A committee of volunteers in Lindsay is bringing to life the spirit of Christmas with an upcoming dramatic reading of a classic holiday tale to raise money in support of reducing homelessness in the City of Kawartha Lakes.
Kathy Anderson is a member of a small group of local citizen volunteers who are organizing a fundraiser for A Place Called Home (APCH) in Lindsay.
The committee is presenting a dramatic reading of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, December 4th at Cambridge Street United Church, located at 61 Cambridge St. N. in Lindsay.
“We have great respect for APCH and we are very excited to organize this event,” Anderson told kawarthaNOW.
The dramatic reading is an abridged version of “A Christmas Carol” using a script that was first developed by CBC Radio in 1990 for public readings across the country in support of shelters, food banks, libraries, and hospitals.
While the CBC is not longer involved in the public readings, it encourages groups to organize readings in their own communities in support of local agencies, making the script and other supporting materials freely available for use.
“I have been familiar for some years with the CBC dramatic readings of A Christmas Carol and a friend and I thought it was time to host one again in Lindsay,” Anderson said.
Like Dickens’ story, the script is divided into five chapters (which Dickens called “staves”), one for each of the readers. In between the staves, a brass ensemble will provide seasonal music.
The evening’s host is Max Radiff, the director is Jessie Kennedy, and the readers are Dave Illman, Warren Frank, Sylvia Keesmaat, Nancy Payne, and Brian Walsh. The music will be performed by the Brass Ensemble of the Kawartha Concert Band.
The Lindsay presentation is a free event, but donations are welcome. Representatives from APCH will also present at the event to accept donations by cash, cheque, or credit card, and to provide receipts for tax deductions.
APCH is a non-profit organization that has supported homeless men, women, and families with children in the City of Kawartha Lakes and County of Haliburton since 1995. APCH’s emergency shelter is the only one in Kawartha Lakes and Haliburton, and the organization provides both emergency shelter and outreach services to those who are experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness.
To learn more about APCH and its work, visit www.apch.ca.
Anderson said the committee has a few hopes for the night’s outcome.
“We hope to provide a wonderful evening through a re-telling of a well-loved story interspersed with seasonal music, raise money through donations, and continue to raise awareness about the compassionate and essential work being done by APCH to address the challenges of homelessness in our community,” she said.
As for Dickens’ classic novella about an elderly miser who is visited by the ghost of his former business partner and the spirits of Christmas past, present, and future, he was prompted to write the story after reading a parliamentary report in February 1843 that exposed the effects of the Industrial Revolution upon working class children.
Horrified by the contents of the report, Dickens originally planned to publish a political pamphlet but later realized a Christmas narrative would be the most most effective way he could reach the broadest segment of the population with his social concerns about poverty and injustice. He published “A Christmas Carol” in London on December 19, 1843, with the first run of 6,000 copies selling out by Christmas Eve.
In 1849, Dickens began public readings of the story, which proved so successful he undertook 127 further performances until 1870, the year of his death. Since then, “A Christmas Carol” has never been out of print. It has been translated into several languages, and the story has been adapted many times for film, stage, opera, and other media.
