A Christmas Carol

CHARLES DICKENS (1812-1870) was born into a middle-class family, but his father’s financial troubles landed the family in debtors’ prison. With the rest of his family imprisoned, the then 12-year-old Dickens was sent daily to a blacking factory where he tied and labeled tins of shoe polish. Though he returned to school the next year, his factory experience left a deep impression on the young man, who would return again and again to themes of poverty and social injustice in his novels.

Dickens worked first as a clerk, then as a journalist, developing a keen eye for detail and a passion for observing and recording the world around him. In 1836 he published his first work, Sketches by Boz, a collection of stories about Londoners. Dickens was then hired to write The Pickwick Papers, which began to appear later that year and were an overnight success across England. Dickens’s popularity as a writer was almost immediate, and he soon attained celebrity status in Victorian London.

Over the career that followed he was astoundingly prolific, producing novels at a nearly uninterrupted pace for 35 years. His works include Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, David Copperfield, Hard Times, A Tale of Two Cities, and Great Expectations. A Christmas Carol was published in 1843, released just in time for the holidays. It was to become one of Dickens’s best-loved stories. Dickens died in 1870 after suffering a stroke while writing Th e Mystery of

Edwin Drood, which remained unfinished. He was buried in Westminster Abbey after a three-day processional of mourners. A writer who captured the public imagination at the same time that he criticized social ills, Dickens was, as the London Times wrote, a writer “of the people and for the people.”

Ebenezer Scrooge tba

Bob Cratchit tba

Ghosts tba

Nephew Fred tba

Mrs. Cratchit tba

Belle tba

Jacob Marley tba

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* Member, Actor's Equity Association

Director Michael Dix Thomas

Scenic Designer Anita Stewart **

Costume Coordinator Kathleen Payton Brown

Lighting Designer Bryon Winn **

Sound Designer Seth Asa Sengel

Stage Manager Myles C. Hatch *

Assistant Stage Manager tba

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** Member, United Scenic Artists