Education | A Christmas Carol Writing Contest

The Program:

Launched in 1989, our annual A Christmas Carol Writing Contest is a literacy program open to all Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) students in grades six, seven and eight. Every year, students participate by writing original stories, songs and poems inspired by the timeless themes in Dickens classic tale. Over 2,000 students from nearly 50 CMSD schools submit entries to the contest each season!

Each school is allowed to submit one winner per grade level to the Great Lakes Theater Education Department, and those essays are adjudicated by a panel of local educators, artists, and community members. From those entries, six grand prize winners are chosen, two per grade level, and these students attend a private awards banquet attended by their teacher, members of their family, local actors and special guests, including, in 2011, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson.

Grand Prize winners also receive free tickets to A Christmas Carol, and several additional special prizes. All participating students receive admission to a special student matinee performance of the play, exclusively for a CMSD audience, with tickets and transportation provided in part by the School District. At the conclusion of this special matinee, school winners are brought up on stage, awarded A Christmas Carol t-shirts, meet Aled Davies, the actor portraying Ebenezer Scrooge, and Lynn Robert Berg, who plays Jacob Marley.

Click here to check out photos of the winners & awards ceremonies.

For more information, contact:
Daniel Hahn, Director of Education
(216) 241-5490 x307
Contact Daniel