“Englishman Thomas Hutchinson”
portrayed by actor Al LePage presents “A
Very Victorian Christmas
Carol, Done like Dickens!” on Sunday, Dec. 18 at 2PM
in the historic Press Room at the OMNI
Parker House Hotel, 60 School Street, Boston. It
is performed as Charles Dickens did, as a
dramatic reading by using only voice, facial expressions and gestures
to create the story's many characters. The performance also uses
Dickens' very own public reading script as the basis for the abridged
version being presented, and takes
place on location where the famed author first presented it in America
in 1867 -- at the
historic OMNI Parker House Hotel.
The ticket price is $18.67/person both for children and
adults -- to
commemorate the
year Dickens actually performed in Boston -- and 100% of all
ticket sales will go to benefit The
Greater Boston Food Bank. Mincemeat tarts and
spiced warm cider are included plus an opportunity to meet and
socialize with the actor immediately after the performance.
Tickets may be reserved in advance either online through
BrownPaperTickets.com or by calling their 24/7 toll-free number,
1-800-838-3006, and if still available at the door the day of event.
Dickens performances were meant for adult audiences, but
mature children age 10 and older should also be able to appreciate this
version
and will be admitted. Doors open at 1:30PM and the
event is generously being hosted at the OMNI Parker House Hotel
and fully sponsored by OMNI Hotels
& Resorts, Parker
House/Boston.
Photo
Credit: David Krapes
"From Scrooge to Tiny Tim, from Marley's Ghost to Mrs. Cratchit,"
begins actor Al LePage, "there's howls and growls, bangs and bongs, a
dance with a song, lively laughter and heartfelt tears. And when
I perform, watch out, I love to improvise on the spot. Maybe just
a conversation, but with everyone listening in, of course! I
could even ask you to join me on the stage at some part, too. Oh
yes, I do believe in seizing the moment, even I don't always know
what's going to happen next. And, before each reading,
'Englishman Thomas Hutchinson' definitely has 'his stories' to tell
both in 'the year' and the place he's performing to share some history
with the audience as well. This makes each performance unique,
keeps them fresh and exciting, and spontaneous with full of surprises,
too! One surprise may be a gift for you,” adds LePage "they'll
definitely be at least one special gift given away to some lucky
person, too."
But there's also a serious side to LePage and why he does so
many of his shows to benefit hunger organizations. As a young man
the school he'd been working at as a teacher in Boston
unexpectedly closed down for good over the winter holiday break, and
through no fault of his own found himself without a job, without a
paycheck. His savings
were meager, and deciding not to go on unemployment at the time,
struggled to make ends meet. He paid his bills but had
little money left over for food. So, he got hungry for really the
first
time in
his life. He was not starving, of course, but he remembers it
being winter and spring, feeling cold and hungry,
and figures he may even have been slightly malnourished as time went
on, too. That
experience has stuck with him ever since, and that's why his primary
focus is to get every penny from ticket sales for his shows donated to
organizations that help
prevent hunger close to home. His Boston performance benefits The Greater Boston Food Bank, and
the already sold out shows at
Longfellow's Wayside Inn in
Sudbury will also benefit in part the emergency food
pantry, A Place to Turn,
based in Natick, serving nearby communities where LePage once lived.
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 new report issued this 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.
Photo Credit: David Krapes
"I'm reminded of a short but very powerful
scene in Dicken's story when I learned about what could happen to
children who don't get enough to eat," starts LePage. "Scrooge
sees something under the robe of the Ghost of Christmas Present, and
two wretched children appear. Scrooge then asks him who they
belong to. The ghost's reply, though usually warm and kind
quickly becomes cold and reprimanding. 'They are Man’s,' is his
response, 'This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both,
and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his
brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased.
Deny it!' But, on a more positive note," adds LePage, "I'm also
reminded of lines from two other scenes, one at the beginning from
Scrooge's nephew Fred and near the very end from the narrator of the
story, that when combined sum up my hope for both for the present and
future. 'But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time as
a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time . . .' and .
. . 'it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas
well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said
of us, and all of us!' And when people who buy
tickets attend my performances, since every penny of the ticket price
goes to benefit the charities, the present becomes the future with
everyone helping out to deal with the issue of hunger in Boston and
local communities close to home."
LePage, a native of Framingham, began bringing history to
life through
improvised portrayals of real people from the past for over seven years
at historic sites, museums, and other venues throughout the Pacific
Northwest. He's written and produced his own historical dramas as
one-man shows, appeared on the nationally televised PBS “History
Detectives” series in roles ranging from a bartender to Robert
E.
Lee. Oregon Public
Broadcasting Radio produced and premiered LePage's own shortened
version just last year of Dickens' Christmas
Carol
as his own one man one-hour radio program. He's been
giving performances of the Carol
to benefit
charity in the United States and Canada since 2006, and will be giving
his 4th annual performances this December at already sold out shows at
Longfellow's Wayside Inn in
Sudbury. After his Boston area
performances this year, LePage travels to England to perform there for
the first
time beginning in the same place and for the same charity that Dickens
himself did his first public reading of the Carol
in Birmingham in 1853, with his last performance at the historic
16th century
coaching inn in Framlingham, England itself, the very same town after
which Framingham,
MA was so named.
“Englishman Thomas Hutchinson, a native of Framlingham, England," of
course, is a fictitious character originally
developed to share regional and western history. He's not only
like a Frankenstein of history, being made up of the bits and pieces of
people who once really did live, but also a sort of Forrest Gump of
history, too, somehow always showing up whenever and wherever history
is being made! He now continues to live on as a Victorian-era
“Traveling Thespian” spreading good cheer and giving dramatic readings
of A Christmas Carol
to benefit charity. In order to make his character both
believable and credible – or as incredible as the stories he tells seem
to be – LePage not only meticulously researches the history of the
place and “the year” he performs, but also often travels to historic
sites to soak up the sights and sounds and whatever else he can, not
only to better transport himself, but also audience members, back in
time. Indeed, this year, while in England, he not only plans to
visit
the only surviving home of Dickens in London, see the very podium the
famed author used for his readings and his grave in
Westminster Abbey, but also go to the very locations where various
scenes took
place in the Christmas Carol
story itself!
Charles Dickens arrived in Boston on Tuesday, November 19th,
1867, and took up residence at an earlier version of today's Omni
Parker House Hotel. The author had just traveled by ship from
England to
America to do a public reading tour of dramatic scenes from some of his
works. His manager had arranged for him to recover from his sea
voyage with two weeks rest, which soon frustrated the impatient
Dickens, who wanted to perform. He was invited to this and that
function, but like any serious actor he knew he needed to rehearse, and
apparently used it as both a valid reason and an excuse to be left
alone. He did apparently, from all known facts and inferences,
give his very first reading in the existing Press Room of the time at
the famed luxurious hotel on Saturday, November 30th.
This first
informal reading was to a small group of men, Longfellow and Emerson
among them, called "The Saturday Club" and the story he chose to read
was his public reading version of A
Christmas Carol. A few days
later, on a Monday evening, December 2nd, he gave his first public
reading performance at 88 Tremont Street in the original location where
the old Tremont Theater once stood. Boston apparently had an
early snowstorm that very morning, but by nightfall all was clear and
the carriages lined up and down Tremont Street and beyond to see and
hear him. The event went well, very well indeed, and he did three
more performances on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of the same week
in Boston, heading off for New York by train for more performances
thereafter. Both the Parker
House Hotel, where Dickens stayed
while in Boston, and the venue where the original theater once stood
were rebuilt after 1867, but at the very same locations today. In
fact,
today's OMNI Parker House Hotel has
even kept some of the artifacts
that Dickens
actually used, such as the marble fire place mantle, now in today's
Dickens Room, and the mirror outside today's Press Room is the very
same one that Dickens apparently used to rehearse and practice his
facial expressions and gestures for the greatest dramatic effect.
He did perform in the then “Press Room” though, too. So all in
all, although LePage can not perform in the same exact room as
Dickens, he is performing at the very same location, and in the venue
with the same name, too.
(Click
here for more details -- in Dickens own words -- about his experiences while
in Boston and New York during November and December 1867.)
#####
The Greater Boston Food Bank (GBFB)
is the largest hunger-relief non-profit organization in New England,
and one of the largest food banks in the country, working to help end
hunger in eastern Massachusetts. It distributes more than 34
million pounds of food and grocery products annually to a network of
nearly 600 member hunger-relief agencies. Last year, with their
partners and supporters, the organization provided food to as many as
545,000 people in the 190 communities served. You can
learn more about the GBFB and help make a difference in the fight
against hunger by visiting their website at www.gbfb.org or by calling
617-427-5200.
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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 and
color-balanced as needed. Please credit the photographers as
follows: “David Krapes”
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"Englishman Thomas Hutchinson," portrayed by Al LePage is sure to bring
lots of laughter, and hopefully some tears, during his upcoming
dramatic reading performances of Dickens classic A Christmas Carol.
Great Stories Alive !