Commissioner Srinivasan Will Be Honorary Chair of A CHRISTMAS CAROL at the Merchant's House Gala, 12/11

As we approach the 50th Anniversary of the passage of New York City's Landmarks Law in 2015, it is especially timely that we have the privilege to announce Meenakshi Srinivasan, Chair of the Landmarks Preservation Commission, as the Honorary Chair of A Christmas Carol at the Merchant's House Benefit Gala. The Merchant's House was the first building designated a landmark in the Borough of Manhattan at the inaugural meeting of the Landmarks Preservation Commission in September 1965.

Our gala celebration begins with the critically acclaimed performance of A Christmas Carol featuring John Kevin Jones followed by an after-party in the Merchant's House Museum's kitchen catered by celebrity chef Tamara Reynolds (The Cooking Channel's Unique Eats & Married With Dishes).

Decked with period decorations of the season, the elegant and intact Greek Revival double parlor of the landmark 1832 Merchant's House Museum (29 East 4th Street, Manhattan) provides the perfect setting for this work of captivating storytelling. Based on Dickens' own performance text (which he presented at The Cooper Union in 1867, just steps from the Merchant's House), the show has been crafted for the stage by co-adapters John Kevin Jones and Rhonda Dodd and highlights the story's stunning narrative imagery and wry humor.

The gala will take place on Thursday, December 11, 2014 at the landmark 1832 Merchant's House Museum, 29 East Fourth Street, New York. 7 p.m. Performance of A Christmas Carol; 8 to 9:30 p.m. Mirth & Merrymaking with Actor John Kevin Jones. Catered by Celebrity Chef Tamara Reynolds of the Cooking Channel. Plus Figgy Pudding!. Tickets: $100 Performance & Merrymaking; $150 Performance, Merrymaking & One-year Membership; $75 Party only. Limited to only 40 reservations. Tickets are available at http://achristmascarolnyc.brownpapertickets.com/ or by calling BrownPaperTickets.com at (800) 838-3006.

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Meenakshi Srinivasan serves as both chair and commissioner of the Landmarks Preservation Commission, which is the largest municipal preservation agency in the United States. Chair Srinivasan was appointed by Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2014, and manages a staff of approximately 65 architects, archaeologists, preservationists, historians, attorneys, and administrators, whose mission is to protect more than 31,000 architecturally, historically, and culturally significant sites in all five boroughs, and identify and designate new landmark buildings, sites, and districts.

Chair Srinivasan is a planner and urban designer, with a longstanding commitment to public service. She has more than two decades of experience working in various aspects of New York City's land use process. Prior to her appointment, Chair Srinivasan served for ten years as the chair and commissioner of the Board of Standards and Appeals. Previously, Chair Srinivasan worked for the Manhattan Office of the Department of City Planning in various capacities, including as deputy director, team leader and project manager. She led some of the agency's highest profile projects, from the Theatre Subdistrict Rezoning in midtown to the contextual rezonings of East and Central Harlem. In addition, Chair Srinivasan directed the zoning effort for Hudson Yards on the west side of Manhattan.

An architect by training, Chair Srinivasan holds a Bachelor of Architecture from the School of Planning and Architecture in New Delhi, India, and earned a Master of Architecture and a Master of City Planning from the University of Pennsylvania. She is an honoree of the Society of Indo-American Engineers and Architects and the New York Society of Architects.

Tamara Reynolds can be seen every week on the Cooking Channel's Unique Eats. She lives in Astoria because it's the closest thing New York has to a small Midwestern town. She knows her butchers, her produce dudes and her fishmonger. She runs the wildly successful Sunday Night Dinner in Astoria supper club (Best of NYC 2013 - Village Voice) and has a small catering company, Van Alst Kitchen, staffed by many of her multi-talented friends. You can follow her successes and failures at The Sunday Night Dinner Blog, and watch her and her husband, Karl, take their supper club on the road in the Cooking Channel's special Married With Dishes.

Summoners Ensemble Theatre - Through development of new works, new productions of older works, and strategic collaborations, Summoners Ensemble strives to nurture and entertain theatre audiences.

Merchant's House Museum - The Merchant's House Museum is New York City's only family home preserved intact -- inside and out -- from the 19th century. Built in 1832 just steps from Washington Square, this elegant red-brick and white-marble row house on East Fourth Street was home to a prosperous merchant family for almost 100 years. Complete with the family's original furnishings and personal possessions, the house offers a rare and intimate glimpse of the domestic life of a wealthy family and their four Irish servants in New York City from 1835 to 1865. The New York Times says, "The distinction of the Merchant's House -- and it is a powerful one -- is that it is the real thing. One simply walks through the beautiful doorway into another time and place in New York."

The Merchant's House is a National Historic and New York City Landmark. The building was the first building awarded landmark designation in the Borough of Manhattan at the inaugural meeting of the newly formed Landmarks Preservation Commission in September 1965. In 1981 it was further distinguished with interior landmark designation (one of only 115 today).

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) - Considered the greatest English novelist of the Victorian era, Charles Dickens created some of the world's most well-known fictional characters. When his own family's destitution landed them for a time in debtor's prison, young Charles was forced to give up school and work in a blacking-warehouse. This era of his life heavily influenced his writing, which later made him a much sought-after orator. After giving a speech to a group of working-class poor, Dickens found himself contemplating the plight of exploited child workers. Taking only six weeks to complete, in 1843, A Christmas Carol stripped away the mask from some of England's most acute social evils. By speaking up for the poor and oppressed, Dickens directly confronted the apathy and callousness of his countrymen. But more than just a timely political screed, Dickens' spirit-filled holiday story has become a timeless treatise about love. He impelled his contemporaries then -- and now us today -- to care about everyone and to reach out and help if we see someone in need.

John Kevin Jones (actor, co-adapter) - Kevin is a member of Actors' Equity, The Dramatist Guild of America, and is the Executive Director of Summoners Ensemble Theatre. New York credits include last season's successful presentation of A Christmas Carol at the Merchant's House, Jeffrey (opposite Bryan Batt) at Lincoln Center, The Winter's Tale and The Caucasian Chalk Circle, both with the Hipgnosis Theatre Company. Regional: American Stage in St. Pete, Florida (The Pavilion), Arkansas Rep. (Othello), Kentucky Rep. (The Rivals, All My Sons, Comedy of Errors), Memphis' Playhouse on the Square (Angels in America, Last Night of Ballyhoo, Gross Indecency). Directing credits include A Lie of the Mind at Theatre Memphis, Revenge of the Space Pandas at the Texas Shakespeare Festival, and Rogers and Hammerstein's Cinderella at Playhouse on the Square.

Rhonda Dodd (director, co-adapter) - Rhonda is the Artistic Director of Summoners Ensemble Theatre. On, above, and behind the boards, Rhonda is an award winning actor, technician, and director. Arriving in New York with over 150 shows under her belt, she made her Off-Broadway acting debut with Terese Hayden and Jacqueline Brookes' Workshop in Tennessee Williams' Period of Adjustment. Besides finishing her Ph.D. and spending 10 years at Circle in the Square Theatre School, mostly as Associate Director, she has worked both as an actor and director as part of the New York Independent Theatre scene.

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