Media Contacts:
Al LePage,
Actor/Producer, Great
Stories Alive! /
503-335-3876 / Al.LePage@SpireTech.com
Rev. Dr. Dianne Carpenter, Minister/Organist / Franklin
United
Methodist Church /
774-212-0520 /
PastorDianne@Verizon.net
Steve
Sherlock, President,
Franklin
Food
Pantry / 508-717-1148 /
Steve@FranklinFoodPantry.org
A
"Very Victorian"
Christmas Carol
Comes
to Franklin to help
the hungry
Photo Credit: David
Krapes
"Victorian
Englishman" shares Dickens classic holiday story along with
local pastor playing traditional English carols to benefit food pantry
"A
Christmas Carol Times
Two!",
a
dramatic reading
performance
of Charles Dickens "A Christmas Carol" combined with traditional 19th
century English
Christmas carols will happen on Thursday, Dec. 13 at 7PM at the
Franklin
United Methodist Church,
82 West
Central
Street in Franklin, Massachusetts.
Actor Al
LePage
will become "Englishman Thomas Hutchinson,
Traveling Thespian" complete with English
accent, clothing of the period and other accoutrements for the dramatic
reading part. Organist and local minister Rev. Dr. Dianne
Carpenter will weave piano music
between various scenes to set the tone for what's to come and
entertain. This
is a special benefit performance
sponsored by
the Franklin
Historical Commission
and hosted by the Franklin
United
Methodist Church with all
proceeds to benefit the Franklin
Food Pantry.
Admission is $10
per
person and the
performance is best
appreciated both by adults and children 7 years of age and older.
Tickets go on sale Nov. 15th and their advanced purchase is required by
visiting the Franklin
Historical Museum located at
80 West Central St. in Franklin
Thurs.
5-8PM, Sat. 10AM-1PM and Sun. 1-4PM.
Doors for the performance open at 6:30PM, the fun begins at 6:45PM, and
seating is general
admission.
"One of the best gifts I received this year," begins actor Al LePage,
"was an email from Franklin, MA. A Mary Olsson called me
about
doing my Christmas Carol performance in the first town ever named after
Benjamin Franklin. And during our follow-up phone
conversation,
the gift kept getting bigger and better, like unwrapping one box only
to find another and yet still another inside that one!"
Photo
Credit: David
Krapes
LePage
entertains appreciative audiences with his one-man "solo" of Dickens'
Christmas Carol as Victorian-era "Englishman Thomas Hutchinson." His
abbreviated performance is not only based upon Dickens own historic
public reading version, but are also done just like Dickens did simply
by using his voice, facial expressions, gestures and movement to create
all 18 characters -- accents and all -- plus sound effects,
too!
From Scrooge to Tiny Tim, from Marley's Ghost to Mrs. Cratchit, there's
howls and growls, bangs and bongs, a dance with a song, lively laughter
and heartfelt tears. Since he's playful, likes to experiment
and
believes in seizing the moment, even he doesn't always know what's
going to happen next. And, before each reading, he's
definitely
got what could aptly be called “his stories” to
tell both
in “the year”
and the place he's performing to connect, interpret, and share history
with the audience.
He loves to play to -- and with --
audience members to bring history alive, which
will quickly become evident when you first encounter him.
He's sure to bring you lively
laughter, and
hopefully some tears, during his dramatic reading of Charles Dickens'
"A
Christmas Carol.'
"Gifts, oh yes, gifts," continues LePage. "The first, of
course,
was the invitation to perform. I gave the second gift and
said
I'd perform for free with the idea, though, that all the money would go
to help keep hunger away from local doorsteps. And it all
started
coming together with other people giving gifts too! The Franklin
Historical Museum would
provide the volunteers, the Franklin
United
Methodist Church would freely
host and its very own 'Pastor
Dianne'
also agreed to play the organ for the event! The Franklin Food
Pantry agreed to receive all
the money, which in itself,
accepting a
gift that is, is a sort of gift, too, to the giver, right?
This
wasn't just another event, this was already becoming a real community
event, where everyone involved was being generous with their time,
talents and resources."
Hunger close to home is a serious issue both locally and
nationally. At any given time, people sometimes have to make
choices between food and other critical survival factors such as heat,
housing, medical care or transportation. In Massachusetts
alone
more than a quarter million children, that's almost 1 in every 5 in the
state, often face hunger, and almost half are from families that don't
qualify for government programs like food stamps or free school lunches
simply because they earn too much money. And also according
to
Map
the Meal Gap: Child Food
Insecurity, a report issued
last year
by The
Greater Boston Food Bank (GBFB)
and the national network of food
banks, Feeding
America,
childen who don't eat what they need for strong
healthy brain development may never recover their lost potential for
cognitive growth. The report goes on to say that besides
stunting
their intellectual capacity, it could also affect learning, social
interaction and productivity, diminishing what could have been a
child's eventual contributions to society.
"We're still seeing probably a 25% increase this year over last year,
and last year was a 25% increase over the year before that, too," says
Steve Sherlock, President of the Franklin
Food Pantry,
"so the demand
even for a fairly well to do community, the number of hungry and at
risk continues to increase. It's something that's not very
well
talked
about, but the need is something the community fortunately is very able
and willing to support. So we want to continue to get the
word
out, continue to get that support, and this special event will help us
do that."
Dianne
Carpenter
started playing piano at age 6, took up the
violin a few years later, and by the time she was a junior in high
school landed her first job as a church organist! She pursued
her
music education degree from Lowell
State College, went on to
teach
music in area schools, but always remained a church organist or choir
director as that "teachers second job" to make ends meet. She
eventually decided to get even more serious about her life in "music
ministry," went back to school to receive a Masters of Sacred Music
from Boston
University, but
continued to teach school. A few
years later, though, the economic situation for funding education
statewide in Massachusetts took a turn for the worse and teaching jobs
were threatened. All this forced her to do some
soul-searching,
and in the end she decided her journey was now to be the path of
pastoral ministry. She sold her house, went back to school
yet
again, and eventually earned both a Masters of Divinity from Andover
Newton Theological School and
a PhD in Christian Social Ethics
from
Boston
University Graduate School.
She's been a minister in the
New
England Conference of the United
Methodist Church for nearly
two
decades, serving in Natick, Spencer, Belmont, Hamilton and Brewster
Massachussetts. She currrently serves as minister of
the United
Methodist Church
in
Franklin, MA, and continues to publicly
perform both on organ and piano, typically now only playing the violin
for her own enjoyment.
"We all have gifts, and God wants us to be generous with those gifts,
asking us to share them," begins Rev. Dr. Dianne Carpenter, pastor at
Franklin
United Methodist Church.
"And this event is an
opportunity for the community not only to be entertained, but also
become aware of the real meaning of Christmas, God's passion for the
entire world as reflected in providing the resources needed by the food
pantry so everyone served can celebrate the season, too."
LePage
got his
start bringing history to life through improvised
portrayals of real people from the past and has been seen by thousands
during the eight years he appeared at events with the National Park
Service, historic sites,
museums, and other venues in the
Pacific
Northwest. He's appeared on the PBS
TV History Detectives series
as
everything
from a bartender to Robert E. Lee! He's also written and
produced
his own one-man historical dramas, and recorded his
“short”
performance
version of Dickens' classic holiday story as a one man radio show, an
Oregon
Public Broadcasting Radio
production that premiered last year on
Christmas Eve. LePage has even given “historical
performances” on location in Boston where, and once when
(same
calendar
date), Dickens did in 1867! "Performance with passion and
purpose" is the mission of his Great
Stories Alive! theater
company
shows. “Englishman Thomas Hutchinson” was
first
created to share
history as an “average guy” but who somehow always
seemed
to turn up
when and where historic events happened! He now lives on as a
Victorian-era “Traveling Thespian” giving
performances of
Dickens'
Christmas Carol to benefit charity, having done so since 2006.
Last year he even traveled to England to perform the
Carol for
the very first time.
LePage loves to improvise and believes all the world's a stage, and
every audience member a potential player, so watch out!
"As an actor, the show itself is my work," says Al LePage, "but as a
person my real work is about generosity, not only being generous
myself, but also cultivating it in others. And what's great
about
generosity, about giving of oneself, is that it does good things both
for the giver and the receiver, too. Tis better to give than
to
receive, as the saying goes. So give yourself a special treat
this year and know that the ticket you buy isn't really just about a
show, it's also about generosity, it's about helping to feed someone,
it's about loving your neighbors as yourself."
"I've been talking about the upcoming event for the last three months,"
says Mary Olsson, Franklin
Historical Commission board
member, "and
everyone is so excited, I know it's going to be a
sell-out! Get your tickets fast!"
#####
The
Franklin Food Pantry
is a non-profit
organization engaging the local community to provide food and other
resources needed to sustain a healthy life, serving over 2,500 local
residents. If you need help, want to help or learn more visit
FranklinFoodPantry.org.
The Franklin United
Methodist Church is a
welcoming congregation that has a wide diversity of age, vocation,
interests, and journeys. We are a people called to be in ministry with
one another in the name of Christ and affirm our diversity as a
strength chosing to make our journey together. We believe the
Church should be a place of nurture and growth that enables persons to
live out their faith most effectively as disciples of Jesus Christ;
that calls others to become disciples; and reaches out to the community
and the world with our gifts and service. Visit
FranklinUMC.org
to learn more.
The Franklin Historical Commission provides for the preservation,
protection, and development of the historic and archaeological assets
of Franklin and the Franklin Historical Museum is a mixture of old and
new: upcoming events at the museum, some information about the history
of the town, a growing archive of documents and photographs of the
town's past, and a blog for conversing with folks about the museum, its
contents, or history in general, located at 80 West Central St in
Franklin. The activities of the commission encompass many areas
including:
research on places of historical or architectural value, working with
the State Archaeologist in conducting surveys and reporting on sites,
supporting educational activities, establishing historic districts,
providing information for genealogical searches, and operating and
maintaining the Franklin Historical Museum. Visit
FranklinHistoricalMuseum.com to learn more.
GENERAL
CAPTION
SUGGESTION
for IMAGES:
"Englishman
Thomas
Hutchinson, Amateur Thespian" as portrayed by Al LePage is sure to
bring lots of laughter,
and
hopefully some tears, during his upcoming dramatic readings of Charles
Dickens classic "A Christmas Carol".
NOTE TO MEDIA:
Embedded
images are high
resolution and offered for free use by the print media
for
stories related to these performances and may be cropped,
color-balanced and adjusted as needed.
Please credit "MAH Records" and the photographer “David
Krapes”
accordingly. Thank
you.
Great
Stories Alive
!