strangers along the way. He ages from 35 to 90 during the half-hour adaptation of the book that was written by Ruth Sergei. "The Littlest Angel" was written by Hollywood scriptwriter Charles Tazewell in three days. "I always felt that God wanted 'The Littlest Angel' to be written, and it was given to Tazz to do it," said the author's wife, Louise. The play is a light look at the trials of heaven's littlest angel, an 8-year-old boy who sings off key and wears a tarnished, slightly out-of-kilter halo. Ben Curtis, a fifth-grade student, will play the small cherub in heaven who unselfishly gives Jesus his most prized possessions. An understanding angel (Joan Fox) comforts heaven's tiniest cherub (Ben Curtis) in "The Littlest Angel" at Plum Alley in Promised Valley Playhouse. Patricia Gray's stage adaptation of the book is 15 minutes long. The double bill plays Wednesday through Saturday at 7:30 p.m. until Dec. 21. Matinees will play a 2 p.m. every Saturday. In place of a Thanksgiving performance, a show is scheduled for Nov. 26 at 7 : 30 p.m. Tickets are available at the box office of-fice (132 S. State St.), 364-5677. |