New Repertory Theatre, the Arsenal Center for the Arts, and the Watertown Children’s Theatre present Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol
November 7, 2005
Three Boston arts organizations are joining forces to present a large-scale production of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Adapted and directed by Rick Lombardo, the production will play at the Arsenal Center for the Arts and feature some of the finest actors in Boston, many of them New Rep favorites, performing alongside cast members from the Watertown Children’s Theatre. Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol opens for the press on December 12, 2005 at 7:00 PM and plays through December 24. Additionally, before each performance, the cast will perform a twelve-minute concert of period carols in Victorian costume on the grand staircase of the Arsenal Center for the Arts, beginning twenty minutes before curtain.
“I have adapted and directed A Christmas Carol several times before, and I’ve created this version specifically to celebrate community and the possibilities of New Rep’s new home,” says Rick Lombardo, New Rep’s Producing Artistic Director. Paul D. Farwell stars as Ebenezer Scrooge, along with Leigh Barrett, Steven Barkhimer, Peter Edmund Haydu, and Ilyse Robbins, who will also develop choreography for the show. Anna Lackaff will arrange eighteen traditional carols for the production, and the performers (all accomplished musicians) will accompany themselves on instruments ranging from organ to penny whistle. Designers Peter Colao (scenic), John Malinowski (lighting), Frances Nelson McSherry, and Christine Alger (costumes) will present a dark, haunted Victorian London, recreating the lavish wealth and extreme poverty of Dickens’s world.
A Christmas Carol, originally published in 1843, introduces the iconic holiday figures of Ebenezer Scrooge, Bob Cratchit, Tiny Tim, and the three spirits of Christmas. Dickens’s story, widely popular in its day and still a beloved holiday tradition, also explores the darker side of prosperity in Victorian England, while exposing the bleak destiny of the working poor. Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol opens for the press on December 12 and plays through December 24, 2005. Several student matinees are available, along with early curtain times to accommodate families. For more information, contact the box office at 617.923.8487.
New Repertory Theatre presents provocative and intelligent works of both established and emerging playwrights in an intimate setting that involves and engages the audience. New Rep has earned a reputation for dynamic productions that honor the writers and feature talented professional actors from the New England theatre community as well as guest artists from around the U.S. New Rep has received Elliot Norton and IRNE Awards for outstanding acting, scenic design, direction, and production. Programming at New Rep is supported in part by a grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
Centrally located in Watertown, the Arsenal Center for the Arts is Greater Boston’s new home for the visual, literary, and performing arts. The arts center houses theaters, classrooms, galleries, artist studios, rehearsal spaces, and gathering places - all under one roof. The Arsenal Center for the Arts offers year-round performances in music, dance, and theater by resident and visiting artists, film offerings, arts classes, arts camps for kids, artist-in-residence programs, writers’ workshops and readings, outreach and youth programming, public art programming, and rotating exhibits in the galleries.
The Watertown Children’s Theatre has enriched the lives of thousands of children and their families in the Greater Boston area for more than twenty years, and played a seminal role in the creation of the Arsenal Center for the Arts. As the resident children’s theatre at the Arsenal Center, it offers year-round performance opportunities, internships and classes, including many grant-supported free programs, for children ranging in age from 18 months to 18 years. Combining values of artistic excellence with inclusiveness, reflected in its affordable fee structure, its open audition policy, and its involvement of entire families, this award-winning program has long been viewed as a community treasure.