A CHRISTMAS CAROL BOSTON PERFORMANCE 2013

Photo Credit: David Krapes

"Englishman Thomas Hutchinson" (Al LePage) lights the way for his one-man show of Dickens' Christmas Carol

“Englishman Thomas Hutchinson” portrayed by actor Al LePage presents “A Very Victorian Christmas Carol, Done like Dickens!” on Saturday, Dec. 14 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 one-man show using only voice, facial expressions and gestures to create the story's 26 characters. The performance also uses Dickens' very own public reading script and also 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. Mince tarts and spiced warm cider from the kitchen's of Parker's Restaurant itself are also included during intermission. 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

"Englishman Thomas Hutchinson, Traveling Thespian" brings his one man show to the OMNI Parker House Hotel to help prevent hunger close to home

"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 with someone in the audience, 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, and even I don't always know what's going to happen next. And, before each reading, in character as 'Englishman Thomas Hutchinson,' he definitely has 'his stories' to tell both in 'the year' -- this year it's '1911' -- and though he typically shares some history about the place he's performing, this year things will take a very different twist, focusing more on what the future will bring rather than what's happened in the past. All this will make this year's performance unique once again, keeping it fresh and exciting, and as usual 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, with other events in Sudbury, Sherborn, and Franklin to primarily benefit local area food pantries close to where LePage was born and lived for close to half his life.

"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 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."

Hunger close to home has been and continues to be 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 over 229,000 children are effected, that's over 1 in every 4 people facing hunger within the state, and nearly 40% are also from families that likely don't qualify for government programs like food stamps or free school lunches simply because they earn too much money. All that's according to Map the Meal Gap: Child Food Insecurity, a report originally issued in 2011 by The Greater Boston Food Bank (GBFB) and the national network of food banks, Feeding America. The report also notes that those who don't eat what they need for strong healthy brain development may never recover their lost potential for cognitive growth. It 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. And according to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) report just released this September, Household Food Security in the United States in 2012, an 'estimated 14.5 percent of American households (that's over one in six) were food insecure at least some time during the year in 2012, meaning they lacked access to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household members.' And the report's summary also noted that the 'percentage of U.S. households that were food insecure remained essentially unchanged from 2011 to 2012.'"

Photo Credit: David Krapes
"EnglishmanThomas Hutchinson" uses his Voice, Hands and EVERY Bone in his Body to Bring this Great Story Alive!

"EnglishmanThomas Hutchinson" uses his Voice, Hands and EVERY Bone in his Body to Bring this Great Story Alive!

"One of the most special places in the world to connect with Charles Dickens," says LePage, "is the OMNI Parker House Hotel. Not only did the famed author stay there during the American tour he began during 1867, he also gave his very first dramatic reading of his classic holiday story, A Christmas Carol, to a select group of men in the hotel's original 'Press Room.' In fact, the original mirror that Dickens used to rehearse his facial expressions in the hotel room he stayed now adorns the hallway just outside today's 'Press Room,' too! And all I can say about the upcoming dramatic reading at the Parker House is simply this. Don't miss it if you really want to connect to Dickens himself in yet another very special and personal way, like nowhere else in the entire world, that only happens once each year just before the dramatic reading perfomance itself!"

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, Canada and England since 2006. Last year he traveled 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. This year he will be giving his 4th annual performance at the OMNI Parker House Hotel in Boston.

“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, last year, while in England, he not only visited the only surviving home of Dickens in London, but also went 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.)

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The Greater Boston Food Bank (GBFB) is the largest hunger-relief organization in New England and among the largest food banks in the country. Last year, they distributed almost 41 million pounds of food, enough to provide 31.5 million healthy meals. They are committed to increasing their food distribution in 2013 to provide at least ONE MEAL A DAY to every person in need in eastern Massachusetts. 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”

CAPTION SUGGESTION for IMAGES without captions: "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.