‘Christmas Carol Dinner Show’ just as fast-paced as Dickens’ life
Charles Dickens was a man whose life had many roles, only one of which was author. Charles John Huffam Dickens (18121870) is best remembered as the English author of “A Christmas Carol,” published in 1843, and his descriptive passages of character Ebenezer Scrooge and the ghostly visits he received one Christmas Eve. Dickens also wrote “A Tale of Two Cities,” “David Copperfield” and “Oliver Twist.”
Dickens’ life was one filled with both struggles and accomplishments. He witnessed and lived many of the things he wrote about first-hand in his own life. For example, when his father went bankrupt, young Charles had to spend a part of his childhood in the work houses. From this experience, he later created his message in the themes of his written works about how others must not “just go through the motions” of their beliefs and religions, but they must live out their beliefs as well with their acts and care and responsibilities to others.
Dickens’ personal life was as unhappy as his professional life was promising. He was favorite fodder for English newspapers that chronicled his comings and goings and printed rumors of his affair with a young actress, Ellen Ternan (1839-1914).
He separated from his wife in 1858 and their marriage produced 10 children. The oldest son was named Charles Dickens
Jr., a difficult name to live up to with a father of the same name and such fame. “A Christmas Carol” was Dickens’ way of re-creating his childhood in words. A real Cratchit Family actually lived in a small terraced house that evoked the house on Bayham Street where the Dickens family had lived after their arrival in London. Charles’ younger brother “Tiny Fred,” had a physical disability, and served as the inspiration for “Tiny Tim.”
Sold for five shillings and bound in red cloth with a gilt design on the cover and gilt edges, “A Christmas Carol” contained four, full-color etchings by artist John Leech and four blackand-white woodcuts.
However, besides his original book “advance” payment, he received very little in royalties from many decades of re-printings and use of his characters, nor did his family survivors receive any financial gain in later years. Today, “A Christmas Carol” has legally fallen into “public domain.” During his final years, financially strapped, Dickens would tour, performing a one-man reading and re-creation of “A Christmas Carol.” He impersonated all 23 featured characters. Dickens suffered a fatal stroke on June 7, 1870, and died at age 58. He was buried in Westminster Abbey five days later.
This holiday season, I’m once again taking a page (or two) out of Dickens’ book and paralleling his late-inlife stage bows. I’m joining comedienne Jeannie Rapstad of Hammond and WJOB radio personality Tony Panek on the Theatre at the Center stage for a new and entertaining spin on the Dickens holiday tale classic.
“Dickens’ Christmas Carol Dinner Show” invites audiences to see and hear everything unfolding before their eyes and ears during a fast-paced 70-minute show salute to “A Christmas Carol.” There are 12 performances, both matinee and evening shows, Dec. 1-11 at The Center for Visual and Performing Arts, 1040 Ridge Road, in Munster.
Presented as a third annual performance run, I’ll pair with Rapstad and Panek to use our range of ever-changing and entertaining vocals to portray
ALL of more than two dozen characters featured in the story during this wonderfully amusing telling of the holiday spirit tale. Panek gets to have added fun on stage to create all of the old-time radio “Foley-style” sound and special effects, from fog and floating bubbles to chiming clocks, foreboding looming spirits and rattling chains.
Chef Joe Trama and his team from Trama Catering have created a customthemed menu option served prior to performances in the ballroom of The Center for Visual and Performing Arts as an additional purchase which can be added to the cost of the show ticket.
Tickets for the show are $30 and available by calling the Theatre at the Center box office at 219-836-3255 or at www.TheatreAt TheCenter.com. To add the meal option, it is $25 plus tax and gratuity with meal payment and required reservation made by calling the Trama Catering and Dining and Special Events Office at 219-836-1930, ext. 2.