ACT I’s first reader’s theatre production, "A Christmas Carol," runs this weekend at the Ray House Museum. Adapted from the original Dickens text by Romulus Linney, the production is staged by Le Cox and runs this Friday, Saturday, December 1 and 2 and 7:30 PM and Sunday, December 3 at 2:00 PM. Ticket prices are $10.00, and $7.00 for students age 14 and under. The ticket price includes hors d’oeuvres served at intermission. The Ray house will accommodate 40 patrons for each performance. Most of the cast performs multiple roles (in addition to those roles listed here) and includes ACT I veterans Steve Arnold as Scrooge, Ron Baldwin as Jacob Marley, Nancy Beckman as the Ghost of Christmas Past, Alexander Vasquez as Scrooge’s nephew, Margie Ortgeisen as Mrs. Fezziwig, Aaron Murphy as Peter Cratchit, Josie Rundlett as Belle. They are joined by debut performers Bill Owens as Bob Cratchit, Ed Dickerson as The Ghost of Christmas Present, Tammy Hickok as Mrs. Cratchit, and Jessica Rundlett as Martha, The children’s cast includes veteran performers Meghan Owens, Chelsea Hessenius, and Dustin Kearns, as well as newcomers Jake Hessenius as Tiny Tim and Jeff Martin.

Although actors will be reading their parts, the production will be semi-staged and costumed, with actors using the music room for the playing area. The audience will be seated in the parlor. The dining room will be used for serving during intermission.

"A Christmas Carol" was originally published by Charles Dickens in 1843, written over a period of merely weeks.  The story in many ways helped to transform Christmas from a minor celebration into the modern holiday we now enjoy.

This season’s readers theatre series concludes in April with a run of "The Crucible," a searing Arthur Miller drama about the Salem Witch Trials.

Director Larry Adams-Bowers is pleased to announce his cast for "My Fair Lady," to be performed this February and March. Cast members playing major roles include Kari Douma as Eliza Doolittle, Steve Arnold as Henry Higgins, Greg Douma as Freddy Einsford-Hill, Brian Larkin as Alfred P. Doolittle, Lori Kerwin as Mrs. Pearce, and LuAnn Urlaub as Mrs. Higgins, joined by Rick Murphy in his debut as Colonel Pickering and Sherry Stout making her debt as Mrs. Einsford-Hill. Others in the cast include Greg Walston, Lisa Elliott, Aaron Murphy, Kayla Comer, Kaitlin Karrick, Sue Gates, Elise Dickerson, Kendra McChristian, Britt Roster, Alexander Vasquez, Pat Lyons, Ron Baldwin, Rhonda Westergard, and Larry Adams-Bowers, joined by newcomers Dave Gates, Stephanie Stout, Terri Knipper, Camille Studer, Bonnie Carpenter, Alan Nebola, and Chrissie Schild.

The show, which premiered in London in 1956 with Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews, features such hit songs as "I Could Have Danced All Night," "The Rain in Spain," "On the Street Where You Live," "Get Me to the Church on Time," and "I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face."

My Fair Lady will run February 22 through March 4 at the Palace Theatre. Greg and Kari Douma will serve as music directors. Assistant Director for the production is Rhonda Westergard, and the set design will be by Mary Dee Phillips.

This month it is our pleasure to honor two of our long time active members as our Members of the Month.

The irrepressible Cora Miller in "Life with Mother." The quirky, eccentric Florence Unger in "The Odd Couple, Female Version." The understated old maid Lizzie in "Rainmaker." And the tragic Blanche in "A Streetcar Named Desire." And this week in our upcoming "A Christmas Carol," the calm, omnipotent Ghost of Christmas Past. Could any five roles be more diverse? The actress who has portrayed all of these so well for ACT I audiences and has been a fixture in our community theatre for over three fourths of ACT I’s history is one of the most esteemed members of our roster of performers, Nancy Beckman. Among Nancy’s other acting assignments for ACT I have been performances in "Twigs," both productions of "The Girls in 509," "Mornings at Seven," "Take a Number, Darling," and many, many more.

Nancy isn’t always front and center. She is there where ever she is needed, whether its building and painting sets, doing committee work, or working a crew. She served as Stage Manager of our first three variety show productions.  She has directed "Klondike Kalamity" and "Dancers," and has also served many terms as a member of the board. Nancy took four years off from ACT I a few years back to serve as drama director for Washington High School in Vinton, where she directed such excellent productions as "Oklahoma," "To Kill a Mockingbird," "Our Town," "Flowers for Algernon," "The Music Man," and "Cheaper by the Dozen."

Nancy’s husband Dean has been equally active with us over the years as well, but he manages to make himself almost invisible most of the time. Many of Dean’s accomplishments for ACT I go unrecognized, but the have been just as valuable as Nancy’s. Dean is frequently a sound and light technician, often making tapes of intermission and pre-show music for various productions. He served as Assistant Director for "The Foreigner."  And he has appeared on stage at least once.  Dean has served on the board many times and he is noted for being able to fill a hundred little roles that almost defy job descriptions, things that need to be done that we can count on Dean to do. One of Dean’s unusual but valuable contributions was as a consultant to our production of "The Sound of Music," where his extensive collection of Nazi memorabilia proved a very valuable resource in making sure that the many historical details of the show were correctly done. Dean’s assistance on that show extended to costuming, props, and even mannerisms needed by various performers.

Dean and Nancy Beckman both have careers working with the young people of our community. Nancy is a social worker for and Dean is a juvenile probation officer. Dean and Nancy have also hosted foreign exchange students frequently, and have had students from a wide variety of countries stay in their homes while attending Washington High School in Vinton. Dean and Nancy also enjoy foreign travel. They have had the pleasure of visiting their students in their home countries, and also enjoy traveling to New York and London to attend theatre.

Our thanks to Dean and Nancy Beckman for the many years of dedicated participation they have given to ACT I, and for the pleasure their future years of involvement will bring us!

This month we try out a new feature in Grease Paint. In "From the Archives," we will look back at one of our past productions. This month, as we perform our holiday readers theatre version of "A Christmas Carol," we take a look back at ACT I’s first holiday production, "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever." This show was produced on the main stage of The Old Creamery Theatre in Garrison in November of 1994.

The cast members of "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" who made their debuts for ACT I in that show reads like a who’s who of the ACT I membership, particularly for our youth membership. ACT I student performers who began with that show and continued with us in other productions include Peggy Moen, Becky Stravers, Dan LaGrange, John Westergard, Kate Westergard, Kordereau Sellers, Kolton Sellers, Dakoda Sellers, Maggie Karr, Jessica Coulter, Josh Brewer, Kyle Brewer, and Brei Isbell, as well as adults Ray Bookmeier and Rhonda Westergard.

Among the many wonderful individual performances, who could ever forget the hugely comical portrayal of the bedridden yet irrepressible Mrs. Armstrong as played by Becky Mossmann, in her final major role for ACT I? She literally brought down the house every time she was wheeled onto the stage in her hospital bed for one more cackling comic telephone monologue.  The show also featured local pastors rotating in the role of the minister of the fictional Second Presbyterian Church. 

"The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" was the story of two families, the "normal" Bradley family and the colorfully unpredictable Herdman family, whose children did everything from smoke cigars (onstage!) to stealing Twinkies, threatening others with bodily harm, and yet, in the end, performing the Christmas story with amazing believability and charm.

This was the first show in which we experimented with double casting, with decidedly mixed results. And parents of the young actors playing the Herdman children complained that the characters were coming home and inhabiting their youngsters even when they weren’t rehearsing. But any pandemonium backstage or at home was nothing compared to the pandemonium that was written into the show and performed for the audience, the highlight of which was the fire alarm scene when the scene is suddenly invaded by firemen with hoses who think the church is on fire because of the cigar smoke!

Mandy Peterson as Gladys Herdman

This show was a real contrast between high points and low points, and the worst night for the production was the Wednesday night in between the two performance weekends when the cast arrived at the theatre to discover that the theatre had been broken into and ransacked, with several hundred dollars worth of ACT I equipment missing or damaged. Adult members of the company comforted young cast members who felt violated and were frightened the thieves would return to harm them. With a news reporter on hand at the time the break-in was discovered (having come to take pictures for the Times) the event became a major news story, and as a result the community rallied behind the show, and the second weekend played to three packed houses. Nearly 750 patrons attended the second weekend alone, and along with over 500 from the first week made it the most attended show in ACT I’s history at the time. Only one show, "The Sound of Music," has ever bettered the attendance figures for "Best Christmas Pageant."

Although ACT I doesn’t make a practice of scheduling a holiday theme production every season, others have followed, including "The Gift of the Magi" in 1998 and last year’s "I’ll be Home for Christmas" and this year’s "A Christmas Carol."  But for those of us involved with that first holiday offering, Christmas and ACT I will always mean "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever."

1. O Henry

2. Charles Dickens

3. Katherine Paterson

4. James Thurber

5. Mark Twain

6. C. S. Lewis

7. Maria von Trapp

8. Margery Williams

9. Frances Hodgson Burnett

10. The Brothers Grimm

1. Leukemia          Marvin’s Room

2. Blindness          The Miracle Worker

3. Cancer              Twigs

4. Mental Illness     Marvin’s Room or A Streetcar Named Desire 

5. Scarlet Fever      The Velveteen Rabbit 

6. A broken arm     The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

7. Cholera              The Secret Garden

8. Food Poisoning  Life with Father