Anyone in need of a good dose of Christmas cheer only needs to attend the Holiday Extravaganza staged annually by the Great American Melodrama & Vaudeville in Oceano.

Each year, audiences are infused with the spirit of love and giving by the moving production of Charles Dickens’ classic “A Christmas Carol.”

That’s accompanied by a comic opera — this year, a fractured version of “Hansel & Gretel” — and a Holiday Vaudeville Revue that put the ho-ho-ho in the holidays.

The Holiday Extravaganza is the biggest show of the year. It always sells out, usually by the middle of December, even with extra performances added — a total of 59 this year.

But the bustling yet orderly operation — from the actors greeting and seating patrons to moving props between scenes to serving food and drinks during intermissions — belies the hectic pace and frantic preparations behind the scenes.

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It’s about 2:15 p.m. Saturday, the second day of the Holiday Extravaganza, and Bar Manager Candra McDermott of Oceano has been at the theater since 11:30 a.m.

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While potatoes are baking in a microwave on the rear patio, she’s in the bar heating chili in a crock pot, setting out condiments and making sure everything is in order, from the beer taps to the napkins.

“I order, stock and prepare the food, making some of it from scratch,” she says as she fills metal Melodrama buckets with snacks. “I make sure the customers are happy, the food’s cooked and the coffee is hot.”

Wednesday through Sunday year-round, McDermott is here from several hours before each show until after the last patron leaves. She orders supplies on Mondays and buys from local sources on Tuesdays.

But, as is it is for the rest of the crew, the holiday show is the most taxing.

“We use so much more stuff during Christmas,” she says. “I trained during Christmas last year. If you’re going to train for a job like this, Christmas is the best time because it’s always busy.”

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In the dressing room — a long, narrow hallway with costumes hanging on one side and elbow-to-elbow tables and mirrors on the other — Costume Assistant Rene Leatham of Arroyo Grande is making mends. McDermott has tipped her that the zipper stitching is pulled apart on a dress, and Leatham has to sew it quickly to avoid a southern exposure on stage.

“I thought I used to make costumes until Jim (Tanner) started teaching me,” says Leatham, who has been making costumes for 10 years, the first five of them for student productions at local schools.

It’s a vocation she started when daughter Brie — who is in the Holiday Extravaganza — was bitten by the acting bug.

Tanner — who today is in the Los Angeles garment district buying fabric — designs all the costumes. Then Leatham sews them.

Tanner, known at the Melodrama as “the Wig Whisperer,” has been designing costumes for 20 years and clothed many Hollywood notables.

Leatham, known as “the Skirt Whisperer,” puts in 12- to 16-hour days prepping for a show and prepared the holiday costumes — almost all of them new this year — in one week.

She is also on call to rush down and fix any wardrobe malfunctions during the shows.

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It’s about 2:45 p.m., and out on the stage, Artistic Director Eric Hoit is making some emergency repairs of his own, cutting off the strings of beads decorating four tables used for the water-glass choir.

“I’m changing out the beads to garlands,” he explains as he works feverishly. “Last night one of them broke, and we had beads all over the place. We have so little storage space, the tables are stacked in a loft, and when we were taking them down, one broke.

“I’ll do anything here,” adds Hoit, who has been with the Melodrama “on and off” since 1980. “We all help out. I feel really lucky to be here and do theater. Usually, you have to go to the big city.”

A high-pitched, rising and falling voice drifts through the back door.

“That’s one of our actresses warming up out in the parking lot,” he explains. “That’s our warm-up room. Sometimes people walk down the alley — it’s not often they hear someone doing operatic scales in a parking lot.”

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Shannon Huneryager is singing the operatic scales. A self-described “gypsy actor,” she spent the summer at the Cabin Night Dinner Theater outside Denali National Park, Alaska.

She’s getting ready for her roles as Mrs. Cratchit and Hansel and Gretel’s mother. At 3 p.m., she hopes to run through a short rehearsal with other actors. Then at 3:15 p.m., she and the others have to put on their makeup and get into their costumes to be ready for the doors to open at 4:15 p.m. “You get into a system,” she says of the short preparation time. “It becomes a well-oiled machine.”

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Back in the theater, Technical Director and Production Designer Gary Adams has just returned from a speed run to buy light bulbs, and he’s now replacing burned-out bulbs as fast as he can in the chandelier over the entrance.

He’s been doing community theater since the 1980s, and spent the past seven years with the Melodrama, where he controls the lights and sound, creates props and builds sets.

“Are we ready to go?” Hoit calls out.

“Yes,” Adams responds, climbing down the ladder and sprinting up into the control booth above the snack bar.

“I need to go to the first Marley cue after the face,” Hoit calls up from amid the tables in the center of the theater. “Can you take the orange strip lights down? What are they at?

“Seventy-four,” Adams calls down.

“Can we try 70?” Hoit calls back.

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While Hoit and Adams fine-tune the stage lights, Colum Morgan does leg-stretching exercises in the darkened wings as he prepares to play Bob Cratchit and the father of Hansel and Gretel.

“I went running today,” he says. “I don’t want to get a charley horse on stage.”

Morgan just got his master’s degree in acting in Texas and moved to Santa Maria to teach at PCPA Theaterfest. He rehearses here in the morning, teaches in the afternoon and returns at night for performances.

“A lot of the stuff I teach I end up using here, so I get to practice what I preach,” he says.

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It’s about 3:15 p.m. As potatoes bake nearby, Katie Worley leads Christine Nelson, Bree Murphy and Huneryager through a series of dance steps as they sing along.

Then they join other actors pouring into the dressing room.

Vaudeville Revue Director and Stage Manager Jim Shine quickly pokes his head out a door and yells, “Twenty minutes!” Through it all, House Manager Suzy King bustles about, setting up the cash drawers and making sure the kids who play the Cratchit children — whom she also auditioned — check in when they arrive.

In addition to getting the doors open and being the actors’ boss, she is also directing “A Christmas Carol.” She’s put in 100 to 120 hours over the past two weeks. As it is for the others, this is a labor of love for her.

“We’re not doing this to get rich,” she says. “We wouldn’t endure a lot of things unless we love this. But there are a lot of perks. We laugh a lot, it’s creative, it’s fulfilling, and there are a lot of good people.”

Hoit hurries by. “Is this controlled chaos or just chaos?” he asks.

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Five-year-old Jordan Austin, tonight’s Tiny Tim, is making his acting debut. “I have 30 shows,” he explains of his schedule.

Then he comes straight out and asks King the important question: “Why do I have to help?”

Suppressing a smile, King responds, “We all have to help. We all have jobs to do.”

TO SEE THE SHOW:

The Great American Melodrama & Vaudeville’s Holiday Extravaganza is on stage Wednesdays through Sundays, with a few exceptions, through Dec. 31.

Food and drinks are available before the show and during intermissions. Tickets cost $20 for adults, $19 for students and seniors and $18 for children.

For reservations, visit the box office from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday or call 489-2499. The Great American Melodrama is on Highway 1 in downtown Oceano.