Great Stories Alive !
      "Performance with Passion & Purpose"

PO Box 11045 - Portland, OR 97211 - (503) 335-3876 - GreatStoriesAlive.com

NEWS RELEASE

FOR RELEASE ON:  Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Media Contact:  Al LePage, Performer, Great Stories Alive! / 503-335-3876
                          Heidi Kohne, Organist, Mt. Tabor Presbyterian Church / 503-234-6493

"A Christmas Carol Times Two!"
Washington Territory 1853-Style
"Peter Skene Ogden" to attend!

A dramatic reading performance of Charles Dickens "A Christmas Carol" and traditional English Christmas Carols will be given in the style of the Victorian era at the First Presbyterian Church, 4300 Main Street, Vancouver, Washington.  Performer Al LePage, who has portrayed various characters of Pacific Northwest history in years past at Fort Vancouver and other historic sites, will become "Englishman Thomas Hutchinson, Amateur Thespian" complete with English accent, clothing of the period and other accoutrements for the reading.  Musician Heidi Kohne, music director and organist of Mt. Tabor Presbyterian Church in Portland, will weave organ music between scenes to further enrich the story and entertain.  Actor Tom Laidlaw, who has also portrayed various characters of Pacific Northwest history at Fort Vancouver and elsewhere, will be in attendance as "Peter Skene Ogden" for a brief discussion about the past and "present" before the actual performance begins.  The event takes place on Sunday, December 6th at 3PM and doors open at 2:30PM.  All funds will buy food for the hungry in the Vancouver area, to be equally divided among both F.I.S.H. and the Salvation Army food programs.  Admission is $10 per person and the performance is best appreciated both by adults and children 8 years of age and older. Call 1-800- or visit www.brownpapertickets.com to reserve tickets, any available tickets may be purchased at the door. 

"It's a double feature," begins LePage," since you not only get to experience a dramatic reading of "A Christmas Carol," but also enjoy traditional English Christmas Carol music, too!  That's what makes it a Christmas Carol times two, you see.  But wait, since it's Christmas 1853, and it's Vancouver, and Washington Territory, and Peter Skene Ogden himself has assured me that he will be in attendance, there's a lot of local and other history to bring alive, too!   I guess that really makes the whole thing a kind of triple feature, doesn't it?"

LePage's mission of both "playing to -- and with -- audience members to bring history alive" will quickly become evident when you first encounter him before the performance.  His love of improvisation combined with a highly interactive approach means that he may not only engage you in conversation, but also actually encourage you to join him on stage!  In fact, watch out!  Since he's playful, likes to experiment and believes in seizing the moment, even he doesn't always know what's going to happen.  This not only helps makes each performance unique, but also keeps it fresh and exciting.  As Shakespeare wrote, ". . . one man in his time plays many parts . . ." and LePage's creative use of voice should shine through as he creates the many characters, both male and female, of his performance.  He's sure to bring you both to laughter, and hopefully some tears, during his dramatic reading of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol.'"

Heidi Kohne, Director of Music Ministries and Organist at Mt. Tabor Presbyterian Church in Portland, has a few priorities in her life, the pipe organ being one of them.  Her college training began in organ performance and culminated with a graduate degree both in organ and church music.  Former Dean of the Portland Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, she's earned both their Service Playing and Colleague certificates with her talents.  Her favorite composers are Johann Sebastian Bach and César Franck, but also listens to pop and rock music while driving her car.  She's done everything from working as a store clerk at Music Millennium to volunteering as a stagehand with the Portland Baroque Orchestra!  In this performance she joins us as "a German Organist who trained under perhaps the greatest pianist of all time, Franz Liszt!" 

Tom Laidlaw loves history and his many treks on the Oregon and other historic trails have led him to use his acting skills for historical interpretation.  He was a volunteer interpreter for the National Park Service at Fort Vancouver National Historic Site for eleven years where he developed and portrayed, both the character of one of its famous chief factors, Peter Skene Ogden, and the lesser known William Cannon, first blacksmith, millwright, and American at the British Hudson's Bay Company's fur trading post at the fort.  He's also potrayed other people from Pacific Northwest history having retraced many of their footsteps and paddlestrokes, too.  His lively, well-researched presentations have been enjoyed by thousands of visitors at Fort Vancouver, several Oregon State Parks, many Oregon and Washington schools and civic and historical organizations as well.

All funds raised from ticket sales will go to buy food for people in the Vancouver area served by F.I.S.H. and the Salvation Army, two local organizations with programs working to keep hunger away.  F.I.S.H. of Vancouver is a non-profit organization providing emergency food and clothing, without charge, to anyone declaring their need to realize the goal that no one should be hungry.  Doing so for the past 40 years, in 2008 they served 16,316 families, including 50,725 individuals, and currently about 4500 individuals each month, which include approximately 40% children and 10% seniors.  The Salvation Army Vancouver Corps offers community outreach programs which help hundreds of families each month with food, clothing, rental assistance, as well as housing and job placement.  Their Stop Hunger Warehouse broadens their outreach and strengthens the efficiency of local human services by serving as a regional food distribution center for Clark County emergency food supplies and supports food pantries with regular shipments of donated and purchased food.  The warehouse distributed more than 2 1/2 million pounds of food in 2008.

"Bringing history to life by portraying people from past," begins LePage, "is a very powerful way to engage people, and connect them with the history of where they live.  Great stories can make people more aware of the reality around them, connecting them with others and within themselves for greater understanding and compassion. Live drama can bring these great stories to life in a way that provides both entertainment and insight.  So, given all this and the themes of personal transformation and charity in Dickens 'A Christmas Carol,' it simply makes a lot of sense to donate my time and talents to benefit others through dramatic readings of this particular story."

Doing these readings for charity in Vancouver actually has many parallels from local area history.  First, Dickens gave public readings of his works, "A Christmas Carol" most usually among them.  In fact, he developed a "reading version" of it for the stage, and that's the script LePage has adapted for this presentation.  Dickens also brought the various characters to life simply through changes in his voice, facial expressions and other gestures and movements of his body, and LePage will dramatically do likewise.  So much for Dickens historic readings, but what's significant about the Vancouver area?  Vancouver was in fact the very first place where theatrical performances in the Oregon Country ever happened.  British officers and enlisted men in an effort to relieve the mounting tensions between the British at Fort Vancouver and American settlers relative to settling the boundary dispute for the Oregon Country staged the first play at Fort Vancover in 1846.  British sailors, with American pioneer daughters taking the female roles, performed it and as news of the event spread, more plays were produced, with people coming from up and down the Columbia River and as far away as Oregon City!

"On a personal level," notes LePage," there's even a couple more things that connect the upcoming readings with history.  Stephen Massett, an English actor who came to America, first performed in the Oregon Territory in 1856 and offered a "one man show" that included singing, dancing and recitation, and he featured a piece in which he portrayed several characters.  In my one man reading I also plan to sing at least one song and do at least a twirl or two in addition to creating the voices of all the varied characters.  And, my very first play performance in the Pacific Northwest was actually at Fort Vancouver, too!  Finally, the first years Dickens gave public readings of this story he donated the funds to charity, and I am doing the same to benefit the hungry.