A CHRISTMAS CAROL 2015 WORCESTER

Photo Credit: David Krapes

Al LePage lights the way for his one-man show of Dickens' Christmas Carol

"A Dramatic Christmas Carol Times Two!", a dramatic reading performance of Charles Dickens "A Christmas Carol" combined with traditional 19th century English Christmas carols will happen on Sunday, Dec. 6 at 2PM in Razzo Hall, Traina Center For the Arts, 92 Dowing Street in Worcester, Massachusetts. Performer Al LePage, complete with various English accents and a taste of Victorian-era clothing, will give a dramatic reading performance of A Christmas Carol based on Dickens' very own historic script as a one-man show using only his voice, facial expressions and gestures to create some 18 characters. Pianist Kamilla Isanbaeva will weave piano music between various scenes to set the tone for what's to come and entertain. This is a special benefit performance event of Clark University Hillel with all proceeds to benefit Rachel's Table, a program of the Jewish Federation of Central Massachusetts. Admission is $15 per person, $5 for Clark University students, and the performance is best appreciated by both adults and children age 10 and older. Tickets can be purchased in advance through BrownPaperTickets.com, either on-line or by calling their 24/7 toll-free number 1-800-838-3006, and if still available, at the door the day of event. Doors for the performance open at 1:30PM, the fun begins at 1:45PM, and seating is general admission.

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

Al LePage brings his one man show to town to help prevent hunger close to home

"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. Plus I'm doing it in the style of Dickens, creating all the characters by simply using my voice, gestures, and movements as a dramatic reading performance. The show is also pure Dickens, based on the author's own historic script!"

"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 -- Boston, Worcester and Providence, RI."

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 Worcester performance benefits Rachel's Table, a program of the Jewish Federation of Central Massachusetts, and along with other events in Boston and Providence, all the proceeds will benefit local area hunger organizations -- all relatively close to the Framingham area, where LePage was born and lived for much of his early life.

"We're little but we're mighty," begins Carla Szymanski, Director of Rachel's Table, "and let me tell you why. This last year we distributed 126,000 pounds of food, most of which would have been thrown away if it wasn't for our program. Our great volunteers and those who cared enough to donate the food, that's all part of our strength, in working together to feed people. Our volunteers pick up good, unused, nutritious food donated from businesses and food institutions in the greater Worcester area and deliver it to agencies that have programs for the hungry. No money is charged for the food either, and in the end everyone benefits."

Rachel's Table, a program of the non-profit Jewish Federation of Massachusetts, Inc., distributes donated and specially purchased foods, without charge, to agencies feeding hungry families and individuals in the greater Worcester area. Their Children's Milk Fund purchases milk for needy children, and purchases of fruits and vegetables are used for the Worcester Summer Meal Program. Rachel's Table includes food recipients and volunteers from all faiths and backgrounds, and in over 25 years has distributed more than 11 million pounds of food, at no cost, to up to 35 local shelters, pantries and soup kitchens.

"Another strength," continues Szymanski, "is about the food we purchase and distribute. Two great programs that we're really proud of especially help to feed local area children. You might call them our 'Drink your milk, and eat your fruit and vegetables' programs."

The Children's Milk Fund provided 715 gallons of milk to children every week at 21 social service agencies in 2014, and that's over 37,000 gallons last year alone. Since milk is not regularly donated either to Rachel's Table or the Worcester County Food Bank, this special fund is the only regular source of donated milk in the area, and the only program of its kind. The milk is either used within the agencies themselves or simply given to the child's family to use at home. Increasing milk prices make this program more important than ever.

"Can you imagine a child never having eaten a peach," asks Szymanski," and so we also buy fruits and vegetables used by the Summer Meal Program to feed children in Worcester. During summer months when schools are closed, school meals are unavailable. Rachel's Table works with Friendly House Neighborhood Center to provide healthy meals with fruits and vegetables added -- free breakfasts, lunches, dinners and snacks. Over 100,000 meals were served at sites throughout the city in the summer of 2015, with Rachel's Table supplying about half of all the produce used. And yes, some children have even had their first peach through this program, too!"

The more money raised for these food purchase programs, the more milk, the more fruit and vegetables Rachel's Table can buy. Half the money received from the upcoming benefit performance in Worcester will go directly to buy milk, the other half to buy fruits and vegetables to feed local area children.

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 Massachusetts alone over 232,000 children are effected, that's over 1 in every 4 people facing hunger within the state, and it's estimated that nearly 36% 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.

Photo courtesy of Kamilla Isanbaeva
Kamilla Isanbaeva weaves organ music into the show!

Kamilla Isanbaeva weaves organ music into the show!

Kamilla Isanbaeva, born to parents who are both musicians with a mother who plays classical piano and a father who plays jazz on the saxophone, started playing music at age 5. Her formal education began as a pianist, organist and violinist at the Central Music School, supervised by the Tashkent State Conservatory. From the age of 10 she participated as a pianist in many national music competitions in what was then still the Soviet Union and won several prizes. She soon moved to Moscow to continue her musical studies at the National Music School. Kamilla eventually immigrated to the Netherlands where she was admitted to the Young Talents Class at the Conservatory of Amsterdam, and began performing regularly in the well known concert halls of Europe. She also took part in numerous piano competitions for young talented musicians, recieving several important prizes. Already at this early stage of her career, Kamilla was considered a young 'virtuosic soloist' by established professors.

Her education and training continued and is extensive, with bachelor and master degrees from the Conservatory of Amsterdam. She eventually relocated to Vienna, Austria, and besides her recitals in the Netherlands, she also performed in numerous music festivals near Salzburg, sharing the stage with several well known international performers in Vienna. She recorded a CD for the major music label 'Capriccio' with cellist Harriet Krijgh, and eventually moved to London. In 2013 she was invited to participate in many large music festivals in Germany and Switzerland, and currently plans to do future engagements in Amsterdam, plus a solo tour in China and Japan. She's just recently relocated to Worcester, where she now makes her new home with her new husband.

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.

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Rachel's Table, a program of the non-profit Jewish Federation of Massachusetts, Inc., distributes donated and specially purchased foods, without charge, to agencies feeding hungry families and individuals in the greater Worcester area. Their Children's Milk Fund purchases milk for needy children, and purchases of fruits and vegetables are used for the Worcester Summer Meal Program. Rachel's Table includes food recipients and volunteers from all faiths and backgrounds, and since 1989 has distributed more than 11 million pounds of food, at no cost, to up to 35 local shelters, pantries and soup kitchens. Visit their webiste at www.RachelsTable.org or call (508) 799 - 7699 to learn more, volunteer, or donate food or funds to help prevent hunger.

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NOTE TO MEDIA: 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 the images as noted above 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.