Tennessee Shakespeare Co. Brings A CHRISTMAS CAROL: CHARLES DICKENS' DRAMATIC PREMIER READING IN BOSTON

Tennessee Shakespeare Company Founder and Producing Artistic Director Dan McCleary plays the most popular writer of the 19th Century on stage in the theatre's next Dr. Greta McCormick Coger Literary Salon, A Christmas Carol: Charles Dickens' Dramatic Premier Reading in Boston.

The eighth Salon of nine during TSC's 13th season, A Christmas Carol is curated and read by McCleary and will be presented both in-person on TSC's Owen and Margaret Wellford Tabor Stage and simulcast online on December 4, 12, and 19 at 8:00 pm and on December 6, 13, and 20 at 3:00 pm (CST).

The Salon, which will incorporate a little Dickensian magic on stage, will run approximately one hour without intermission and also will feature John Ross Graham. The lighting designer is Jeremy Allen Fisher, and the costume designer is Alexandria Perel-Sams.

It is December 2, 1867, at the Tremont Temple in Boston, Massachusetts. The morning's snow has been pushed aside, and carriages line the street with the swarming multitude angling to gain entrance for the evening's event. In the small audience are Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Russell Lowell, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Richard H. Dana, and Charles Eliot Norton. They await the arrival of Charles Dickens and his inaugural United States reading of his ghost story titled A Christmas Carol.

It is "a little story," but the author discovered it took three hours to read. He reduced the tale by more than half. For TSC's Salon, Mr. Dickens' hand-written edits and notes from his own reading copy will be employed.

Mr. Dickens, both a critic and friend of the United States, is making his second visit to the country for a multi-month reading tour of cities. His first visit was in 1842, one year before he would visit a school in Manchester, England, that would inspire him to create A Christmas Carol in just two weeks' time. He witnessed in Manchester the ragged facility conditions, the children still working day and night, and the absence of students in the classroom. He saw the end of the world.

"It is hard to imagine a more popular writer in the last few centuries than Charles Dickens," said McCleary. "Both during and after his lifetime. He was a rock star far before there were such descriptions. His literary hero was William Shakespeare, and we see that inspiration in his sharp and magnificent characters, his epic narratives, and his continual use of his own life and the people in it."

McCleary has played Dickens on stage before, but never with his full reading text.

"The Peter Ackroyd biography (Dickens) of 30 years ago remains authoritative for me," said McCleary. "And this time around, I am struck by what spurred Mr. Dickens' to craft what he called his modern day fairy tale: the scandalously inhumane plight of children working in horrific conditions and missing a formal education. This actually happened to him, too, in modest fashion. While we can in this country draw a direct line between Mr. Dickens' acting out his story and the celebration that Christmas has become for us (New England school children were still in class on December 25 before his reading), it was far more the priority for him to address the 'Want' of the world's children and the 'Ignorance' of the surrounding adults who permitted it. He annually still gives hope to all of us that we can positively alter both our lives and the good we might do with them as we respect to our own past, present, and future.

"I was introduced to the story properly when I was in seventh grade. My English teacher directed a stage production of it with three Scrooges, and I got to play the final one. This teacher would go on to become TSC's founding Volunteer Director, and she remains a dear friend and patron of the theatre: Mrs. Donna Ladd. She launched a life-long love of literature for me, and for many, and an abiding respect for Mr. Dickens' story of humanity re-gained."

Purchase tickets online at www.tnshakespeare.org or by calling (901) 759-0604 Monday-Friday from 9:00 am - 5:00 pm. The Salon will be available to patrons as both an in-person and digital online experience.

The online presentation will show only once via a one-camera setup on TSC's website with a time-stamped, specific password provided to patrons on the day of the Salon. The digital waiting room opens 15 minutes prior to curtain. All digital online tickets are $15.

In-person seating at the Tabor Stage is strictly limited to 54 socially-distanced patrons. Face coverings must be worn. Patrons must answer basic health screening positively and provide contact information prior to theatre entry. Patrons may select the preferred seating section, and TSC will then select socially-distanced seats based on the party's size and the order in which tickets were purchased.

Tickets in Seating Section One are $25 in-person (Students $18/Seniors $22). Tickets in Seating Sections Two and Three are $18 in-person (Students $15/Seniors $18). Tickets must be purchased in advance of the Salon (not at the door), printed, and brought with patrons to the theatre. The house will open 30 minutes prior to curtain.

Credit Card charges require a $1 per-ticket fee. Schedule subject to change with notice. Free parking at TSC. There are no refunds/exchanges.

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