[NEohioPAL] Great Lakes Theater Festival's "A Christmas Carol" Celebrates 20th Anniversary

[Todd Krispinsky]

For Immediate Release
November 12, 2008

 
Great Lakes Theater Festival's
Production of A Christmas Carol
Celebrates 20th Anniversary
A new Ebenezer Scrooge and a reunion of A Christmas Carol's original
artistic team headline this season's production.

 

CLEVELAND, OH - The stage of the Ohio Theatre, PlayhouseSquare will glow
with good spirits and time-honored tradition when Great Lakes Theater
Festival (GLTF) presents its twentieth anniversary production of Charles
Dickens' A Christmas Carol, running November 28 through December 23,
2008.  The production has delighted more than 500,000 people in its
history, making it one of Northeast Ohio's most-loved and best-attended
holiday events. 


Great Lakes Theater Festival's forty-seventh season is sponsored by
National City with additional generous support from The Cleveland
Foundation, Cuyahoga Arts and Culture, the Ohio Arts Council and SCK.  A
Christmas Carol's media sponsor is Soft Rock 102.1 F.M. WDOK.  GLTF's
Season Media Sponsors are Cleveland Scene, Cleveland Magazine, The Plain
Dealer, WCLV 104.9 F.M., WCPN 90.3 F.M. ideastream and WKSU 89.7 F.M.


Director Victoria Bussert will stage former artistic director Gerald
Freedman's heartwarming adaptation of this classic tale.  GLTF's
production features a multi-generational cast of twenty-five actors,
singers and dancers.  New this season, the company will be led by
longtime Festival company member Aled Davies in the role of miserly
Ebenezer Scrooge.  Aled is only the fourth actor to assume the role of
Scrooge in the production's twenty-year history.  


In celebration of A Christmas Carol's twentieth anniversary, the
Festival will reunite many members of the production's original creative
team including Gerald Freedman, who originally adapted and directed the
inaugural production twenty years ago.  Freedman will collaborate with
his long-time artistic partner Victoria Bussert on the staging of this
season's production. Joining Freedman and Bussert will be Mary Jo
Dondlinger, the production's original lighting designer, and David
Shimotakahara, A Christmas Carol's original choreographer.  


GLTF Producing Artistic Director Charles Fee remarked, "With this much
talent in the room, this year's A Christmas Carol promises to be as
fresh as ever, and filled with the spirit of the season!  The
combination of Gerald Freedman's inspired and moving adaptation,
Victoria Bussert's dynamic gifts as a director, our remarkable design
team and our talented cast are sure to delight audiences, whether
they're attending for the first time or returning to experience this
holiday tradition again with friends and family." 


"It's exciting for us as a company of artists to revisit this great
classic story on the occasion of its twentieth anniversary, and the
opportunity to collaborate once again with Gerald Freedman is absolutely
wonderful," said Victoria Bussert, who will stage the twentieth
anniversary production.  "We are blessed with an immensely talented cast
and a wonderful adaptation that we simply can't wait to share."    


Freedman's adaptation of A Christmas Carol is presented as a story
within a story. The fictitious Cleaveland family gathers in its
Victorian-era parlor on Christmas Eve to read Mr. Dickens' book. As Mrs.
Cleaveland reads the story to her family, her youngest child, Master
William, reimagines familiar faces as characters in the story: the
Cleaveland's crotchety manservant becomes Scrooge; Father becomes Bob
Cratchit; Mother becomes Belle, and the Cleaveland children become the
Cratchits, with Master William becoming the beloved Tiny Tim. In all,
more than 60 Dickens characters are brought to life on stage. 


The Festival's production incorporates theatrical special effects to
retain a strong sense of the supernatural, emphasizing the novel's
origins in folk tales and myth. Designers for the GLTF production blend
exceptional stagecraft with dramatic effects that evoke the magical and
mysterious aspects of a classic ghost story. 


Great Lakes Theater Festival's twentieth anniversary production of A
Christmas Carol commences on Friday, November 28th at 7:30 p.m.  Curtain
times for all evening performances will remain at 7:30 p.m., with a 1:30
p.m. curtain time for Saturday matinees and a 3:00 p.m. curtain time for
Sunday matinees.  An audio-described performance is scheduled for
Sunday, November 30th at 3:00 p.m.  A sign-interpreted performance is
scheduled for Sunday, December 7th at 3:00 p.m. 


Single tickets for Great Lakes Theater Festival's production of A
Christmas Carol range in price from $28-$59 (Student tickets $28 - any
performance / any seat) and are available by calling (216) 241-6000, by
ordering online
<blocked::BLOCKED::http://www.greatlakestheater.org/tickets/>  at
www.greatlakestheater.org
<blocked::BLOCKED::http://www.greatlakestheater.org/>  or by visiting
the PlayhouseSquare Ticket Office. Groups of ten or more receive
discounts and should call (216) 664-6050 x1 to make reservations.


Since 1962, Great Lakes Theater Festival has brought the pleasure, power
and relevance of classic theater to the widest possible audience in
Northern Ohio. The first resident company of PlayhouseSquare, Great
Lakes Theater Festival has called the Theatre District home since 1982.


 

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For More Information:

Todd Krispinsky

Marketing and Public Relations Director

(216) 241-5490 x317

tkrispinsky at greatlakestheater.org
<blocked::BLOCKED::mailto:tkrispinsky at greatlakestheater.org> 

www.greatlakestheater.org
<blocked::BLOCKED::http://www.greatlakestheater.org/> 

 

 

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