Press Release

Great Lakes Theater Festival Celebrates The Holiday Season With A Christmas Carol

October 23, 2007
Festival’s gift to Northeast Ohio is region’s best-loved holiday entertainment.

CLEVELAND, OH – The stage of the Ohio Theatre, Playhouse Square will glow with good spirits and time-honored tradition when Great Lakes Theater Festival (GLTF) presents its annual production of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, running November 23 through December 23, 2007. The production, celebrating its nineteenth year, has delighted an estimated 425,000 people in its history, making it Northeast Ohio’s most-loved and best-attended holiday entertainment.

Great Lakes Theater Festival’s Associate Artistic Director, Andrew May, will stage former GLTF Artistic Director Gerald Freedman’s heartwarming adaptation of this classic tale. The production features a multi-generational cast of actors, singers and dancers led by veteran Cleveland actor Dudley Swetland, returning for his twelfth season in the role of miserly Ebenezer Scrooge. The production sponsors for A Christmas Carol are American Greetings and the John P. Murphy Foundation. The production’s media sponsor is Soft Rock 102.1 F.M. WDOK. Media sponsors for the Festival’s forty-sixth season are Cleveland Free Times, Cleveland Magazine, The Plain Dealer, WCLV 104.9 F.M., WCPN 90.3 F.M. ideastream and WKSU 89.7 F.M.

“It’s exciting for us as a company of artists to revisit this great classic holiday story,” said Andrew May, who will stage this season’s production. “We are blessed with an immensely talented cast and a wonderful adaptation that we can’t wait to share. I am overjoyed to return to direct a piece of theater again this season that has meant as much to this company and to this community as has A Christmas Carol for nearly two decades.”

GLTF Producing Artistic Director Charles Fee remarked, “The combination of Gerald Freedman’s inspired and moving adaptation, Andrew May’s dynamic gifts as an artist, our remarkable design team and our talented cast are sure to delight audiences, whether they’re attending for the first time or returning to experience this holiday tradition again with friends and family.”

Freedman's adaptation of A Christmas Carol is presented as a story within a story. The fictitious Cleaveland family gathers in its Victorian-era parlor on Christmas Eve to read Mr. Dickens' book. As Mrs. Cleaveland reads the story to her family, her youngest child, Master William, reimagines familiar faces as characters in the story: the Cleaveland’s crotchety manservant becomes Scrooge, Father becomes Bob Cratchit, Mother becomes Belle, and the Cleaveland children become the Cratchits, with Master William becoming the beloved Tiny Tim. In all, more than 60 Dickens characters are brought to life on stage.

The Festival’s production incorporates theatrical special effects to retain a strong sense of the supernatural, emphasizing the novel's origins in folk tales and myth. Designers for the GLTF production blend exceptional stagecraft with dramatic effects that evoke the magical and mysterious aspects of a classic ghost story.

Great Lakes Theater Festival’s nineteenth annual production of A Christmas Carol previews on Friday, November 23rd at 1:30 p.m. Opening Night is scheduled for Friday, November 23rd at 7:30 p.m. Curtain times for all evening performances will remain at 7:30 p.m., with a 1:30 p.m. curtain time for Friday and Saturday matinees and a 3:00 p.m. curtain time for Sunday matinees. An audio-described performance is scheduled for Sunday, December 2nd at 3:00 p.m. A sign-interpreted performance is scheduled for Sunday, December 9th at 3:00 p.m.

Single tickets for Great Lakes Theater Festival’s production of A Christmas Carol range in price from $28-$56 (Student tickets $28 – any performance / any seat) and are available by calling (216) 241-6000, by ordering online or by visiting the Playhouse Square Ticket Office. Groups of ten or more receive discounts and should call (216) 664-6050 x1 to make reservations.

Since 1962, Great Lakes Theater Festival has brought the pleasure, power and relevance of classic theater to the widest possible audience in Northern Ohio. The first resident company of Playhouse Square Center, Great Lakes Theater Festival has called the Ohio Theatre home since 1982.

At A Glance