USU's Theatre Department Presents Family Show for the Holiday Season

The Caine School of the Arts’s Department of Theatre Arts at Utah State University presents “Charles Dickens’s Christmas Carol,” adapted by Barbara Field, Dec. 1-6 at 7:30 p.m. with a Saturday matinee at 2 p.m. in the Morgan Theatre in the Chase Fine Arts Center on the USU campus (approximately 1110 E. 610 North, Logan). Tickets are $13 and are available through the CSA Box Office online or by calling (435) 797-8022. Tickets are available at the door at each performance.

“The story of A Christmas Carol has become part of our cultural identity of the English-speaking world, particularly at year’s end,” said production director Colin Johnson. “Its message of love and the redemptive power of forgiveness is at the heart of the holidays, regardless of one’s individual faith.”

 

A Christmas Carol  was originally published in 1843 as a novella and has rapidly become a holiday favorite. Today, it is arguably the most-adapted non-Biblical Christmas story.

 

“This unpublished version, introduced to me by former Minneapolis Children’s Theatre director and USU graduate Jon Cranney, is quite different from those we have produced before,” Johnson said. “Barbara Field adapted her script for a version produced at the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis many years ago. We have worked directly with her to secure the rights.”

 

A Christmas Carol, though written when Dickens was 30, brought him some prosperity late in his life. Dickens, himself a frustrated actor, made money by touring the English countryside performing one-man readings of his story.

 

“In keeping with Utah State Theatre’s tradition of high-quality productions, A Christmas Carol will be a first-rate show for the entire family to enjoy,” Johnson said.

 

The cast is comprised of members from the community and USU and includes Luke Bybee as Scrooge, Jeff Dransfield as Bob Cratchit and Lee Daily as Charles Dickens.

 

Writer: Sally Okelberry (435) 797-1500; sally.okelberry@usu.edu
Contact: Colin Johnson (435) 797-3047, colin.johnson@usu.edu