Theater For the New City Presents A CHRISTMAS CAROL, OY! HANUKKAH, MERRY KWANZAA, HAPPY RAMADAN

Because everything is virtual now, Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre (CAMT) decided to go full-out fantasy this year in restaging its perennial holiday favorite, "A Christmas Carol, Oy! Hanukkah, Merry Kwanzaa, Happy Ramadan." Longing for a worldwide tour of historical venues (some of them are long-gone and torn down), the company is staging a virtual worldwide tour December 19 to 30 to preview the production, culminating in a triumphant finale at Theater for the New City--again virtually--on December 31. There are multiple performances on most dates; complete schedule follows below.

Admission is free to all the venues--both the existing ones and the long-gone ones--but donations will be gratefully accepted. To reserve and view all performances, go to the Theater for the New City website, www.theaterforthenewcity.net or https://tinyurl.com/y5jt8e76.

The show is intended for audiences aged 5 to 105 and is an adaptation of Dickens' classic with Old World accents and New World inclusiveness. Adapted, directed and reinvented by Vit Horejs, it features over 30 puppets by Milos Kasal including a quartet of Rockettes in Slovak, Moravian and Ruthenian folk costumes and holiday songs in Czech, English, Hebrew, Slovak, Spanish and Swahili. The running time is 75 minutes.

The "pretend" out-of-town try-out performances at venues outside Theater for the New City (many of them are long torn down) will be created with virtual backgrounds in the prologues.

Although admission is free to all performances, donations will be gratefully accepted.

WHERE AND WHEN
Out of town tryouts co-produced by J. P. Morgan, Andrew Carnegie and P. T. Barnum:

Sat 12/19:
11 am Jan Hus Playhouse, NYC - introduction by Vit Horejs
3 pm Slovak National Theatre, Bratislava - introduction by Katarina Vizina
7 pm Madison Square Garden, East 26th Street and Madison Avenue - introduction by Theresa Linnihan

Sun 12/20:
11 am Royal Albert Hall, London - introduction by Deborah Beshaw-Farrell
3 pm Clockworks Puppet Theatre, Brooklyn, NY - introduction by Jonathan Cross

Sat 12/26:
11 am Théâtre des Champs Elysée, Paris - introduction by Michelle Beshaw
3 pm Hollywood Bowl - introduction by Judith Barnes
7 pm Bolshoi Theatre - introduction by Hayden DeWitt

Sun 12/27:
11 am Hudson Valley Summer Festival - introduction by Bonnie Sue Stein
3 pm La Scala Opera House - introduction by Harlem Lafayette

Wed 12/30/2021:
11 am Detroit Institute of Arts - introduction by Valois Marie Mickens
3 pm National Theatre, Prague - introduction by Gail Whitmore
7 pm Bannerman's Island, Hudson River - introduction by John Scott Richardson

Thu 12/31/2020:
A co-production of Theater for the New City and Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre
3:00 pm Culminating performance at Theater for the New City, NYC - introduction by Daniel Wilkes Kelly

This toy-puppet theater extravaganza is a new take on Charles Dickens' classic with a few twists and digressions. Into the familiar story is woven a surprising and delightful blend of English, Jewish, African, American and Czech winter rituals and customs, all performed by over three dozen marionettes ranging in size from four to twenty-four inches as well as found objects and toys. Mr. Horejs operates the whole cast of puppets, backed up by a live chorus: an "a capella monumentale" choir of two women. The piece is still set in Old London, but with Czech accents. Imagine that the familiar tale was told to you not by an English serial novelist, but by your Czech grandmother.

The scenic design uses elements of made-in-Prague 1920's toy marionette theater donated recently by Madeleine Albright and an identical set that Vit Horejs and his mother played with in their childhoods. The Bob Cratchit and Charwoman marionettes are from these toy theaters.

There are ghost puppets by Vit Horejs and unknown folk carvers and a Camel marionette that has played an intruder in several CAMT shows. Set and costume design are by company member Michelle Beshaw, a two-time Innovative Theatre Awards nominee (and one-time winner).

Singers of the "a capella monumentale" choir are Katarina Vizina (a transplant from Slovakia) and Valois Mickens (West African/Celtic/Native American origin), joined by the time-travel means by the original choir members, Frances Divine and Gail Whitmore (2001-2006), and Judith Barnes and Hayden DeWitt (2011-14).

This production first appeared in 2001 at the Jan Hus Playhouse as the lead show of a "Magic of Czech Puppetry" festival. Its popularity led to revivals in 2002, 2004, 2005, 2014 and 2019 (the last one being at Theater for the New City). Laurel Graeber (New York Times) called the show a "delightful holiday hodgepodge that still hews closely to Dickens's tale and also has contemporary humor." Revisiting the show in 2005, Graeber declared, " Mr. Horejs's 75-minute unorthodox mix is always fun," adding, "This is indeed Dickens's story, though Mr. Horejs's approach is hardly Victorian. Scrooge asks the ghosts whether he will get frequent-flyer miles, and when Fezziwig, Scrooge's old mentor, appears, he is singing 'The Dreidel Song.' (He explains that his family name was originally Feinstein.) In Christmas yet to come, Scrooge's tenants celebrate being free of him with Hebrew songs and menorah-lighting. At one point, a huge camel marionette arrives." When the production was presented by La MaMa in 2014, Kelly Aliano (NY Theatre Wire) wrote, "'Christmas Carol' is exactly what an audience would want from a holiday show. It tells a familiar tale with an added twist, it reminds us about the spirit of the season, and it puts a smile on the face of even the scroogiest of spectators. There is no mention of Tiny Tim's most famous line, but the overall tone of the show makes everyone lucky enough to have seen it feel truly blessed indeed." Joel Benjamin (TheaterScene.com) called it "a refreshing theatrical oasis in the holiday desert of over-ripe TV films, large Broadway musicals and the Radio City Christmas Show."

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