To begin with, “Santaland” is the legendary Christmas season attraction at Macy’s Herald Square, New York City.

“SantaLand Diaries” is the legendary humorous essay by David Sedaris based on his experiences working as an Elf in Macy’s “Santaland” in the New York City store. The essay read by Sedaris was first broadcast on National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition” in December 1992. A longer version aired in December 1996 on Public Radio International’s “This American Life.” The essay was published in the literary collections, “Barrel Fever” (1994) and “Holidays on Ice” (1997).

“The Santaland Diaries,” adapted from the essay for the stage by Broadway director Joe Mantello, is the legendary one-person, one-act play which debuted in 1996 at the Atlantic Theater Company, New York City.

“The Santaland Diaries” is sure to be a legendary performance by Jarrod Yuskauskas in role of David in the show’s debut at Civic Theatre, Dec. 9-16, in Theatre514 in a production directed by Will Morris, Civic Theatre Associate Artistic Director-Production Manager.

“I’ve been a Sedaris fan for years,” says Yuskauskas, who recalls reading Sedaris’s New York Times’ best-seller essay collection, “Me Talk Pretty One Day” (2000).

“I’ve wanted to tackle it [“The Santaland Dairies’] for years in a full production,” says Yuskauskas, who works full-time as Moravian Academy Director of Theater. Yuskauskas spoke with Morris about doing the show at Civic.

It’s believed to be the first time that Civic is doing a show that runs concurrent with its annual “A Christmas Carol,” which continues through Dec. 17 on Civic’s Main Stage.

“It was a confluence of factors,” says Morris. “We enjoyed success with ‘God of Carnage,’ but putting a show up in June [2016], there’s just so much going on at that time of year. We were looking for an alternative spot to put something.

“The other thing, too, is that I am going to be playing Prior Walter in ‘Angels in America’ [May 5-20, May 11-20 at Civic] and Bill [Sanders, Civic Theatre Artistic Director] and I talked about how that would leave me artistically tapped out to direct something after ‘Angels in America.’ In looking for alternatives, it kind of made perfect sense.”

By most accounts, the only previous Lehigh Valley production of “The Santaland Diaries” was by Morris’s husband, Troy Dwyer, Associate Professor, Department of Theatre & Dance at Muhlenberg College, in 2003 at the former Theatre Outlet, Allentown.

“Santaland Diaries” is the fourth show Yuskauskas has done at Civic: John Wilkes Booth, “Assassins”; Gomez, “The Addams Family,” and Dr. Frederick Frankenstein, “Young Frankenstein.”

Yuskauskas, who received a BA in theater from DeSales University and an MFA from the Professional Actor Training Program at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, has had lead roles at Muhlenberg Summer Music Theatre: Herbie, “Gypsy”; Horace Vandergelder, “Hello Dolly,” and Sir Robin, “Spamalot.”

At Moravian Academy, where Yuskauskas is in his sixth year as director of theater, his production of “Big Fish” received three Freddys in 2016: lighting, actor, and overall production by a small school. It’s the third time that a Yuskauskas directed production at Moravian Academy has received an overall production Freddy. “Mystery of Edwin Drood” and “My Favorite Year” were previous recipients. At Moravian Academy, Yuskauskas teaches four levels of actors training, introduction to theater, two courses in Shakespeare analysis and performance, and “Shakespeare: From Page to Stage.”

It’s the first one-man show Morris has directed at Civic. Morris directed “God of Carnage” on the Main Stage and “Why We Have A Body,” “Music from Down the Hill” and “Beyond the Veil” in Theatre514. It’s the first time in four years, following the renovation of Theatre514, that a play is being presented there.

Morris and Yuskauskas collaborated in “Assassins,” in which Morris also acted, and “The Addams Family” and “Young Frankenstein,” for which Morris was costume designer. Morris is also costume designer for “Santaland.”

Morris researched the original “Santaland” production. “I talked with Bill [Sanders] about it because obviously he [Mantello] and Bill are great friends.”

“Santaland” rehearsals have gone well, Morris says: “It’s a lot of laughing. Rehearsals are a joy. He’s [Yuskauskas] insanely talented. He is a natural comedian. He’s incredibly well-trained. And he’s very humble and wonderful to work with. When you come at it with those set of circumstances, and then you put the piece on top if it, it’s just a lovely thing.”

Says Yuskauskas of rehearsals, “It’s been a wonderful experience. It’s the first time I’ve worked with Will in this regard. To watch his process as a director has been really informative. I find that we have a lot of the same values about how to approach theater and what it can do.”

It’s the first time Yuskauskas has done a one-man show. “Santaland Diaries” is about one hour, 20 minutes, with no intermission. “It’s sizeable,” Yuskauskas says of memorizing the script. There’s a lot of stage movement. “It doesn’t stand still. It’s a fairly active piece,” says Yuskauskas.

“So far, it’s been a great deal of fun. He’s a wonderful person [David] to get to inhabit. He’s a lot of fun.

“It’s intimidating. The size of the piece, the scope of the stories, and the various characters,” Yuskauskas says, noting he portrays four Santas, four Elves, and several managers and customers in “Santaland.”

“One of the things, as an actor, and when I teach, is I focus on relationships between characters. Right now, in this production, I’m having to kind of figure out those relationships with myself, playing those various characters,” Yuskauskas says.

Morris is setting the show in the “Santaland” break room: “The charm of the piece is that it’s a backstage view of something that is sugar-coated and finessed like ‘Santaland.’ Our setting is that we put it in the break room where the Elves would go. It makes more sense. I’m not sure that David- Crumpet would be out in Santaland itself talking about all of these experiences.”

Yuskauskas is asked if there’s a nostalgic element to “Santaland,” in that there are few large department stores with Santas anymore.

“Macy’s is still there and they have their ‘Santaland’ in New York City, but we really don’t have anything like that since Hess’s closed in Allentown,” notes Yuskauskas.

For Morris, “Santaland” represents a different take on the Christmas season: “The great thing about doing it is people need from the holidays a variety of experiences. Many people want ‘A Christmas Carol.’ But there’s something great about offering the alternative.

“With the holidays, there are many sides,” Morris continues, “but two distinctive sides to what the holidays can be is there’s the very sort of traditional, heartwarming, fuzzy feeling experience that ‘A Christmas Carol’ has. Then there’s the place for all the cynical people out there. I count myself among them. While I do appreciate the stereotypical ‘Good Will Toward All’ that the holiday season evokes, it does place tremendous pressure on people.

“‘Santaland Diaries,’ in particular, is a really good outlet for people to experience those more cynical aspects that everyone goes through during the holiday season, and laugh about it. We can all feel so guilty to succumb to that pressure. But the absurdity of family gatherings, all of that occurs around the holiday season. It can be so charged with history, monetary obligations, all sorts of stuff.

“It’s great just to sit and laugh about that because we all go through that. ‘Santaland’ does not shy away from any of that. It embraces it.

“When you put up a comedy, with me, there’s always the sense of, ‘Oh, God, is it funny?’ That’s not even a questions. This is just a laugh riot. I have so much confidence in it and so much confidence in Jarrod [Yuskauskas] that I think people are just going to love it.”

For Yuskauskas, “The Santaland Diaries” fulfills an appreciation he’s harbored for Sedaris for years: “He’s just such an exquisite storyteller. His humor is so unique and, at the same time, there’s this acidic edge to it that I adore. But it’s the honesty and the heart and the complete conviction that he writes with. So much of what he writes comes from his actual experience, his lived life.

“Any great art has to come from a place of honesty. It’s the honesty, the organic inspiration, is the reason we tell the stories. If we don’t love something, if it doesn’t excite us in some way, be it for the inspiration or the humor, why tell it?”

In conclusion, “The Santaland Diaries” at Civic Theatre already has the stuff of legend about it.

Tickets: Civic Theatre Box Office, 527 N. 19th St., Allentown; CivicTheatre.com, 610-432-8943