Thanksgiving is
over, which means we now begin... the season of A Christmas Carol.
I wrote my own two-person adaptation of the Charles Dickens novella which was done by the
Epiphany Theater Company in Saratoga Springs in 2007, but it is far from the
only adaptation of the piece, and quite a few Carols will be in the New York area this season.
The first one
I'll be seeing is A Christmas Carol in
Harlem, which Classical Theatre of Harlem is doing December 4th
through 21st in Aaron Davis Hall on the campus of City College, located of
course in Harlem. This updated version of the story has been adapted by Shawn
René Graham to include original and classic holiday carols tinged with gospel,
hip-hop, pop, and R&B influences.
On Saturday,
December 7th, the Friends of Dickens New York will be welcoming U.K.-based
actor Dominic Gerrard as he gives his one-man rendition of A Christmas Carol at the Epiphany Branch of the New York Public
Library. The performance is free and open to the public. It begins at 1:00 pm,
and will be followed by a meeting of the Friends of Dickens (which I will be
facilitating) discussing Dickens's The
Old Curiosity Shop. If you haven't read that novel, you're welcome just to
stop by and watch the performance, though!
But wait...
there's more! Actor Jeffries Thaiss and musician Eric Scott Anthony will be
performing a two-person adaptation of the Carol at the Morris-Jumel Mansion in
Upper Manhattan from December 12th to 14th. They will then bring their show to
Historic Richmond Town on Staten Island on Sunday the 15th, and then they have
a one-night-only performance at the Church of Sweden on 48th Street on
Wednesday the 18th. If you miss all of those performances, you can then catch
them at the Al Hirschfeld Gallery located in the Mansion/Museum of Greenwich
Village from December 20th through 22nd.
A number of Carols have been annual traditions in
New York, and for the seventh year, John Kevin Jones will perform his one-man
version of the story at the Merchant House Museum on East 4th Street. Jones
uses Dickens's own reading version for his performance, and his show will be
running from November 29th until January 5th. I don't think I'll be getting to
that one this year, but one of these days I really need to get down to see the
Staten Island Shakespearean Theatre Company as they perform Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol at the
historic Conference House. This year, they'll be performing from December 12th
to the 22nd.
