Bah, humbug. The Citadel Theatre’s much anticipated production of Tom Wood’s adaptation of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is a holiday tradition that fills seats every year.
In this era of greed-is-good, it’s a stark reminder that the vulnerable and in-need should not be forgotten.
Join James MacDonald as he returns in the role of the wealthy, but skinflint Ebenezer Scrooge. Spooked by four spirits on Christmas Eve, Scrooge magically travels through time and place and rediscovers the value of charitable acts.
Bob Baker directs a cast of 37 that includes former St. Albert Children’s Theatre alumni John Kirkpatrick and Luc Tellier as well as SACT founding artistic director Maralyn Ryan. This year Byron Trevor Martin, a St. Albert improv instructor, has also been added to the mix.
Since A Christmas Carol was first mounted 15 years ago, it also launched a tradition of collecting monetary donations after each performance.
Since the oil price drops throughout 2015, there has been an uptick in demand at food banks. And once again actors are asking audiences to be generous.
In 2014, the company raised $67,000 and this year organizers hope to surpass that amount. Total donations for 15 years have exceeded $753,000.
A Christmas Carol runs until Dec. 23 on the Maclab stage. Tickets are available at 780-425-1820 or online at citadeltheatre.com.
Artistic director Wendy Grasdahl of Festival City Winds has programmed Fire & Ice, an evening concert on Saturday, Dec. 5 that reflects the grandness and scope of the full winter season.
The concert band features all four Festival City Winds bands – a novice band, two intermediate bands and a senior band – each performing celebratory selections geared to their level.
“Fire & Ice should be a celebration of all the different aspects of the winter season. Pieces that add crispness to winter such as taking a walk on a moonlit night. The Edmonton focus is moving toward a ‘let’s celebrate winter’ theme. We just want to give a sense of the atmosphere that winter is in. It’s kind of funny now because of the warm weather,” chuckles Grasdahl.
The evening’s program is designed to get people into the holiday spirit with clever arrangements of classics such as White Christmas, Il Est NĂ©, A Celtic Christmas and It Came Upon a Midnight Clear.
As well Grasdahl has added a mix of standard band repertoire such as Largo from Vivaldi’s Winter, Holst’s Song Without Words and a couple of marches.
Fire & Ice takes place in the Robert Tegler Centre in Concordia College on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $12 and are available at the door.
Margaret Edson’s Pulitzer-prize winning play Wit is a look at the world of terminal ovarian cancer. The action takes place during the final hours of Dr. Vivian Bearing, an uncompromising university professor of English.
Her journey is told through flashbacks and memories. Woven into the play are the intricacies of the English language as examined through John Donne’s tongue-in-cheek metaphysical poetry.
Vivian has intelligence, strength and wit, but toward her final moments she comes to appreciate the simplicity of kindness.
Directed by Anne Marie Szucs, it stars Mary-Ellen Perley as Vivian. Wit runs from Dec. 2 to 15 at Walterdale Theatre. Tickets are $12 to $18 and are available at 780-420-1757 or online at tixonthesquare.ca.
