“A Christmas Carol” is tuning up…

It is a rare theater season in our community that doesn’t find SOME company putting forth an adaptation of Charles Dickens’ season-defining classic, A Christmas Carol.   afO has thus far resisted the temptation to throw its own offering into the ring…until we ran across Doris Baizley’s delightfully clever and fresh retelling, which is tailor-made for the intimacy of the black box theater where we perform.

First presented at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, in 1977, the production proved so popular that it was revived for five subsequent years.

In this version, a down-on-its-luck British travelling troupe is wondering if the show really CAN go on, after discovering that their Tiny Tim has been fired and their Scrooge abandoned them in Budapest. After drafting an eager prop boy and a reluctant stage manager to fill the roles, the company brings the story to life. Their staging includes humor, live music and sound effects, a little magic and some ingenious touches which make the story fresh for our audiences–who can surely recite many of the famous lines by heart!

A Christmas Carol opens November 9 for two weekends in the PPG ArtsLab, 300 E. Main Street in Fort Wayne, IN.  For tickets, contact the ArtsTix box office at (260) 422-4226 or  at their website.

Our cast includes both afO newcomers and audience favorites:

SCROOGE (the Stage Manager):  Peter Meyer*
BOB CRATCHIT (Leading Man):  Matt Derby*
MRS CRATCHIT/GHOST OF PAST (Leading Lady):  Naomi Eddy
FEZZIWIG, etc. (Old Character Man):  Dennis Nichols
MRS FEZZIWIG, etc (Old Character Woman):   Jennifer Netting
NEPHEW FRED (Young Leading Man):   Jonathan Young
BELLE/MRS FRED (Ingenue):   Whitnie Twigg*
MARLEY/NARRATOR (Director):  Nate Chen
TINY TIM (the Prop Boy):    Jack Hanson*
CLOWN 1:   Ruth Fearnow
CLOWN 2:   Patience Fischer*
CLOWN 3:   Megan Speith

with Annika Kroeker, violin
Emalyn Kroeker, guitar

*denotes actors making their afO debut