Al LePage as "Ebeneezer Scrooge"     Photo Credit: David Krapes   

"What in the Dickens am I doing," asks performer Al LePage.  "Answer. I'm doing a one-man show of A Christmas Carol where I will create some 18 characters! From Scrooge to Tiny Tim, from Marley's Ghost to Mrs. Cratchit, there's howls and growls, bangs and bongs, a dance with a song, some lively laughter and heartfelt tears.  I'm sharing this classic holiday story to help feed people, to prevent hunger locally where I perform, and to give 100% of all proceeds to a local area charity to buy food.  I'll also briefly share some history about the Carol itself, a small bit about Charles Dickens and Providence, and also talk about his performances in America during his 1867-68 tour.  I'll be doing the show in the style of Dickens, creating all the characters by simply using my voice, gestures, and movements as a dramatic reading performance.  The performance is also pure Dickens in that it uses the famed author's own historic script, too!"

"But where in the Dickens am I going," continues LePage. Exactly! This year I'm 'traveling with Charles Dickens,' walking in his footsteps so to speak, by doing half of all my shows in three of the cities where the famed author also performed during his 1867-68 American tour -- Providence, Boston, and Worcester."  

There's a personal story about LePage and why he does so many of his shows to benefit hunger organizations.  As a young man the school he'd been working at as a teacher in Boston unexpectedly closed down for good over the winter holiday break, and through no fault of his own found himself along with the other teachers without a job, without a paycheck.  His savings were meager, and deciding not to go on unemployment at the time, struggled to make ends meet.  He paid his bills but had little money left over for food.  So, he got hungry really for the first time in his life.  He was not starving, of course, but he remembers it being winter and spring, feeling cold and hungry, and figures he may even have been slightly malnourished as time went on, too. That experience has stuck with him ever since, and that's why his primary focus is to donate 100% of all proceeds from his shows to organizations that help prevent hunger close to home.  His Providence performance benefits the Mathewson Street Friendship Breakfast, a program of the Mathewson Street United Methodist Church, and along with other events in Boston and Worcester, all proceeds will benefit local area hunger organizations.

"Fighting hunger and homelessness one meal at a time," notes Scott Budnick, Co-Director of the Mathewson Street Friendship Breakfast program," is our mission.  Every Sunday our Friendship Breakfast provides over 300 people a warm and plentiful meal, so last year alone, over 15,600 meals were served.  People are hungry and one meal can also begin to make a difference in someone's life.  I remember one Sunday, as we were serving seconds of pancakes and waffles, a young man instinctively reached out his plate to receive a serving, then he paused, smiled and said, 'No thank you, I'm full, I can't remember the last time I was full."

Hunger close to home has been and continues to be a serious issue both locally and nationally.  At any given time, people sometimes have to make choices between food and other critical survival factors such as heat, housing, medical care or transportation.  In Rhode Island alone over 151,000 children are effected, that's close to 1 in every 5 people facing hunger within the state are children, and it's estimated that nearly 37% don't qualify for government programs like food stamps or free school lunches simply because they earn too much money.  All that's according to Map the Meal Gap, the most recent 2015 report (2013 data) published by the national network of food banks, Feeding America. One of their past reports has also noted that children who don't eat what they need for strong healthy brain development may never recover their lost potential for cognitive growth.  It also had gone  on to say that besides stunting their intellectual capacity, it could also affect learning, social interaction and productivity, diminishing what could have been a child's eventual contributions to society.   And according to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) report just released this September 2015, Household Food Security in the United States in 2014, an 'estimated 14 percent of American households (that's over one in seven) were food insecure at least some time during the year in 2014, meaning they lacked access to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household members.' And the report's summary also noted that the 'percentage of U.S. households that were food insecure remained essentially unchanged from 2013 to 2014.
"Scott Budnick and his band of merry volunteers are amazing," notes Jan Armor who, together with his wife Kathy, is another weekly breakfast volunteer.  "These good folks at the Sunday Friendship Breakfast 'soup kitchen' serve way more than soup. By 6:30 AM the place is humming with sounds of pans banging, knives chopping, potatoes frying and people laughing. The radio is on and some sing along. The spirit of camaraderie and good intention is in the air. They work hard. It’s controlled chaos, maybe even a mini miracle when it all comes out. The troop delivers a hearty breakfast of oatmeal, eggs, home fries, and sausage to hundreds of hungry homeless people. And yes, they also serve up friendship. Not only does this meal provide sustenance but also is an opportunity for human contact and conversation. It is a chance to make friends and talk with the volunteers and among themselves in a safe, warm place. The Sunday Friendship Breakfast has become a refuge for the many homeless men, women and children in Providence, due in no small part to the hard work of these volunteers and Pastor Jack Jones."

The Mathewson Street Sunday Morning Friendship Breakfast is a church outreach program that started in February 2012. It provides both a meal as worship in itself and an opportunity for people to connect, encouraging those with resources to befriend those with limited resources. The program also includes the homeless community, both as volunteers and recipients. Over 250 to 300 men, women, and children in need, gather for the weekly shared meal event.

"Homelessness can define a time in someone's life," says Budnick, "but it can never define who that person is.  Each week at the Friendship Breakfast we meet some amazing individuals. Some are talented chefs, musicians, writers, and artists. Some are well-read intellectuals or skilled athletes. While others are uniquely kind and compassionate human beings.  These are the people who, week after week,  come to us for a warm meal, a safe place to worship, or a place to give back and serve others."

   Photo Credit: David Krapes
LePage, a native of Framingham, began bringing history to life through improvised portrayals of real people from the past for over seven years at historic sites, museums, and other venues throughout the Pacific Northwest. He's written and produced his own historical dramas as one-man shows, appeared on the nationally televised PBS “History Detectives” series in roles ranging from a bartender to Robert E. Lee.  Oregon Public Broadcasting Radio produced and premiered LePage's own shortened version of Dickens' Christmas Carol as his own one man one-hour radio program in 2010, airing it each year since and just before Christmas Day.  He's been giving performances of the Carol to benefit charity in the United States, Canada and England since 2006.  In 2011 he traveled to England to perform there for the very first time beginning in the same place and for the same charity that Dickens himself did his own first public reading of the Carol in Birmingham in 1853, and LePage's last performance while in England that year was in the renovated old stables of the historic 16th-century coaching inn in Framlingham, England itself, the very same town after which Framingham, MA was so named.


Mathewson Street Friendship Breakfast, is a church outreach program providing a meal as a worship service in itself to the hungry and homeless.  It also provides an opportunity for people to connect, and encourages those with resources to befriend those with limited resources. Over 250 to 300 men, women, and children in need, gather for the weekly shared meal event. The program, which began in February 2012, essentially operates through the ongoing efforts of many volunteers, also actively including the homeless community in giving their time and talents to make it happen.   Besides volunteers, the program succeeds through donations. Visit their webiste at Mathewson Street United Methodist Church  or call (401)331-8900 to learn more,  volunteer, or donate funds to help prevent hunger in the Providence area.


NOTE TO MEDIA:  With the exception of the "food image" above, all other embedded images are high resolution and offered for free use by the print and online media for stories related to these performances and may be cropped and color-balanced as needed.
Please credit "David Krapes" for each one.

CAPTION SUGGESTION for IMAGES without captions:  Performer Al LePage is sure to bring lots of  laughter, and hopefully some tears, during his upcoming dramatic reading performances of Dickens' classic A Christmas Carol.