hatlogo Great Stories Alive !
"Performance with Passion & Purpose"

PO Box 2491 - Eugene, OR 97402 / (503) 335-3876 - DickensChristmasCarol.net

NEWS RELEASE


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  Tuesday, November 23, 2015

Media Contacts: Al LePage, Actor/Producer, Great Stories Alive! / 503-335-3876 / Al.LePage@SpireTech.com
                           Steve Pickford, Innkeeper, Longfellow's Wayside Inn / 978-443-1776 / SPickford@Wayside.org

"Ebeneezer Scrooge" and other characters return
again to help preserve significant historic site 
Dickens script and acting style comes to life at two unique dramatic reading performances
to benefit special new fund dedicated to the preservation of Longfellow's Wayside Inn 
 
Al LePage performs Dickens' Christmas Carol to help prevent hunger close to home
                                                                                                                                          Photo Credit:  David Krapes
Al LePage lights the way for his one-man show of Dickens' Christmas Carol

Performer Al LePage presents two shows, A Dramatic Dickens' Christmas Carol! on Friday, Dec. 4 at  8 PM, and "A Christmas Carol Times Two!" on Saturday, Dec. 5 at 2PM, in the historic Martha-Mary Chapel at Longfellow's Wayside Inn, 72 Wayside Inn Rd, Sudbury, MA.  Performed as Charles Dickens did, as a dramatic reading one-man show using only voice, facial expressions and gestures to create from 18 to 26 characters, both shows are based on Dickens' very own public reading script. The Friday evening show is presented using the famed author's full historic script with 26 characters. The Saturday matinee is a shorter version of the story with 18 characters, and combined with live traditional Christmas Carol music by organist Dianne Carpenter, who will weave organ music between various scenes to set the tone for what's to come and entertain.  The ticket price for each shows is $15/person both for children and adults and proceeds will go to benefit Longfellow's Wayside Inn's and their new Historic Site Preservation Fund.  Some baked treats from the kitchen of the Wayside Inn itself are also included during each show's intermission.  Tickets reservations are required, call (978) 443-1776 in advance.  Dickens perforances were meant for adult audiences, but mature children age 10 and older should also be able to appreciate the Friday evening show, younger children for the Saturday matinee.  Doors open 30 minutes before each performance and seating is general admission.

Al LePage as Scrooge!                                  Photo Credit: David Krapes  
Performer Al LePage brings his one man show to the OMNI Parker House Hotel to help prevent hunger close to home"Call me Scrooge, I love it, "says performer Al LePage," the reformed and giving Scrooge that is!  Dickens' Christmas Carol is about a lot of things, but one of the big ideas for me is about genorisity.  So it simply makes sense to use my time and talents to benefit Longfellow's Wayside Inn.  And, since I grew up in Framingham, I had many occassions both from my childhood and as a young man, to visit and enjoy the Wayside Inn over many years, and supporting its preservation is a great way to give back.  In fact, everyone involved to make this event happen, from the organist to those who buy tickets, we all become the story of Dickens' Christmas Carol.  In essence, everyone's contribution, whether of time, talent or funds brings the message of generosity alive."

Longfellow's Wayside Inn is dedicated to the preservation of its 125-acre historic campus and outbuildings, which include the old Howe Tavern, the Martha Mary Chapel, the Redstone School, and the world famous water-powered Wayside Inn Grist Mill.  
The site has been, and continues to be, funded with revenue generated from its restaurant and overnight guest rooms, fundraising initiatives, corporate and public donations, and through historic preservation grants. The Historic Site Preservation Fund was recently established to specifcially meet the current and future preservation needs of the Inn.  It will also fund projects consistent with the Inn’s mission such as the protection, collection, and display of archival material, and other special events and programs.

“Contrary to popular opinion, the Wayside Inn receives no state or town funding and has no major endowment or other significant fund,” explains innkeeper Steve Pickford. “It's difficult for us to support the preservation, maintenance and improvements both of the nine buildings and the 125 acres of our land solely from the Inn’s business revenues.  Many people don’t realize that despite operating a full service restaurant, the Inn is a not-for-profit corporation with an enormous and old infrastructure to support.  We hope everyone appreciates just how special this place is, the precious memories that are made here, and how important it is to preserve this place for future generations.”

From Scrooge to Tiny Tim, from Marley's Ghost to Mrs. Cratchit, each show has howls and growls, bangs and bongs, a dance with a song, lively laughter and heartfelt tears.  And when LePage performs he loves to improvise on the spot.  Maybe just a conversation with someone in the audience, but  of course, with everyone listening.  He could even ask you to join him on the stage at some part, too.  He also believes in seizing the moment, and even he doesn't always know what's going to happen next.  This year he'll also briefly share some history about the Carol itself, when Charles Dickens himself arrived in Boston, and also talk about his performances in America during 1867-68. All this will make this year's show unique once again, keeping it fresh and exciting, and as usual spontaneous with full of surprises, too!
 
  Photo Credit: David Krapes A dramatic moment as Scrooge!
Performer Al LePage uses his Voice, Hands and EVERY Bone in his Body to Bring this Great Story Alive
"A very special place and a very intimate setting to hear Dickens' Christmas Carol," says LePage, "is the quintessential New England Martha-Mary Chapel at the Wayside Inn.  Please join me -- and join with me -- as I bring a great story alive to help keep a great historic site alive, too."

Dianne Carpenter, the organist for the Saturday matinee, started playing piano at age 6, took up the violin a few years later, and by the time she was a junior in high school landed her first job as a church organist!  She pursued her music education degree from Lowell State College, went on to teach music in area schools, but always remained a church organist or choir director as that "teachers second job" to make ends meet.  She eventually decided to get even more serious about her life in "music ministry," went back to school to receive a Masters of Sacred Music from Boston University, but continued to teach school.  A few years later, though, the economic situation for funding education statewide in Massachusetts took a turn for the worse and teaching jobs were threatened.  All this forced her to do some soul-searching, and in the end she decided her journey was now to be the path of pastoral ministry.  She sold her house, went back to school yet again, and eventually earned both a Masters of Divinity from Andover Newton Theological School and a PhD in Christian Social Ethics from Boston University Graduate School.  She's been a minister in the New England Conference of the United Methodist Church for nearly two decades, serving in Natick, Spencer, Belmont, Hamilton and Brewster Massachussetts.  She currrently serves as minister of the United Methodist Church in Franklin, MA, and continues to publicly perform both on organ and piano, typically now only playing the violin for her own enjoyment.

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, annually aired since 2010.  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 for the first time and began in the same place and for the same charity that Dickens in 1853 himself did his first public reading of the Carol, in Birmingham.  LePage's last 2011 performance in England was at the historic 16th-century coaching inn in Framlingham, England itself, the very same town after which Framingham, MA was so named.  This 2015 season he will be giving his 7th year of performances at Longfellow's Wayside Inn in Sudbury.

LePage has not only researched Dickens and the famed author's own performances, but also when he traveled to England in 2011, he not only visited the only surviving home of Dickens in London, but also went to the very locations in the city where various scenes took place in the Christmas Carol story itself!
This way he could soak up the sights and sounds and whatever else he could, not only to better transport himself, but also audience members, back in time and tell the Carol in the very best way possible. 
 
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Longfellows Wayside InnLongfellow's Wayside Inn is a Massachusetts Historic Landmark and the oldest Inn in the United States, continuing to provide food and lodging along-side the old Boston Post Road since 1716. As a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation, the Wayside Inn is dedicated to the preservation of its 125-acre historic campus and outbuildings, which include the old Howe Tavern, the Martha Mary Chapel, the Redstone School, and the world famous water-powered Wayside Inn Grist Mill. Countless individuals, school groups and civic organizations take advantage of the property's educational programs each year, which focus on the site's colonial past as well as its more recent history as the country's first living history museum while under the ownership of industrialist Henry Ford from 1923 to 1945. The site is funded with revenue generated from its restaurant and overnight guest rooms, fundraising initiatives, corporate and public donations, through historic preservation grants, and their own Historic Site Preservation Fund. The Wayside Inn Historic Site is on the National Register of Historic Places.  For further information, visit www.wayside.org or phone 978-443-1776.
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NOTE TO MEDIA:  Embedded images are high resolution and offered for free use by the print media for stories related to these performances and may be cropped and color-balanced as needed.    Please credit the photographers as follows:
“David Krapes”

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.