Entertainment
A Charlie Brown Christmas Comes to
Life on the Garden Theatre Stage
Brett Dault
The Winter Garden Magazine is excited about
the Garden Theatre’s stage adaptation of the
classic animated television special, A Charlie
Brown Christmas! Sponsored by Florida
Hospital Winter Garden, the Theatre will bring
to life on stage all the characters from the 50year television tradition.
A Charlie Brown Christmas was first shown
as an animated television special in 1965
and has been shown every year since. In the
story, Charlie Brown is overwhelmed by
the materialism he sees during the holiday
season and wishes to find the true meaning of
Christmas. After accepting the role of director
for the school Christmas play, and becoming
frustrated by his uncooperative actors, Charlie
Brown and the whole Peanuts gang eventually
come to realize what is important…now that
Christmas-time is here.
The first Peanuts strip appeared on October 2,
1950 in seven newspapers nationwide when
its creator, Charles M. Schulz was 27 years old.
Little did he know at that point what a lasting
popularity the characters would achieve. At the
time of Schulz’s retirement in 1999, the Peanuts
comic strip was syndicated in over 2,600
newspapers worldwide with book collections
translated in over 25 languages.
Charles Schulz once commented that Charlie
Brown is “a caricature of the average person…
most of us are more acquainted with losing
than winning.” Audiences certainly relate to
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WINTER GARDEN MAGAZINE
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DECEMBER 2016
gardentheatre.org
Charlie Brown himself, but also find similarities
with each of the other characters.
As part of the A Charlie Brown Christmas
experience, you can also enjoy caroling, photo ops,
and other surprises at the theatre and throughout
downtown Winter Garden. A sensory-friendly
performance has also been scheduled for
December 17 at 6pm; with special modifications
to the show’s lighting and sound effects, designed
for children with autism, Asperger’s or other
sensory processing disorders and special needs.
The 11-person cast includes Logan Blake as
Charlie Brown, Brandon Hofmann as Snoopy