MET in the News

We're all over the place this weekend! Not only are there several articles about MET in today's local papers, our shows are also on the covers of both 72Hours in the FNP and the A&E section in the Gazette! Follow the links below to read the stories and reviews:

A nice piece about Julie Herber and a review of 4 Eggnogs and an Apology, in the Frederick News Post.

A story about A Christmas Carol and one about our partnership with Cakes for a Cause, in the Gazette.

A Christmas Carol load-in at the Weinberg

Last Sunday, the day after we closed our run of A Christmas Carol at the Carroll County Arts Center, our crew loaded the set into the Weinberg Center in Frederick. We've been using the same set, designed by Tad Janes, for the last several years, and it's basically a giant erector set, fairly easy and quick to put together. And this year we captured the process on film:

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This is what the set looks like when it's all put together, with lights and special effects:

A Merry Bah Humbug Christmas

MET has partnered with Cakes for a Cause to present, for the first time ever, Scrooge Gear! During our performances of A Christmas Carol at the Weinberg, you'll be able to pick up a Merry Bah Humbug scarf, Cratchit Crackers and Tiny Tim Treats. Below MET board members and owner/founder of Cakes for a Cause Elin Ross model the fabulous scarves (design by Jean Peterson), and Elin displays her baked goodies.

First Row: Ben Mourad, Elin Ross, Shawn Pitts

Second Row: Amy Benton, Dan Kuebbing, Elizabeth Cromwell, Tad Janes, Kara Norman, Beccah Bartlett

Kris Kringle Parade

Every year the cast of A Christmas Carol marches in the annual Kris Kringle Parade. This parade winds through Historic Downtown Frederick and includes high school bands, girl scouts and cub scouts dressed in holiday garb and of course, Kris Kringle himself!

The cast meets at MET to get dressed, and then head over to the Delaplaine to line up:

Long-time METster Ashley Hall helps the children get dressed.

There are lots of kids in A Christmas Carol and finding shoes, stockings, pants, shirts, coats and hats for them all is always an interesting challenge!
Tad Janes (right), who plays Scrooge, has been growing those fabulous mutton chops for weeks! He applies white cream to his hair with a tooth brush

At last it's time for the parade! It was cold on Friday night, but our cast marched with smiles, handing out postcards promoting MET's holiday lineup.
Photo by Rob Dallimore

The two new Tiny Tims: Elissa Dalimore and Lena Janes.
Photo by Rob Dallimore

Elissa with Bill Stitley.

Photo by Rob Dallimore

History of MET's A Christmas Carol

2008 marks the 5th year of MET's production of A Christmas Carol. The script we use was adapted from the book by Charles Dickens by Theatricks (a theatre company founded by Sandy Murphy and MET Associate Artistic Director Julie Herber) over 11 years ago.

Dancing at Fezziwigs!

Theatricks and then The Fun Company (another Julie Herber founded company) produced the show for about six years, performing at Frederick Community College and the Weinberg. The very first Scrooge was Tom Dougherty.

The ghost of Jacob Marley (James McGarvey) rattles his chains.

MET began producing A Christmas Carol when Julie - and The Fun Company - joined MET. Not much has changed in the past 11 years - we use the same original script from Theatricks, Julie has directed every year except one, when she was part of the cast.

The Ghost of Christmas Past (Gené Fouché) greets Scrooge (Tad Janes)

There have been cast changes, of course, but most of the people you see on stage have been doing the show for years. Tad Janes, MET's Artistic Director, has played Scrooge for the past 5 years. For many years, the part of Tiny Tim was played by Ensemble School student Karli Cole. This year the role is double cast, played by Elissa Dalimore and Lena Janes.

Scrooge (Tad Janes) and Ghost of Christmas Present (Karen Paone) watch the Cratchit family.

We've gone through several sets, most of them designed by our good friend Ira Domser. The current set was designed by Tad. We store the set, along with tubs of props and costumes, separately from the rest of our stock. We do our best to use Christmas Carol props and costumes only for that show, which makes getting ready for performances much easier!

Our fabulous set.

This year you can see A Christmas Carol in Wesminster at the Carroll County Arts Center or in Downtown Frederick at The Weinberg Center. In addition to public matinee and evening performances, the cast will also perform 5 daytime shows for school children.

Scrooge and company

Tiny Tim (Karli Cole) and Scrooge (Tad Janes). "God bless us, everyone!"

Another Christmas Carol Video

Karen says I missed one! Here's Mr. Magoo, with Tiny Tim and Razzleberry Dressing!

Charles Dickens

Charles John Huffam Dickens, author of A Christmas Carol, was born on February 7, 1812.

His early life began idyllically, but due to his father's imprisonment in Marshalsea Debtor's Prison, Dickens was forced at the age of twelve to leave school and work at Warren's Shoe Blacking Factory. The rest of his family moved into the prison, but Dickens was sent to live with a family friend so he could was to work.

Many of his books are based on his experiences as a child factory worker and the effects of being abandoned by his family.

Fortunately for Dickens (and us!), when his father was released, he made sure Dickens was able to return to school, saving him from a life of factory work.

As an adult, Dickens held several jobs, including working as a clerk at a law office and for a newspaper as a political journalist. His first published work for fiction was Sketches by Boz, which was published in 1836 and led to the serialization of his first novel, The Pickwick Papers.

Also in 1836, Dickens married Catherine Hogarth. They had 10 children.

Dickensian characters—especially their typically whimsical names—are among the most memorable in English literature. The likes of Ebenezer Scrooge, Fagin, Mrs Gamp, Charles Darnay, Oliver Twist, Micawber, Abel Magwitch, Samuel Pickwick, Miss Havisham, Wackford Squeers and many others are so well known and can be believed to be living a life outside the novels that their stories have been continued by other authors.

Most of Dickens's major novels were first written in monthly or weekly instalments in journals such as Master Humphrey's Clock and Household Words, later reprinted in book form. These instalments made the stories cheap, accessible and the series of regular cliff-hangers made each new episode widely anticipated. American fans even waited at the docks in New York, shouting out to the crew of an incoming ship, "Is Little Nell dead?"

Charles Dickens died on June 9, 1870. Contrary to his wish to be buried in Rochester Cathedral, he was laid to rest in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey. The inscription on his tomb reads: "He was a sympathiser to the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed; and by his death, one of England's greatest writers is lost to the world."

For more on Dickens, including TONS of analysis of every word he wrote, visit here.

A Christmas Carol Fast Facts

- John Leech provided eight illustrations, four woodcuts and four hand colored etchings, for the first edition of A Christmas Carol published in December 1843. This image, Mr. Fezziwig's Ball, appeared as the the frontpiece for that edition. See more illustrations here.

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- The full title is: A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being a Ghost Story of Christmas

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- A Christmas Carol was the subject of Dickens' first ever public reading, given in Birmingham Town Hall to the Industrial and Literary Institute on 27 December 1852.

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- A Christmas Carol has been made into about a million different adaptations, from musicals, movies, radio shows and TV shows. For a complete list (almost!), go here.

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- A Christmas Carol was immediately very popular, though at the time it was published it created a great religious controversy! The story's lack of babes, wise men, stars, mangers and other icons of the Christian nativity inspired a multitude of sermons and pamphlets at that time.

A Christmas Carol is almost here...again!

Once again, MET will be performing the traditional A Christmas Carol, adapted from the book by Charles Dickens. To get us all in the mood, I'll be posting several items relating to this most classic of all holiday classics.

For starters, let's look at some other A Christmas Carol adaptations:


The Muppets!



Scrooge McDuck!


annnnd...Barbie!