A NEW ENGLAND CHRISTMAS Comes to Pontine Theatre

Pontine Theatre’s 24-25 Performance Season will continue 29 November - 15 December with A NEW ENGLAND CHRISTMAS.  Performances are scheduled for Fridays @7pm, Saturdays @3pm and Sundays @2pm.  The program includes Pontine’s  original staging of William Dean Howell’s Christmas Everyday and Alice Van Leer Carrick’s Christmas in Our Town.  The cast features Pontine Artistic Co-Directors, Marguerite Mathews and Greg Gathers.  Live music is provided by New England Fiddle Ensemble’s Ellen Carlson.  Following the performance the audience is invited onstage to enjoy an assortment of Christmas goodies.  Pontine’s Portsmouth NH venue, the 1845 Plains Schoolhouse theatre, is located at #1 Plains Avenue in Portsmouth’s West End. The space is fully accessible with convenient free parking located onsite.  

Author, editor, playwright and  poet  William Dean Howells (1837-1920) was a resident of  Kittery, Maine.  In his story Christmas Every Day, a little girl’s wish to have Christmas everyday for a year is granted by the Christmas Fairy. The first day of Christmas is perfect.  The following day it is Christmas again, and every subsequent day as well. It wreaks havoc with the economy.  All the woods are cut down for Christmas trees. People get so poor, buying presents, that everybody had to go to the poorhouse.  

       

In her reminiscence, Christmas in Our Town, Alice Van Leer Carrick tells of her treasured memories of a New England holiday in Hanover, New Hampshire in the mid-20th century. Her whimsical turn of phrase and witty allusions coupled with sheer sentiment goes straight to the heart.  The performance concludes with a Christmas carol sing along led by Ellen Carlson of the New England Fiddle Ensemble and an onstage Christmas party.

Photo Credit: Michael Sterling

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