The Sunrise Rotary Club will be getting the community into the Christmas spirit at Southminster United Church, Dec. 7 with their fifth annual reading of Charles Dickens’ classic “A Christmas Carol.”
If Charles Dickens was alive today, he’d be 200 years old. So this year is special,” said Sunrise Rotary Club representative Kristy Jahn-Smith. She observed the event is something Dickens would have appreciated as he lived in an era surrounded by poverty and orphans and consequently became a champion of rights and raising funds for the poor.
This will be the fifth year the Rotary Club has been raising money for both Lethbridge food banks through the increasingly popular event.
There will be several familiar faces reading the story this year including Ed Bayly,who will be playing Charles Dickens, and Brian Quinn, who are familiar faces with Playgoers of Lethbridge and Hatrix Theatre respectively. The other readers are Morgan Day, Derek Hoare, Judith Buchan, Bill Laycock and Adam Mason.
“Most people know the story because of how often it has been dramatized on television and on film. It’s always original, except this is a reading of the story, not a dramatization,” Jahn-Smith continued.
But the readers will be wearing Victorian era costumes from the University of Lethbridge and will be using a few props as well. They will also be performing in front of a Victorian era set.
While this event is a more conservative, traditional celebration, there will also be music with the U of L Faculty Brass Quintet, Dave Mikuliak, Sheldon Arvay plus Kade Hogg and the U of L Youth Singers.