Artslandia at the Performance: Portland Playhouse Nov/Dec 2014 | Page 36

BRIAN WEAVER • ARTISTIC DIRECTOR | KEVIN N. KRUSE • MANAGING DIRECTOR PRESENTS CHARLES DICKENS’ A CHRISTMAS CAROL DIRECTED BY CRISTI MILES ADAPTATION AND ORIGINAL LYRICS BY RICK LOMBARDO ORIGINAL MUSIC BY ANNA LACKAFF AND RICK LOMBARDO MUSIC ARRANGEMENTS BY ANNA LACKAFF MUSIC DIRECTOR Justin Jude Carroll SCENIC DESIGNER Owen Walz COSTUME DESIGNER LIGHTING DESIGNER Ashton Hull Solomon Weisbard PROPS MASTER STAGE MANAGER ASSISTANT DIRECTOR Will Bailey Meredith Matthews Sarah Gehring FEATURING Adriana Bordea Emma Bridges Sellah Eberly La’Tevin Ellis Quinci Freeman-Lytle Bella Freeman-Moule Corinne Gaucher Andy Haftkowycz Drew Harper Eric Little Sasha Belle Neufeld Jennifer Rowe Atticus Salmon Jake Simonds Katie Watkins Joshua J. Weinstein Ashley Nicole Williams DECEMBER 3 – DECEMBER 28 A PRESENTATION OF OUR EDUCATION AND OUTREACH PROGRAM DIRECTOR’S NOTE by Cristi Miles Why it is so important for us to experience Dickens’ A Christmas Carol year after year? As I try to answer this question I realize that I am living the answer. Because I forget. I forget its lesson. With the fast, exciting pace of my modern, busy life, I forget to simply breathe and be. I forget to slow down, I forget that I am not alone on this journey, and that there is more to living than achieving and accumulating. I forget that, as Fred says, “there are many things from which I have derived good by which I have not profited.” Year after year, I crave to hear or read or see Dickens’ story because I need to remember. I need to remember that no matter how scrooge-like P2 | PORTLAND PLAYHOUSE A CHRISTMAS CAROL I become, I can still change for the better. The holiday season, and this story, remind me that “it is a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut up hearts freely, and to think of all men equally, as if we all are merely fellow passengers to the grave.” And you, my fellow passenger, maybe you too are forgetful. May you consent to open your heart freely to this human tale of forgetting, learning and changing. May it remind you to cherish the people, the moments, and the beautiful life that surrounds us all, not just during this time of year, but every day. Happiest of Holidays!