This year marks the fourth iteration of Illumination, the immersive candlelit holiday concert that draws people together as one. Incredibly, the genesis of the experience was born out of the necessity for separation.

Prima, like all theatres around the world, searched for creative alternatives when the pandemic shuttered doors and darkened halls in 2020. Mitch Nugent, the founding executive producer of Prima, literally took the theatre’s holiday show to the streets. “We were bringing singers dressed all in white on a retro trolley throughout the county,” explains Mitch of the solution Prima settled on. The singers performed classic carols with fresh twists about them, “sort of inspired by [the a cappella pop group] Pentatonix,” he adds.

Bringing theatre to the masses hit a high note and when the doors of the physical theater reopened, Mitch wanted to recapture that same energy and the experience inside a shared space. Thus, Illumination was born. Once again, Prima had a hit on its hands. 

“Guests are soaking in this universal experience of the holidays – it is wonder and beauty, and awe. It is a peaceful kind of joy that sticks with you,” says Mitch. “Amidst the noise of the holidays, we have to make room for a bit of peace. Illumination is oxygen for the soul.”

The Show

As guests enter the candlelit chamber of Prima, light, sound and emotion fill the space unlike any other holiday show. “It begins in stillness and this idea of the ache of what is missing, and with each song there is a flicker of laughter or joy that finds its way in. By the end we are doing Joy to the World by Three Dog Night,” says Mitch.

Each year the show is born anew, but some songs must remain permanent fixtures due to popular demand, explains pianist and music director, Ali Murphy. “Two-thirds of the [show’s music] is new each year. We always have a song that is not as well known or a song that is well known but is not traditionally associated with Christmas. I love that we can find different ways to be new and exciting while still honoring things that people love,” says Ali.

As 2025 marks the 15th anniversary of the theatre, Mitch admits he has had a bigger part in the creative process for this year’s show. He teased some songs making an appearance this year: Vince Guaraldi Trio’s Linus and Lucy from A Charlie Brown Christmas; Carol of the Bells done in the style of Pentatonix; Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah; and Happy Xmas (War is Over) by John Lennon and The Plastic Ono Band with the Harlem Community Choir. 

“A lot of offerings around the holidays are big spectacles. This is not,” says Mitch of the approximately 140-seat show. “You are no more than four rows from the action.”

Putting it Together

Ali is center stage. “Selfishly … it’s a baby grand piano in the middle of the room that caught my eye instantly when they pitched this concept,” she says from her home in Nashville. After graduating from Penn Manor High School (class of 2018), Ali attended the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami before heading to Music City. In Nashville she works as a solo artist, performing at the city’s numerous venues. She also teaches piano and voice.

“Before I was born my mom bought herself a baby grand piano, so I joke that was her first child,” Ali recalls. “There was always a piano in the house, and there are home videos of me at age two climbing up on the piano bench and plunking out certain things.” She recently rewatched some of these videos that essentially trace her growth trying to pick up the instrument. It was about age nine when she started playing by ear, so her parents decided to get her into piano lessons. “It’s always been a part of my life,” she notes. 

For Illumination, Ali is tasked with creating an intimate show despite having an audience on all four sides. She starts working on the show in the summer, when most people have not even thought about holiday shopping. “I just love the holidays,” says Ali, whose birthday is soon after Christmas. Her most memorable Christmas gift came when she was around nine years old: her first keyboard. The gift sparked a new level of creativity. “I love Christmas music, and I love that we have created this thing that isn’t like anything else in the Lancaster area. It blends and blurs the lines between theatre and concert. My job is everything that is music related. I’m involved in picking the music, arranging that music, scheduling rehearsals …”

As fall approaches, Ali contacts the show’s four vocalists and members of the four-piece band – cello, piano, drums, and guitar – to go over the show piece by piece.

Prima

Founded in 2010, it wasn’t until 2018 that Prima found a permanent home in Lancaster City’s West End by reshaping an underused space into an intimate stage for powerhouse concerts and fresh, contemporary theatre. Complimentary parking and an in-theatre bar add to this venue where no seat is a bad seat. The theatre has built a following of younger-than-the-national-average theatregoers, proof of its energy and style.

And like the perfect gift, Prima gives back to its community. Through its NextGen Initiative, Prima brings local youth and their families into the theatre with production, marketing and project management internships. “Creative Current” is Prima’s partnership with community groups, bringing live performances to underserved youth, low-income families, the unsheltered, refugees and those with disabilities. Participants receive more than tickets, as they are welcome at artist talkbacks, workshops and behind-the-scenes training opportunities.

Illumination runs November 21 through December 23 with shows at 7:30 p.m. For more information, visit primatheatre.org.