A Christmas Carol
by Charles Dickens
by Charles Dickens
Fri. Dec 9th 2022, 7:30 pm
Sat. Dec 10th 2022, 7:30 pm
Sun. Dec 11th 2022, 2:00 pm
Fri. Dec 16th 2022, 7:30 pm
Sat. Dec 17th 2022, 2:00 pm
Sat. Dec 17th 2022, 7:30 pm
Sun. Dec 18th 2022, 2:00 pm
Virtual Performances:
Sat. Dec 17th 2022, 7:30 pm
Sun. Dec 18th 2022, 2:00 pm
The Virginia Somerville Sutton Theatre
4100 Well Spring Dr., Greensboro
Sat. Dec 10th 2022, 7:30 pm
Sun. Dec 11th 2022, 2:00 pm
Fri. Dec 16th 2022, 7:30 pm
Sat. Dec 17th 2022, 2:00 pm
Sat. Dec 17th 2022, 7:30 pm
Sun. Dec 18th 2022, 2:00 pm
Virtual Performances:
Sat. Dec 17th 2022, 7:30 pm
Sun. Dec 18th 2022, 2:00 pm
The Virginia Somerville Sutton Theatre
4100 Well Spring Dr., Greensboro
The Triad’s favorite family holiday tradition returns! See many of the actors you have come to know and love. Hear all of the beloved Christmas music you have come to expect from the annual spectacular production of A Christmas Carol. Meet Bob Cratchit, Tiny Tim, and Scrooge himself in this heart-warming and music-filled adaptation of Charles Dickens’ beloved “ghostly little tale.”
Restoring A Christmas Carol
Pedro with Shane Hubbard in A Christmas Carol Unplugged, 2013
Seven years after the North Carolina Shakespeare Festival shuttered its doors, actor, director, and producer Meredith DiPaolo Stephens, who also served as assistant managing director at NCShakes from 2001-2014, will be producing A Christmas Carol under the umbrella of Goodly Frame Theatre.
The celebrated production of A Christmas Carol was presented annually at NCShakes for 36 years, and offered a wholesome and powerful family theatre experience that captured the heart of the holiday season in the Triad. A group of veteran actors from the NCShakes production are gearing up to revive its beloved and time-honored production of A Christmas Carol.
The main motivation behind restoring A Christmas Carol is to continue the legacy of NCShakes’ legendary artistic director Pedro Silva, whose recent death in 2019 shook the Piedmont Triad area.
The celebrated production of A Christmas Carol was presented annually at NCShakes for 36 years, and offered a wholesome and powerful family theatre experience that captured the heart of the holiday season in the Triad. A group of veteran actors from the NCShakes production are gearing up to revive its beloved and time-honored production of A Christmas Carol.
The main motivation behind restoring A Christmas Carol is to continue the legacy of NCShakes’ legendary artistic director Pedro Silva, whose recent death in 2019 shook the Piedmont Triad area.
Meet the Team behind A Christmas Carol
Jenna Tamisiea (director) is a proud alumnus of A Christmas Carol with North Carolina Shakespeare from 2010-2013! She currently serves as the artistic director of Glow Lyric Theatre, which is a vocal arts company producing opera and musical theatre in response to the political and social climate of South Carolina. She is also a traveling freelance director throughout the Southeast. Recent directing credits include: Spring Awakening (The Warehouse Theatre) Guys and Dolls (Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre), Peter Grimes (Northern Arizona University) Summer and Smoke (Converse Opera Theatre) and Hands on a Hardbody (Guilford Technical College). Jenna even had her first Zoom directing experiences this year with Proud Mary Theatre Company’s The P*ssy Grabber Plays and Trustus Theatre’s Not Until I Say So. Some of Jenna’s original devised work includes Armed (Glow Lyric Theatre), which reflects on gun violence in the US, and Pulse (AnamCara Theatre), a piece responding to the Orlando mass shooting. Jenna was recently named a finalist for the American Prize in Directing for her productions of The Hot Mikado and West Side Story. She is also a recipient of the Robert Porterfield Directing Award, a finalist for the Drama League New Musicals Fellowship and was chosen for the 2021 Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers Observership Program. She holds an MFA in Directing from Florida State University. www.jennadirectress.com
"When I think about my career in theatre, I can’t remember a better time before my involvement with NCShakes because it was so incredibly impactful. I got to observe how masterfully and meticulously Pedro Silva was as a director and how he encouraged all of us to work with mutual trust and open hearts as actors. I credit Pedro for inspiring me to become a director, and without his influence, I wouldn’t create the work I do now. A Christmas Carol also created deep and long lasting friendships for me, and I keep finding myself pulled to work and play with the artists I met there. It is a privilege to be leading the resurrection of this spirited, heart-warming show, which means so much to me and to this community. "
"When I think about my career in theatre, I can’t remember a better time before my involvement with NCShakes because it was so incredibly impactful. I got to observe how masterfully and meticulously Pedro Silva was as a director and how he encouraged all of us to work with mutual trust and open hearts as actors. I credit Pedro for inspiring me to become a director, and without his influence, I wouldn’t create the work I do now. A Christmas Carol also created deep and long lasting friendships for me, and I keep finding myself pulled to work and play with the artists I met there. It is a privilege to be leading the resurrection of this spirited, heart-warming show, which means so much to me and to this community. "
David Sebren (Artistic Director) David is a proud alumnus of The North Carolina Shakespeare Festival having worked for the company five times. Four of those shows were A Christmas Carol. He holds an MFA in Directing from Florida State University, and a BFA in Acting from UNCG. He has worked professionally as an actor, director, designer and fight choreographer since graduating from UNCG in 2006, and has worked with companies from North Carolina to California. David currently serves on the faculty of High Point University, Greensboro College, Forsyth Tech, and Wake Tech. He also serves as the resident fight choreographer for GLOW Lyric Theatre in Greeneville, SC. Some of David’s past credits include - Directing: From This Day forward, Tartuffe, Servant of Two Masters, The Cat in The Hat. Acting: Wrights of Passage, Fortune, Jackie and Me, Spamalot!, Hatfields and McCoys. Fight Choreography: Carmen, Fidelio, Romeo et Juliette, West Side Story, The Crucible (Opera). David currently lives in Burlington, NC and is excited to work with Goodly Frame to breathe new life into A Christmas Carol. www.davidssebren.com
“I started my professional career at The North Carolina Shakespeare Festival. I started as an Intern in 2004, and my first role was in the ensemble of Othello. I had a few lines, and I understudied the Duke. Looking back I wasn’t ready at all and I’m thankful I didn’t have to go on. I remember having numerous conversations with older seasoned actors about their experiences. I was always full of questions, and they were always willing to answer. I remember how Pedro always checked on every person, and embraced them with love and kindness. He was truly invested in every person he interacted with. The best way to describe Pedro is with a Dickens quote. ‘I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year’. In 2006 I was cast in A Christmas Carol, and Pedro brought me back several times to play the same roles. It always felt like coming home for Christmas. In 2013 Pedro called me as an emergency replacement for the role of Bob Cratchit. I won’t lie; I was nervous about that since I had big shoes to fill. I will always be thankful to Pedro Silva for giving me my start in professional theatre, and will always cherish the memory of playing Bob Cratchit to Pedro’s Scrooge in 2013.”
Meredith DiPaolo Stephens (Executive Director), previously assistant managing director of the North Carolina Shakespeare Festival, was blessed with the opportunity to act in A Christmas Carol from 2001 to 2013 before founding Goodly Frame Theatre in Greensboro. Meredith's extensive training in Shakespeare’s language and performance includes work at UNC Greensboro, Oxford University, Harvard University, the North Carolina Shakespeare Festival, Shakespeare Lives!, the American Shakespeare Center, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London. In addition to her work with Goodly Frame Theatre, Meredith has been teaching theatre and English Language Arts since 1991, currently teaching AP Language and Composition for Orange High School in Hillsborough, NC. Her recent acting credits include Venus in Dido, Queen of Carthage (TSMGO), Sarah in The Malone Family in the Enchanted Forest (Clinton Festa), Antonio in The Merchant of Venice (TSMGO), Carol in Season's Screenings (Spring Theatre), Duchess of Gloucester in Richard II (TSMGO), Chancellor Whitemarsh in Lock-In (Spring Theatre), Ebenezer Scrooge in An Old Salem Christmas Carol (Little Theatre of Winston Salem), Banquo in Macbeth (Andy Griffith Playhouse), Feste in Twelfth Night (Shared Radiance Theatre), and Titania/Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shared Radiance Theatre). Recent directing credits include Finding Shakespeare, Reboot, A Simple Jester, King Lear, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Hamlet, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. www.meredithdipaolostephens.com
"I met Pedro Silva when I was 10 years old, the same year I experienced Shakespeare for the first time. The show was A Midsummer Night's Dream at NCShakes, and I was hooked. I began working in the NCShakes ticket office while I was in high school, continuing on and off throughout my university years. In 2001, I returned to NCShakes as an actor in A Christmas Carol and then joined the management staff full time. Like a second father, Pedro watched me grow up. He mentored me, challenged me, encouraged me, but most of all, he inspired me. It was Pedro's guiding light that brought me back to NCShakes time and again, eventually with all four of my children acting in A Christmas Carol, two of them playing Tiny Tim in turn. Three of them fell in love with Shakespeare, one earning her BA in English literature, one now a professional cinematographer, and one on her way to study classical acting in England in the fall. I can't imagine how different my life would be if I hadn't met Pedro in 1980. Pedro may have left us in body, but his spirit lives on in his legacy, and I know he is not done affecting my artistic life. As he always loved to remind us, 'Christmas time is the best time of the year.'"
"I met Pedro Silva when I was 10 years old, the same year I experienced Shakespeare for the first time. The show was A Midsummer Night's Dream at NCShakes, and I was hooked. I began working in the NCShakes ticket office while I was in high school, continuing on and off throughout my university years. In 2001, I returned to NCShakes as an actor in A Christmas Carol and then joined the management staff full time. Like a second father, Pedro watched me grow up. He mentored me, challenged me, encouraged me, but most of all, he inspired me. It was Pedro's guiding light that brought me back to NCShakes time and again, eventually with all four of my children acting in A Christmas Carol, two of them playing Tiny Tim in turn. Three of them fell in love with Shakespeare, one earning her BA in English literature, one now a professional cinematographer, and one on her way to study classical acting in England in the fall. I can't imagine how different my life would be if I hadn't met Pedro in 1980. Pedro may have left us in body, but his spirit lives on in his legacy, and I know he is not done affecting my artistic life. As he always loved to remind us, 'Christmas time is the best time of the year.'"
