Sunday, December 1st beginning at 1:00 pm

FREE Sunday December 1st beginning at 1:00 pm at the Knights of Pythias ~ 926 1/2 Broadway. NO ADMISSION - Free will donations accepted with proceeds benefiting My Sister's Pantry. Donations in the virtual world benefiting War Child North America

Press Release 10.12



Issued: October 12, 2013
PRESS RELEASE
IMMEDIATE RELEASE     
MEDIA CONTACT
Judith Cullen, Artist-Storyteller-Author
thedede (at) comcast dot net


Dickens’ Classic Tale Comes to Tacoma in a New Wa
Tacoma, WA – The classic holiday story of transformation and redemption, A Christmas Carol, will be presented in downtown Tacoma in a performance that will be both single and singular.  On Sunday, Dec. 1 beginning at 1 p.m. the Knights of Pythias Hall at 926 ½ Broadway will host a free presentation of Charles Dickens’ ghostly holiday tale with a new twist: three experienced voice performers will read an adaptation of the story annotated by the author himself with some additional text restored from the full version, and only one of the cast of three will actually be in the Tacoma performance hall. The other two will be on Second Life to provide a clash between old world story telling and new world technology.

Tacoma theater artist, author, and storyteller Judith Cullen will be performing A Christmas Carol along with Minnesota voice actor Kevin Lee, and Nevada storyteller Shandon Loring.  Loring and Lee will be joining Cullen in the virtual world of Second Life (c) to present the tale simultaneously in downtown Tacoma, and in the virtual world for an international audience.  Lasting approximately three hours, with a brief intermission, the three performers will guide guests through the journey of Ebenezer Scrooge, with Loring voicing the humbugging moneylender, while Lee and Cullen trade off narration and all additional characters.

The audience in Tacoma will see the virtual world on a large screen in the historical Pythian’s Hall, and view both the performers and the virtual audience as they explore a three dimensional environment called The Dickens Project.

The Dickens Project is a brainchild of Cullen, a hometown theater designer and author who is passionate about exploring new ways to bring stories and literature to life.  “The Dickens Project was envisioned as a way to create an experience where an audience could walk in the steps of Ebenezer Scrooge while listening to words of the author.  In its beta-test last year, the environment served as an interactive framework for the live, spoken performances.  The response was incredible.”  

In 2012, Cullen built a small test environment, utilizing her 25 years of experience as a scenic designer for theater and opera, and recruited an international cast of voice talent to present A Christmas Carol and other selections from the Dickens canon over a 13 day period abutting Christmas.  “We actually crashed the simulation one day, we were so full.  There were several times when the simulation was at capacity and people who wanted to get in could not access it. It’s was annoying, but also a mark of success for a virtual event.” 
 
“As opposed to a television or DVD presentation, a virtual performance engages you actively.  You can just sit back and listen, but you can also walk around using an avatar, exploring, and accessing interactive objects and information while still listening to a live performance.”  Cullen does not see this approach as replacing theater, reading, or other media forms of storytelling.  “This is just a different way, a new way.  It has the immediacy of a live performance. It is a great educational tool.  Instead of “going to pbs.org’ after the show is over, you can access links and information on related topics from the virtual world, while the performance is in progress. It is intimate and communal at the same time.”  Cullen speaks from five years and more than 500 hours of reading literature in Second Life as a volunteer and raising money for non-profit charities around the world. “This medium of story presentation does not replace books and reading, it inspires them.”

The Tacoma performance will be no different than what Cullen and her colleagues have been doing regularly for more than five years as part of the Seanchai Library in Second Life. The performance is free to Tacoma audiences, and free-will donations will be accepted with the proceeds benefiting My Sister’s Pantry : serving hot meals and distributing groceries and clothing to poor families suffering from homelessness in Tacoma since 1999.  Likewise the virtual audience will be invited to join the creators of The Dickens Project in support of War Child North America: the Canadian branch of an international network of agencies that go into war zones and places of armed conflict to provide education, advocacy, and support to non-combatants - children and families many of whom are often forced to become combatants simply to survive.  War Child’s vision is of a world where someday no child will know war.

“It is ironic.” says Cullen, “For years, I chuckled at the annual ‘cash cow’ productions of A Christmas Carol that so many theaters across the country present.  Then I read the story. It is a great story, to be sure.  Only a portion of the novella’s great beauty is in the dialogue.  There is so much more to be found that never makes it to a theatrical adaptation.  It is worth reading the entire thing.”  Cullen has read the entire text for online audiences for the last four years, just before Christmas. “That these great charities should benefit is a perfect fit.  I think Mr. Dickens would have approved whole heartedly.”
A Christmas Carol was first published in December of 1843.  The Dicken’s family was hit hard by poor sales of Martin Chuzzlewitt which the author, in a feud with his publishers, had printed at his own expense and agreed to accept a percentage of the profits.  Economic pressures, and another child on the way, forced the author to take action in September of 1843.  A Christmas Carol was written in six weeks. It was an instant success.

Additional Informational Links:

The Dickens Project Tacoma …
The Dickens Project Comes to Tacoma! on facebook . . .
The Knights of Pythias, Commencement Lodge #7 . . .

The Dickens Project 2012
                        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTsNZU55Ypc&feature=youtu.be
What is Second Life ? . . .
                        http://secondlife.com/whatis/?lang=en-US
Judith Cullen – Stories
                        http://jdcstoryteller.blogspot.com/           
 
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