Clinton Clark will play Crumpet the Elf in a production of "The Santaland Diaries" at the Capitol.

Over the next couple of weeks in Bend, you can catch two distinctive iterations of “The Santaland Diaries,” by two performers who each have several years’ experience with the comedic Christmas show.

In fact, if you’re so inclined, you can catch them in the order humorist David Sedaris and playwright Joe Mantello spawned them. Don’t sit on the chance, because such an occurrence is rare in the local theater world — and one of the two actors already has designs on writing and premiering an original holiday play next year.

Advent of ‘Santaland’

When it comes to entertainment, Christmas has its share of tried and true classic tales — think Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” and its derivations, or the iconic 1946 film “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Every so often, along comes a new holiday-themed work that holds up to scrutiny, or at least repeat readings or viewings. Take films such as the ensemble comedy “Love Actually,” the whimsical Will Ferrell vehicle “Elf” or the dark comedy “Bad Santa” (all 2003, clearly a good year for Christmas movies).

Of the more recent additions to the Christmas pantheon, few can hold a Yuletide candle to humorist David Sedaris’ essay “Santaland Diaries,” about his experience working as a Macy’s elf. Rampant consumerism, mercenary shoppers, tantrum-prone kids and questionable Santas are all subject to Sedaris’ cynical wit. The piece first aired on National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition” in 1992, introducing the world to Crumpet the Elf — not to mention a wry, observant humorist in Sedaris, who’s since gone on to publish numerous collections and enjoys widespread acclaim. NPR continues to air “Santaland” annually on NPR, which calls the piece “an NPR holiday tradition.”

In 1996, playwright, actor and director Joe Mantello adapted the tale to the stage as “The Santaland Diaries,” imbuing it with a more dramatic arc — and adding another medium in which it could thrive. In 2002, Bend actor Thor Erickson introduced audiences to Crumpet in a Cascades Theatrical Company production, beginning a three-year run of “Santaland” productions in which he starred, according to Bulletin archives.

Two ‘Diaries’

First up this year is actor and theater owner Derek Sitter’s staged reading, opening Friday at Volcanic Theatre Pub. Since 2013, Sitter has starred in the show annually at VTP, his productions generally offering an edgier take on Crumpet with accompanying, always evolving slideshow, a whole lot like a Powerpoint presentation.

Sitter’s history with the role goes back farther: He first presented the show as an informal reading in 2008 at First Baptist Church, through the auspices of the short-lived, defunct Innovation TheatreWorks.

“They didn’t even know me,” Sitter recalled last week, sitting at a table in his Century Center theater pub. “They found out I was teaching classes at (Central Oregon Community College) and contacted me to do the reading.” Sitter estimates 140 showed up to the performance, which was moved from the basement to a larger space upstairs.

“I think after that, ITW was asked not to return to do any more readings, which was awesome,” he said.

Although it’s the fourth consecutive year he’ll present “Santaland,” this time Sitter will do so in somewhat different fashion, offering audiences a staged reading of Sedaris’ original essay, from the 1997 collection “Holidays on Ice.”

It’s a bold, unproven artistic decision — one Sitter was pushed into making when the other production in town obtained the exclusive professional rights to “The Santaland Diaries.”

Yet reading Sedaris’ original piece is also, Sitter has said, “What I’ve wanted to do the whole time anyway.”

Enter Clark

When Bend actor Clinton K. Clark first donned his green velvet Crumpet costume in 2011, it was also through the auspices of ITW. After ITW closed its doors in fall 2012, Clark reprised the role that Christmas at 2nd Street Theater, where he’ll once again portray Crumpet beginning Dec. 19 in a collaboration between his theater production company, Dionysus Presents, and Stage Right Productions, the nonprofit that runs 2nd Street.

In 2013, Clark was living in Portland, and decided to let a sleeping elf lie. In a public Facebook note he wrote in 2015, Clark discussed the “Santaland” mantle.

“Derek Sitter picked up the script at VTP while I was away. Honestly, I was happy that a production was taking place at least, even though I wasn’t the one on stage.”

But as of 2014, Clark was back in Bend — and that year, both he and Sitter offered audiences their respective takes on “Santaland,” Sitter at his pub theater and Clark at 2nd Street.

“I was honestly excited that the risks paid off for both of us and that both productions were a success,” Clark wrote in that 2015 Facebook note amidst a brewing tempest in a thespian teacup.

You see, last year Clark wasn’t allowed to perform “Santaland” in Central Oregon because Sitter had purchased the professional rights to the show — something Sitter often does when planning the season, he said.

Securing the professional rights precludes other theater groups from staging productions of the same show in the immediate area. So Clark took “Santaland” south to Ashland, where he previously lived as a theater student at Southern Oregon University. “Ashland ended up being a lot of fun,” said Clark.

“Then, here we are at this year,” he added with a chuckle. “We bought the professional rights. We put in our order for that on Jan. 1,” which effectively presented Sitter with the same problem Clark had last year.

The letter

Sitter heard the news from the play’s publisher, Dramatists Play Service, Inc., but rather than pout — which we all know Santa doesn’t like — he came up with a workaround: He contacted Sedaris’ performance and literary agents seeking permission to read straight from Sedaris’ Christmas collection, “Holidays on Ice.”

Sitter wrote first to Sedaris’ performance agent at the Steven Barclay Agency.

“I wrote him and said, ‘Look, I want to do “Santaland Diaries” straight from the book. That’s what I’ve wanted to do the whole time anyway.’ I said, ‘I don’t like the play.’”

In his 2013 press release for “The Santaland Diaries,” Sitter came off as being more committed to Sedaris’ initial vision than Mantello’s adaptation: “I intend to honor the writer’s intention of the original story with a very truthful reading/performance that, although still humorous, is often dark and potentially offensive, yet always touching and hopeful in the end.”

Sedaris himself seems to share Sitter’s dislike of the adapted play. Back in 1999, a former classmate of Sitter’s sought permission from Sedaris to adapt his book “Naked” to the stage. Sitter has a copy of Sedaris’ typed reply, which in part reads, “I’m reluctant to have any of my stories adopted (sic) for the stage. I gave permission once before and have regretted it ever since. To me they’re just stories meant to live on the page or read aloud. Costumes and sets do nothing to enhance them, rather they seem to highlight the stories’ many weaknesses. Years ago, Joe Mantello adopted Santa Land and, though it’s now performed by theater companies across the country, it still fails to work as a play.”

The Barclay Agency put Sitter in touch with Cristina Concepcion at Don Congdon Associates, Inc., Sedaris’ literary agency, which secured permission from Sedaris for Sitter to give four readings of “The Santaland Diaries,” charging him $200 in total.

Christmas present and future

“It’s partly frustrating, because of course he’s kind of finding a way around it, which is what we should have done last year instead of lying down and staying true to the theatrical version that we’ve been staying true to,” Clark said.

The essay “is so close to exactly what (the play) is. It kind of feels like it was a trap to get us to pay a sh–load for the rights,” he added with a laugh.

Both actors find that fans look forward to their respective takes on Sedaris’ modern Christmas classic.

“Before I decided to do it this year — a guy came in for a different show and he told me, ‘I just want to thank you for “Santaland,”’ Sitter said. “I’m like, ‘Well you’re welcome.’ He said, ‘No, no, no. I want to tell you, I was going through a very, very nasty divorce, and I came to see your show four times, and it saved my Christmas.’

And I said, ‘Dude, that’s why I do theater.’”

“I don’t necessarily have an agenda, but I do tell stories, (and) I do intend, one way or another, I intend to reach you,” Sitter said. “My job is to tell stories. I don’t have an agenda to manipulate you. I’m not a clown to entertain you. I tell stories from my voice as an artist. And I’m going to honor David Sedaris and his original story.”

Clark offered his take on the ongoing appeal of “The Santaland Diaries”: “It’s an alternative look at Christmas. We kind of hold Christmas on this … pedestal that we look forward to all year long, this celebration,” he said. “Sedaris’ dry wit has really appealed to everyone — well, not everyone, but a good cross-section of people — and that’s why they keep coming back to the show.”

Nevertheless, Clark said he won’t don Crumpet’s elfin garb forever.

“I’m ready for what’s next, and so next year, we’ve got something else booked already with (2nd Street),” he said. A playwright in addition to his other roles in the theater, Clark is in the process of penning a new holiday play now, and plans to premiere it in 2017.

“So ‘Santaland’ doesn’t look like it’s coming back next year, at least not through Dionysus Presents,” he said. “I mean, Derek will probably keep doing it, right?”