2010-2011 Season Announcement

A Christmas Carol Fun Facts

'Tis the season to see A Christmas Carol on the APU stage! Here's a look at how this classic Christmas story came to be.

1. The original title was "A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being a Ghost Story of Christmas."

2. Charles Dickens, author of the book upon which the play is based, used his own childhood home as inspiration for the home of the Cratchit family - "shabby, dingy, damp and mean a neighborhood as one would desire to see."

3. Dickens loved acting and performed onstage many times as a young adult; later, he was famous for public readings of his works. You can read his condensed "public reading" version of A Christmas Carol here: http://charlesdickenspage.com/carol-dickens_reading_text.html

4. At one point in 1844, there were eight different productions of A Christmas Carol playing in London theaters.

5. This story is credited with revitalizing interest in certain customs we enjoy today, such as family gatherings on Christmas Day, gift giving, and use of the phrase "Merry Christmas." The name "Scrooge" has entered our vocabulary as a word used to describe a miserly person.

Sources: wikipedia.org and David Purdue's Charles Dickens Page (http://charlesdickenspage.com/carol.html)