Ring in the new year with the Evergreen Players

New Year’s Eve can often be thorn in your side. You want to do something festive to ring in the new year … but you don’t want to drive very far, you don’t enjoy huge crowds, you don’t want to spend a lot of money, and midnight is long past your bedtime. You’re suddenly feeling very “Bah, humbug” when you want to be humming “Auld Lang Syne.” The Evergreen Players’ New Year’s Eve Gala is the answer to all of your celebratory snags.

The Players are hosting their first-ever New Year’s bash, and with the theme A Carnival of Entertainment, the night is sure to have something for everyone. Let’s take a look at your New Year’s dilemma and see if a party with the Players is the perfect fix to your predicament.

• I don’t want to drive very far. The roads are messy; the drivers are sloppy. A trip far from home sounds treacherous. The Players are hosting their gala at Center/Stage — a short trip from anywhere in Evergreen.

• I don’t enjoy large crowds or lots of strangers. You won’t find either at Center/Stage. The Players will be using the entire theater to welcome 2009. Your Evergreen friends and neighbors will spread out to enjoy cocktails and hor d’oeuvres in the lobby, casino tables in the theater, performances on stage and a catered dinner in the theater’s Green Room.

• I don’t want to spend a lot of money. New Year’s celebrations can be costly affairs that leave your wallet empty and your stomach growling. The Players dubbed their celebration “a carnival” because they’ve packed in more entertainment than you would think possible in one night.

“Tickets for the night are $65 per person, but $40 of each ticket is a tax-deductible donation that benefits the Evergreen Players,” says Donna Zimmerly, the Players’ spokeswoman.

The evening will start with cocktails and hors d’oeuvres. Revelers will enjoy a live performance written by Colorado playwright Scott Gibson. “Sleep Tight” is a hilarious one-act play that forces the cast and the audience to face their greatest childhood fear, the Boogieman or whatever else might be hiding under the bed.

After bravery (hopefully) prevails, the blackjack and roulette tables will open for those in the gambling mood. Your ticket includes $100 in casino chips. Players can exchange every $10 of winning chips for one auction ticket. Auction prizes will include two tickets to a 2009-10 season Broncos game, an original pastel oil painting, an Evergreen restaurant night and a spa day, to name a few. While the games are going, Tuscany Tavern will host a full-dinner buffet backstage.

Once the chips are spent, The Squeakers, the Players’ improv comedy troop, will offer up an hour of unpredictable laughs. The Squeakers are led by Meridith Crosley, who teaches the Players’ improvisation workshops every summer.

• Midnight is long past my bedtime. With all this entertainment, you shouldn’t have any problem making it to the stroke of midnight. And you won’t want to miss the champagne toast and the parade of delectable pastries that follows.

All in all, this carnival of entertainment should be a big top of New Year’s fun. Sounds like you’re all out of the excuses to stay home and fall asleep watching Dick Clark and Ryan Seacrest. Get out there and play with the Evergreen Players.

Sara Miller, a freelance writer and a resident of Evergreen, lives with her husband, two children and a dog.

INFO BOX:

“A Carnival of Entertainment” for New Year’s Eve

Presented by the Evergreen Players on Wednesday, Dec. 31, from 7:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. at Center/Stage in Evergreen.

Tickets are $65 per person. To reserve tickets, call 303-670-4636 or visit www.evergreenplayers.org.