Starting in October, a group of people have been coming together to form the cast of Resounding Performance Arts’ latest holiday production, “The Holiday Channel Christmas Movie Wonderthon.”

“It’s a parody of all the movies they play on a certain popular movie channel during the holiday season,” said Tyler Crossley, who, with his wife Sarah and their friend Nate Losell, formed the theater group in 2011.

Since that time, the group has evolved and expanded their repertoire, performing murder mysteries for non-profit fundraisers but each year they offer a play during the holiday season.

In 2015, Crossley’s father, Tom, was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. The next year and a half he spent time in and out of UPMC hospitals here and at Pittsburgh for various surgeries and chemotherapy. Then in 2016, he passed away 10 days before Christmas at The Gatehouse in the Divine Providence Campus.

The next year, the focus of Resounding Performing Arts’ holiday production changed to benefit the Gatehouse and the Hillman Cancer Center at UPMC.

“They were wonderful at the Gate House and also the Cancer Center – what they do is nothing short of miraculous,” Crossley said of the care that his father received.

Every year since then, except for 2020 because of COVID restrictions, the group has donated the donations from their Christmas performance in memory of his father.

In the past, the theater group has offered some of the classics, such as “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” to name a few. This year’s play is more light-hearted.

“It’s a compilation of a whole bunch of stereotypical plots typically found in this certain type of Christmas movie that’s overplayed during the holiday season,” Crossley said, judiciously avoiding the name of the network which everyone knows.

The setting for the play is the Evergreen Inn in Hopewood Fall, Vermont. The inn has been in the family for years and of course it’s facing foreclosure. The plot features romance, a villain and of course a happy ending with snow falling.

The cast features 16 people from the community who have come together to interject a little humor into the season and to support a worthwhile project while doing that.

“I think it’s a combination of a love of acting and a love of our mission for what we’re trying to do here during the holidays,” Crossley said.

The play is being offered at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday at the Auditorium at Divine Providence, 1100 Grampian Blvd.

There is no admission charge, but donations are appreciated. Light refreshments are also offered at intermission.