[NEohioPAL] Tom Fulton's One-Man A CHRISTMAS CAROL benefits The Academy & GIRLS UP

[Bernadette Clemens]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – December 2, 2013
CONTACT Caitlin Van Niel 440-247-5500 x4393

Academy for the Performing Arts – At Chagrin Falls Performing Arts Center -
presents:

* A Christmas Carol, A One-Man Show* – Adapted from the novel by Charles
Dickens and starring *Tom Fulton*, director of the Academy for the
Performing Arts,  with the *Academy Holiday Singers *– a group of fine
Academy student singers.

*A Christmas Carol* is performed as a *BENEFIT* for the *Academy for the
Performing Arts’ Yearly Project Fund* and *GIRL UP*, an innovative campaign
of the *United Nations Foundation*, giving American girls the opportunity
to become global leaders, channeling their energy and compassion to raise
awareness and funds for United Nations programs that help some of the
world’s hardest-to-reach adolescent girls.

This one-man show is modeled after the performances Charles Dickens himself
brought to America to great acclaim in the 1860s.  The production is
directed and adapted by Mr. Fulton, who has been performing *A Christmas
Carol* for many years both privately and for the public. The story has been
a perennial Christmastime favorite for over 150 years.  *A Christmas
Carol*is a heart-rending and joyful morality tale about Ebenezer
Scrooge, who
undergoes a profound experience of redemption over the course of one night.
He discovers that if he doesn’t change his ways he will end up like his
friend Jacob Marley, walking the Earth forever, invisible and lonely.

Told on simple stage with only a chair, table and podium, and the sound of
a single human voice, this is old-fashioned storytelling by one of the
greatest authors of the 19th-Century, Charles Dickens.  The audience is
transported to Dickens’ England circa 1830:  to the back alleys, the
financial quarter, the slums, the townhouses and the carriage-driven world
of the wealthy, and -- most importantly – to the other-worldly fogs and
mists on which ride the spirits of Christmas, all in ever-astonishing,
ever-joyous, ever-heartbreaking images from Dickens' pen directly into the
air of the auditorium.

In this production, the sounds expand into the joyous Christmas Carols we
have all come to know and love, sung by a holiday singing group under the
direction of Chagrin Falls student Dan Hoy and Brush student Jon Loya, both
seniors at the Academy.   Audience members will remember Dan and his
melodious singing voice as Marius in *Les Misérables* and The Emcee in
*Cabaret*.  Jon’s magnificent voice was heard as Jean Valjean in *Les
Misérables* and as Cliff in *Cabaret*.  Joining them will be a group of
very talented singers, including Chagrin Falls students:  Sarah DiFiore,
Shelby Owen and Fiona DeVito.  Others in the singing ensemble include:  Daria
Redus (Orange), Kaylee Barrett (Orange), CJ Waldon (Solon), and Matthew
Harris (Orange).  Accompaniment is provided by Cleveland actor, musician
and singer, Jason Goldston.

Audiences familiar with it will perhaps experience *A Christmas Carol* for
the first time -- not only the dialogue, which has become as familiar as
our favorite holiday carols, but also the strains of brilliant narration so
unique to Dickens and so utterly filled with a holiday spirit and wit of
their own.

In previous productions with Fulton as Scrooge, the reviewers have been
full of praise:

*The Plain Dealer*: *"This sight of Scrooge's repentance is as electric to
childish hearts as the sight of the 14th Cavalry coming to the rescue.”*

*The Sun Press*: *"It reaches out and touches you, just as it's meant
to.... Fulton's interpretation exudes warmth and good cheer... Love and
laughter bubble near the surface... It makes you feel good... Fulton's
SCROOGE is delicious and wonderfully faceted... "*

Come sit around the fire and join Mr. Dickens for an intimate evening of
holiday cheer. Remember what it was like to be read a bedtime story?  Well...
“Once upon a time...Marley was dead, to begin with...”

*A Christmas Carol *will be performed* at the Academy for the Performing
Arts at Chagrin Falls High School on Friday and Saturday, December 20th &
21st, at 7:30pm. Benefit ticket prices are $20/Adults &
$15/Students/Seniors.  Reservations can be made online at
www.chagrinacademy.org <http://www.chagrinacademy.org/>.  For information
or to contact the box office, call 440-715-4004.  All proceeds go to
benefit the Academy for the Performing Arts and GIRL UP*!
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