[NEohioPAL]Largely Literary Christmas Carol

Sun Nov 26 23:33:25 PST 2006

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*Largely Literary /Christmas /*

*/ /*

*/Carol /**at Kent Stage and Coach*

* *

* House Theatre*

* *

*     *Celebrating its fifth consecutive season, the Largely Literary 
Theater Company's critically acclaimed three-person version of Charles 
Dickens' /A Christmas Carol /will be presented this December at Coach 
House Theatre in Akron and at the Kent Stage. These will be the only 
performances this year in Northeast Ohio.

     This will mark the first time the Largely Literary Theater Company 
has taken one of its productions to Kent. The performances at the Kent 
Stage will be at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, December 8 and 9.

     The following weekend, at 8 p.m. December 15 and 16, /A Christmas 
Carol /returns to the Coach House Theatre, where it was last staged in 
2003. Tickets for shows at both locations are $12.

Adapted and directed by Mark Dawidziak, this 90-minute play in two acts 
emphasizes fidelity to the original book. The basic concept is that the 
audience has gathered to hear Dickens give one of his popular readings 
of the story about miserly Ebenezer Scrooge.

Dickens (played by Dawidziak) appears on stage, opens the book and 
starts reading the familiar words, "Marley was dead to begin with. . . " 
As the "reading" progresses, a second actor (Tom Stephan) appears as 
Scrooge. This is the only role he plays as the story literally comes to 
life around Dickens.

The third actor, Sara Showman, plays almost all the other roles -- men 
and women, ghosts and mortals -- with Dickens moving in and out of the 
action as a third voice is needed.

"I'm very excited and pleased about bringing /A Christmas Carol /back to 
Coach House," says Resident Director Jim Fippin. "I've seen dozens of 
/Christmas Carols/, and even been in a couple, and this is one of my 
favorites. Our audiences loved the production two years ago, and the 
show is developing something of a cult following in Northeast Ohio. And 
this will be the only performances of the play in Akron or Summit County 
this season."

The Largely Literary Theater Company's production of /A Christmas Carol 
/was staged at Coach House during its inaugural season in 2002 and again 
in 2003. It has also been toured to Cleveland, Columbus, Solon, 
Kirtland, Hudson, Cuyahoga Falls and Nordonia Hills.

"All three are excellent actors who make this staging of /A Christmas 
Carol /a most intimate experience," the Akron Beacon Journal said of the 
Largely Literary Theater Company's production. "This adaptation of /A 
Christmas Carol /taps into Dickens' heavy theme of darkness, which is 
often glossed over in other adaptations."

The production also was acclaimed as "a wonderful version" by the 
Dickens Fellowship, the 100-year-old organization dedicated to the study 
of the author's life and works. And Cleveland Scene said "this quiet, 
faithful take" on Dickens' story "is restrained, reserved, and 
charmingly quaint."

The three-actor company of /A Christmas Carol /brings a wide breadth of 
experience with them to the stage. Dawidziak, who also plays Bob 
Cratchit and a few other characters, has been a theater, film and 
television critic for more than 25 years. Currently the television 
critic at the Cleveland Plain Dealer, his published books include a 
novel, /Grave Secrets, /and such non-fiction works as /The Barter 
Theatre Story: Love Made Visible/, /The Columbo Phile: A Casebook/, 
/Mark My Words: Mark Twain on Writing/, /The Night Stalker Companion: A 
25^th Anniversary Tribute/ and /Horton Foote's The Shape of the River: 
The Lost Teleplay About Mark Twain/. He is currently collaborating with 
Paul Bauer on a biography of "hobo writer" Jim Tully.

"Our production of /A Christmas Carol /is designed to be as intimate as 
it is atmospheric, so we've always felt that Coach House was an ideal 
home for it," Dawidziak says. "And we've been wanting to stage one of 
our productions in Kent since the theater was founded. We're hoping this 
also is the start of a long, rewarding partnership with the Kent Stage."

The Largely Literary Theater Company was founded in 2002 by Dawidziak 
and Showman to stage this version of /A Christmas Carol/. Specializing 
in faithful adaptations of classic literature, the company's mission is 
to promote literacy, literature and live theater. Other plays in the 
Largely Literary repertoire include /The Tell-Tale Play, /a collection 
of poems and stories by Edgar Allan Poe, and /The Reports of My Death 
Are Greatly Exaggerated, /Dawidziak's two-act adaptation of Mark Twain 
sketches for five actors.

Dawidziak's other plays include /To Preserve, Protect and Defend, /a 
1982 work about Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt, and /A Stevenson 
Treasury, /an adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's "The Bottle Imp" 
and /A Child's Garden of Verses, /which the Largely Literary Theater 
Company plans to premiere in 2007. His acting resume includes such roles 
as E.K. Hornbeck in /Inherit the Wind, /the Writer in Neil Simon's /The 
Good Doctor /and Twain in /The Reports of My Death Are Greatly Exaggerated./

With /Christmas Carol, /Dawidziak says, "the idea is to draw the 
audience in, asking them to use their imagination to see everything 
Dickens is describing. Most changes of character for Sara occur in front 
of the audience, using slight changes in attitude, costume and props. A 
few set pieces -- a trunk, tables, some chairs -- are constantly shifted 
by the cast to suggest various scenes, everything being used and reused 
as imaginatively as possible."

     Given this approach and the use of Dickens' original language, the 
production is recommended for high school students and older. The play 
is presented in two acts, and the entire production runs about 90 
minutes (with an intermission).

     Stephan, one of the Akron area's most popular actors,     combined 
his acting avocation with his vocational pursuits for 31 years before he 
retired from English and drama teaching at Stow-Munroe Falls High 
School. He has appeared in more than 70 major productions in the greater 
Akron-Canton area, including the Weathervane Playhouse, Coach House 
Theater, the Stow Players, Goodyear Theater, the old Bath Players, and 
the Players Guild of Canton. He has won three Best Actor and one Best 
Supporting Actor Awards from the Weathervane Playhouse, and was honored 
by the State Department of Education for implementation of a middle 
school program called "Drama in the Classroom." He also appears in the 
Largely Literary productions of /The Tell-Tale Play /(performing "The 
Raven" and "The Tell-Tale Heart").

Showman, who assumes the mantle of "just about everybody else" in /A 
Christmas Carol, /is the co-founder and general manager of the Largely 
Literary Theater Company. She has appeared in many productions in Ohio 
since moving to the Akron area in 1983. She has worked with professional 
companies, as well as college, children's and community theaters. She 
has appeared at Kent State, Weathervane, Coach House Theatre, the Beck 
Center for the Performing Arts, the Canton Players Guild, Porthouse 
Theatre Company, the Working Theater and Actors Summit Theater.

An Equity membership candidate, she earned a bachelor of fine arts 
degree in acting and directing from Kent State University. Favorite 
roles include Bella in /Lost in Yonkers/, Melissa in /Love Letters/ at 
Coach House, Clara in /I'm Not Rappaport/ and Shirley in /Shirley 
Valentine/. She also has appeared in four Shakespeare productions at 
Stan Hywet. Before moving to Ohio, she appeared in several productions 
for theater companies in her native Tennessee, including /Another Part 
of the Forest/, /A Little Night Music/, /A Streetcar Named Desire /and 
/Inherit the Wind./

She also appears in the Largely Literary productions of /The Tell-Tale 
Play/, performing "The Bells" and "The Masque of the Red Death," and 
/The Reports of My Death Are Greatly Exaggerated /(playing several roles).

/A Christmas Carol /will be performed at the Kent Stage on Friday, 
December 8, and Saturday, December 9, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $12 at the 
door and $10 in advance. For information and reservations, call the Kent 
Stage box office at 330-677-5005 or visit www.kentstage.org 
<http://www.kentstage.org/>. The Kent Stage is located at 175 East Main 
Street, and there is free parking behind the theater and on all city 
streets. Tickets also will be available at the door.

/A Christmas Carol /will be staged at Coach House on Friday, December 
15, and Saturday, December 16, with each performance at 8 p.m. Tickets 
are $12 and may be reserved by calling the Coach House Theatre Box 
Office at 330-434-7741 or purchased at the box office during 
performances of /Hay Fever /(Novembver 2-18). The Coach House Theatre is 
located at 732 West Exchange Street in Akron, behind the Akron Woman's 
City Club.

-- 30 --

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Largely
Literary Christmas <o:p></o:p>
<o:p> </o:p>
Carol at Kent Stage
and Coach<o:p></o:p>
<o:p> </o:p>
 House
Theatre<o:p></o:p>
<o:p> </o:p>
     Celebrating
its fifth consecutive
season, the Largely Literary Theater Company’s critically acclaimed
three-person version of Charles Dickens’ A
Christmas Carol will be presented this December at Coach House
Theatre in <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Akron</st1:place></st1:City>
and at the Kent
Stage. These will be the only performances this year in <st1:place
 w:st="on">Northeast Ohio</st1:place>.
     This will mark the
first time the Largely Literary Theater Company has taken one of its
productions to <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Kent</st1:place></st1:country-region>.
The performances at the Kent Stage will be at 8 p.m. Friday and
Saturday,
December 8 and 9.
     The following
weekend, at 8 p.m. December 15 and 16, A
Christmas Carol returns to the Coach House Theatre, where it was
last
staged in 2003. Tickets for shows at both locations are $12.
Adapted and directed
by Mark
Dawidziak, this 90-minute play in two acts emphasizes fidelity to the
original
book. The basic concept is that the audience has gathered to hear
Dickens give
one of his popular readings of the story about miserly Ebenezer Scrooge.
Dickens (played by
Dawidziak)
appears on stage, opens the book and starts reading the familiar words,
“Marley
was dead to begin with. . . ” As the “reading” progresses, a second
actor (Tom
Stephan) appears as Scrooge. This is the only role he plays as the
story
literally comes to life around Dickens.
The third actor, Sara
Showman,
plays almost all the other roles – men and women, ghosts and mortals –
with
Dickens moving in and out of the action as a third voice is needed.
“I’m very excited and
pleased about
bringing A Christmas Carol back to
Coach House,” says Resident Director Jim Fippin. “I’ve seen dozens of Christmas Carols, and even been in a
couple, and this is one of my favorites. Our audiences loved the
production two
years ago, and the show is developing something of a cult following in <st1:place
 w:st="on">Northeast Ohio</st1:place>. And this will be the only
performances of
the play in <st1:City w:st="on">Akron</st1:City> or <st1:place
 w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Summit</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType
 w:st="on">County</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>
this season.”
The Largely Literary
Theater
Company’s production of A Christmas Carol
was staged at Coach House during its inaugural season in 2002 and
again in
2003. It has also been toured to <st1:City w:st="on">Cleveland</st1:City>,
<st1:City w:st="on">Columbus</st1:City>, Solon, Kirtland, <st1:City
 w:st="on">Hudson</st1:City>,
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Cuyahoga Falls</st1:City></st1:place>
and Nordonia Hills.
“All
three are excellent actors who make this staging of A
Christmas Carol a most intimate experience,”
the Akron Beacon Journal said of the Largely Literary Theater Company’s
production. “This adaptation of A
Christmas Carol taps into Dickens’ heavy theme of darkness, which
is often
glossed over in other adaptations.”<o:p></o:p>
The
production also was acclaimed as “a wonderful version” by the
Dickens Fellowship, the 100-year-old organization dedicated to the
study of the
author’s life and works. And Cleveland Scene said “this quiet, faithful
take”
on Dickens’ story “is restrained, reserved, and charmingly quaint.”<o:p></o:p>
The three-actor
company of A Christmas Carol brings a wide breadth
of experience with them to the stage. Dawidziak, who also plays Bob
Cratchit
and a few other characters, has been a theater, film and television
critic for
more than 25 years. Currently the television critic at the Cleveland
Plain
Dealer, his published books include a novel, Grave
Secrets, and such non-fiction works as The
Barter Theatre Story: Love
Made Visible, The Columbo Phile:
A Casebook, Mark My Words: Mark Twain on Writing, The Night Stalker Companion: A 25th
Anniversary Tribute and Horton
Foote’s The Shape of the River: The Lost Teleplay About Mark Twain.
He is
currently collaborating with Paul Bauer on a biography of “hobo writer”
Jim
Tully.<o:p></o:p>
“Our
production of A Christmas Carol
is designed to be as intimate as it is atmospheric, so we’ve always
felt
that Coach House was an ideal home for it,” Dawidziak says. “And we’ve
been wanting
to stage one of our productions in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region
 w:st="on">Kent</st1:country-region></st1:place> since the theater was
founded.
We’re hoping this also is the start of a long, rewarding partnership
with the
Kent Stage.”<o:p></o:p>
The
Largely Literary Theater Company was founded in 2002 by Dawidziak
and Showman to stage this version of A
Christmas Carol. Specializing in faithful adaptations of classic
literature, the company’s mission is to promote literacy, literature
and live
theater. Other plays in the Largely Literary repertoire include
The Tell-Tale Play, a collection of
poems and stories by Edgar Allan Poe, and The
Reports of My Death Are Greatly Exaggerated, Dawidziak’s two-act
adaptation
of Mark Twain sketches for five actors.
Dawidziak’s other
plays include To Preserve, Protect and Defend, a 1982
work about Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt, and A
Stevenson Treasury, an adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s
“The Bottle Imp” and A Child’s Garden of
Verses, which the Largely Literary Theater Company plans to
premiere in
2007. His acting resume includes such roles as E.K. Hornbeck in Inherit the Wind, the Writer in Neil
Simon’s The Good Doctor and Twain in The
Reports of My Death Are Greatly
Exaggerated.<o:p></o:p>
With Christmas
Carol, Dawidziak says, “the idea is to draw
the audience in, asking them to use their
imagination to see everything Dickens is describing. Most changes of
character
for Sara occur in front of the audience, using slight changes in
attitude,
costume and props. A few set pieces – a trunk, tables, some chairs –
are
constantly shifted by the cast to suggest various scenes, everything
being used
and reused as imaginatively as possible.”
     Given this approach
and the use of Dickens’ original language, the production is
recommended for
high school students and older. The play is presented in two acts, and
the
entire production runs about 90 minutes (with an intermission).
     Stephan, one of
the <st1:City w:st="on">Akron</st1:City> area’s most popular actors,    
combined his acting avocation with his vocational pursuits for
31 years
before he retired from English and drama teaching at <st1:place
 w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Stow-Munroe</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType
 w:st="on">Falls</st1:PlaceType> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">High School</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>.
He has
appeared in more than 70 major productions in the greater Akron-Canton
area,
including the Weathervane Playhouse, Coach House Theater, the Stow
Players,
Goodyear Theater, the old Bath Players, and the Players Guild of
Canton. He has
won three Best Actor and one Best Supporting Actor Awards from the
Weathervane
Playhouse, and was honored by the State Department of Education for
implementation of a middle school program called “Drama in the
Classroom.” He
also appears in the Largely Literary productions of The
Tell-Tale Play (performing “The Raven” and “The Tell-Tale
Heart”).<o:p></o:p>
Showman,
who assumes the mantle of “just about everybody else” in A
Christmas Carol, is the co-founder and
general manager of the Largely Literary Theater Company. She has
appeared in
many productions in <st1:State w:st="on">Ohio</st1:State> since moving
to the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Akron</st1:City></st1:place>
area in 1983. She has
worked with professional companies, as well as college, children’s and
community theaters. She has appeared at <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Kent</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceName w:st="on">State</st1:PlaceName>, Weathervane, Coach
House
Theatre, the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Beck</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Center</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> for the
Performing
Arts, the Canton Players Guild, Porthouse Theatre Company, the Working
Theater
and Actors Summit Theater.<o:p></o:p>
An
Equity membership candidate, she earned a bachelor of fine arts
degree in acting and directing from <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName
 w:st="on">Kent</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">State</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">University</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>.
Favorite roles include Bella in Lost in
Yonkers, Melissa in Love Letters
at Coach House, Clara in I’m Not
Rappaport and Shirley in Shirley
Valentine. She also has appeared in four Shakespeare productions at
Stan
Hywet. Before moving to <st1:State w:st="on">Ohio</st1:State>, she
appeared in
several productions for theater companies in her native <st1:place
 w:st="on"><st1:State w:st="on">Tennessee</st1:State></st1:place>,
including Another Part of the Forest, A
Little Night Music, A Streetcar Named
Desire and Inherit the Wind.<o:p></o:p>
She
also appears in the Largely
Literary productions of The Tell-Tale
Play, performing “The Bells” and “The Masque of the Red Death,” and
The Reports of My Death Are Greatly
Exaggerated (playing several roles).<o:p></o:p>
A
Christmas Carol will be performed at the
Kent Stage on Friday, December 8, and
Saturday, December 9, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $12 at the door and $10 in
advance. For information and
reservations, call the Kent Stage box office at 330-677-5005 or visit <a
 href="http://www.kentstage.org/">www.kentstage.org</a>. The Kent Stage
is
located at <st1:Street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">175 East Main
Street</st1:address></st1:Street>,
and there is free parking behind the
theater and on all city streets. Tickets also will be available at the
door.<o:p></o:p>
A
Christmas Carol will be staged at Coach House on Friday, December
15, and
Saturday, December 16, with each performance at 8 p.m. Tickets are $12
and may
be reserved by calling the Coach House Theatre Box Office at
330-434-7741 or
purchased at the box office during performances of Hay
Fever (Novembver 2-18). The Coach House Theatre is located at <st1:Street
 w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">732 West Exchange Street</st1:address></st1:Street>
in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Akron</st1:City></st1:place>,
behind the Akron Woman’s City Club.
-- 30 --
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