Montford Park Players, an Asheville theatrical tradition, is proud to announce the upcoming presentation of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, directed by Mandy Bean and Sophie Stanley. The play will be presented at the Hazel Robinson Amphitheater, located at 92 Gay Street in the heart of the Montford region of Asheville, December 2nd through the 17th. Performances will be on Saturdays and Sundays, beginning at 5:00pm and, like all of Montford’s offerings, will be absolutely FREE to attend. The performances will coincide with an even newer tradition, an outdoor Victorian Christmas festival called A Day With Dickens, which will begin at 3:00pm and culminate in the performance at 5:00pm.

Montford Park Players has been presenting Shakespeare and other classical works to the Asheville community since 1973, and has since grown to be one of Western North Carolina’s most beloved and well-known cultural attractions. They first presented A Christmas Carol  in 1977 and have performed it yearly since, creating one of Western North Carolina’s most enduring holiday traditions!

The play is a truncated version of Charles Dickens’ classic tale of Ebenzer Scrooge, a bitter, miserly moneylender who is visited by spirits on Christmas Eve, as they attempt to soften his hard heart with visions of Christmases Past, Present and Future. Written as a novella in 1843, A Christmas Carol is one of the world’s most beloved tales and has been adapted into countless plays and films, while the book remains a family favorite all around the globe.

A Christmas Carol will be directed by Mandy Bean, a longtime performer and director with Montford Park Players, and Sophie Stanley, a relative newcomer to the Montford stage, who played Christmas Past in 2016’s production and was last seen as Mrs. Darling in this summer’s record breaking production of Peter Pan. Ms. Bean has directed A Christmas Carol twice before (in 2009 and 2014) and is celebrating her tenth year with the company.

Of this year’s production, Ms. Bean said, “Our goal is to present the story as close to the original text as we can. We’re going for a very traditional, classic feel. Everything from music selection to costume inspiration is being drawn from the descriptions that Dickens gave.” Ms. Stanley added, “We’ve even added a scene taken from the novella that seldom gets put onstage. This will be something that the whole family can enjoy!”

The play will star Sean Lowman as Scrooge, and the cast of twenty-six includes Asheville favorites and seasoned MPP veterans Kevin Norris, William Lawrence, Tony Antinora, and Emmalie Handley, as well as several other familiar faces and many newcomers. Montford Park Players is proud of this production and happy to continue to bring FREE Shakespeare (and others) in the park to our ever-supportive community.