Seasonal

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens adapted by Gary Owen

This is the first play adaptation of Charles Dickens’ classic novel from an award-winning playwright who remains close to the original text but significantly updates the humor and fleshes out in spoken dialogue many of the important character passages from the book. This adaptation is not the stuffy stereotype of Victorian England but is unconventionally humorous, gritty and not at all tame in confronting poverty, greed and issues of unfairness in society: themes that will strikingly resonate with modern audiences.

This adaptation and the large size of the cast make it the perfect edition for the thousands of school performances which are held across the country each year during the holiday season. Unique to this adaptation, playwright Gary Own fills in the missing details in Scrooge’s background to explain his miserliness: how he was sent to a workhouse as a boy, starved, beaten and nearly worked to death. The Constable character from the workhouse then haunts Scrooge and appears every time he chooses money over humanity.

Aesop’s Fable-ous Christmas Tree by Michael Gravois

Aesop’s fables are given a festive spin …

There’s a mash-up of The Twelve Days of Christmas and The Tortoise and the Hare, where the six birds of Christmas compete in a comical race — with the turtle dove winning, of course. And a tiny snow mouse teaches the abominable snowman that little friends may prove great friends. Ebenezer Scrooge realizes that wealth unused might as well not exist. Santa’s elves dream of a life outside the workshop as they sing a “patter poem” about their ideal careers. And even though the eight reindeer panic when Rudolph gets a cold in the nose, they learn that necessity is the mother of invention

These dozen vignettes illuminate important life lessons by re-inventing the classic fables, blending humor, rhythmic elements, rapping, puppetry, poetry, song and storytelling to create a fast-paced, fun-filled show that’s filled with Christmas spirit.

8 to 50 gender-neutral roles

Single set – runs about 60 mins

by Paul Thain from Leo Tolstoy

Published by Cyberpress

Large Mixed Cast

Papa Panov is an old shoemaker, now almost too blind to thread a needle

On Christmas Eve he has a dream that Jesus will visit him on Christmas Day

Eager and anxious, he waits all day

But his only visitors are a tramp, a road sweeper, and a pauper woman with her cold and hungry baby

Despite his disappointment and fading hope, Papa Panov gives them his coat, his money, his soup

And even the tiny shoes he was saving as a present for Baby Jesus

Night falls and his special visitor still hasn’t arrived

Papa Panov thinks himself a silly, old fool

But then he has another dream …

A dream which convinces him his special visitor did come after all

Adapted from a short story by Leo Tolstoy, Papa Panov’s Magic Christmas makes a perfect play for Christmas

It can involve any number of children and it runs about 25 minutes