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Showing posts from December, 2013

A Special Note from A Christmas Carol Cast Member Valerie Chamness aka Ghost of Christmas Past

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At Christmas time, every year of my childhood, we'd pull out a special VHS tape full of Christmas specials taped from TV shows. The first thing on the tape was Mickey's Christmas Carol, and to this day, when I watch it (yes, I still have a VHS player), it truly puts me in the Christmas spirit. Today, I'm proud to be playing a role that was immortalized by Jiminy Cricket, and hope to do it justice (although the wedding dress/top of the Christmas tree angel costume makes it quite a different take on the character). When the audience sees this show, I hope that it can bring up childhood memories for them, as it does for me. In that way, I will truly be the Ghost of Christmas Past! If it brings them joy and happiness to remember their past Christmases, then I think I've done Mister Dickens' work justice. For children hearing this story for the first time, I hope that the Christmas spirit can infuse them, and it can be the beginning of a tradition at this magical ti

Meet the Cast of A Christmas Carol!

Benjamin Ashton (Dick Wilkins & Skater) Clare Baker (Belinda Cratchit) is excited to join the wonderful cast and crew of A Christmas Carol. Clare is a fourteen year old freshman at Woodson H.S. Past performances with LTA: A Christmas Carol (Belinda Cratchit), A Christmas Carol (Fan Scrooge), Gypsy (Newsboy); and PWLT’s Bye Bye Birdie (Ursula Merkle), ESP’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Mustardseed Fairy), RMT’s Annie (Tessie), and CFTC’s Annie Get Your Gun (Nellie). Thanks Linda Wells, JCCNV Dance Academy and family. Elliot Bales (Marley, Christmas Present, & Christmas Future) returns to LTA following a successful production of Rossum’s Universal Robots with The Naked Theater Company. The Alexandria, Virginia-based actor returned to performing following a 26 year career as a US Army officer, appearing in 33 Variations, Morgan in The Drawer Boy (Port City Playhouse), A Christmas Carol (LTA), Woman in Black (LTA) and Romeo and Juliet (ACCT). He has also performed in

The True Meaning of (A) Christmas (Carol – by Charles Dickens) - By cast member Elliot Bales

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Every year LTA produces a version of A Christmas Carol based on Charles Dickens’ 1843 novella for our community. It will be one of thousands of live performances of this classic to be performed throughout the DC Metro area this holiday season. There will be musicals, dances, puppet shows, even a phone-in version of this story produced in our region and audiences will flock to them all. But why do “spirits walk the earth and why do they come to” our stages year after year after year? Isn’t the story of ole’ Ebenezer Scrooge dated and passé? Or is there some compelling, timeless reason we are drawn to Tiny Tim’s jubilant “God bless us every one”? First, Scrooge has garnered a maligned reputation over the years. He has become synonymous with meanness, perhaps even a little evil. In fact, Scrooge just doesn’t care. He cares about and for no human being. He lives only with the immediacy of the present moment, with no reflection on what went before or thought for what comes next (c