Author: Michael Witthaus

One-man Christmas Carol back for final bow

By Michael Witthaus
mwitthaus@hippopress.com

For three decades in the United States and the past 15 years in Nashua, the great-great-grandson of Charles Dickens has performed his beloved novel, A Christmas Carol, as a one-man show, bringing 26 characters from the holiday classic to life, each given distinct and unique touches and mannerisms.

Alas, this year marks the show’s final trip ’cross the pond. A farewell tour begins Nov. 28 at Nashua’s Center for the Arts.

“It’s just been an incredibly wild ride … such fun,” Gerald Dickens said during a recent Zoom call from his English home in Abington, Oxfordshire. “But, for a number of reasons — family considerations at home and all sorts of things — I thought 30 years is a pretty good number to hang up the top hat on.”

When he first performed it in 1993, Dickens believed it would be the only time.

“It was an absolute one-off … I insisted I’d never do it again,” he said of the reading, held to commemorate the novel’s 150th anniversary. He used an annotated script that the author had worked from in the 1860s, a time when he was doing more touring than writing.

Dickens’ notes about his characters made them come alive for his descendant.

“You get to the first description of Scrooge,” he recalled, rising to the role. “It says, ‘he was a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner. He was hard and sharp as flint, secret, self-contained.’ At the end of it, you’ve just turned into him — you can’t help it.”

One reason that so many Dickens works have been adapted for stage and screen is probably that he was an aspiring actor for many years before starting his career as a writer.

“He was a passionate theatrical man,” Gerald Dickens explained. “He auditioned at the Covent Garden Theater in London, the leading theater in the country at that time. Well, he didn’t audition. He had an audition scheduled, but he was ill on the morning of it. He didn’t have a voice, so he couldn’t go. So, yeah, that’s what he wanted to do.”

Giving readings allowed him to re-indulge that passion, he continued. “He absolutely loved … that direct contact with his audience that, of course, you don’t get as a novelist.” His final completed novel, Our Mutual Friend, came in 1865. “For the rest of that decade, he didn’t write anything. He was purely on the road, touring and performing.”

Dickens had a particular affinity for New England. On a U.S. reading tour in 1867 and 1868, he made Boston’s Parker House Hotel a home base, and performed at the adjacent Tremont Temple. Gerald Dickens has also appeared at that venue.

For the past several years, Gerald Dickens’ annual Christmas Carol tour has been sponsored by collectibles maker Byers’ Choice, whose caroler figures are de rigueur holiday decorations in many American homes. To commemorate the farewell tour, the Pennsylvania company released a special edition caroler in his likeness.

In a recent blog post, Dickens wrote about “the huge sense of honour — no, I shall write honor in deference to my hosts” he felt seeing his miniature likeness. It wears a gray frock coat over a red and gold waistcoat, along with a top hat and green knitted scarf. One hand holds a wooden cane that represents Tiny Tim’s crutch, the other a gold pocket watch chain.

“They’ve done a really great job with it,” he said. It’s likely they’ll be available at his Nashua show, he added, and if not, they can be ordered direct from the company, perhaps containing a special touch. “I have no doubt they’ll have me sat in a little boardroom somewhere, signing hundreds of copies.”

He’s eager to begin the farewell tour.

“I love coming to Nashua,” Dickens said. “Over the last three years, I’ve been able to perform in the beautiful Center for the Arts there … what a facility; a great, great theater … a real treat.” For anyone with any preconceptions about the show, he shared this message.

“It’s not a stuffy, dusty old Englishman doing a lecture,” he said. “There’s a lot of chance for the audience to join in, shout out and get involved in the story. We have a lot of fun with it. There’s a lot of laughter, and a few tears. It’s a bit scary sometimes, joyous other times. You get to see me dance. No one else in the world ever sees that.”

A Christmas Carol with Gerald
Dickens – Farewell Tour
When: Saturday, Nov. 28, 7 p.m.
Where: Nashua Center for the Arts, 201
Main St., Nashua
Tickets: $24 and up at etix.com

Featured photo: Gerald Dickens. Courtesy photo.

Writing Gallery opens in Concord

By Michael Witthaus

mwitthaus@hippopress.com

A new space featuring works of art accompanied by text both inspirational and challenging, The Eleventh Letter Writing Gallery opened in downtown Concord ahead of November’s First Friday Art Walk. Passers-by are drawn in by a modern white nightstand stacked with books and topped by a small pumpkin, with a wooden letter K on the floor underneath it.

Hung on the wall to the left of the arrangement are collages of book covers and pages from works by different authors. In the back of the foyer room are two chairs, one with postcards and artful photos on it, the other with pencils and notebooks. They surround an alcove with a sign reading, “Kismet: Defining Patterns.”

The overall effect is warm and welcoming, as well as an invitation to the creative imagination. There are writing prompts tucked into the free notebooks. “What signs and symbols do you see all the time?” reads one, others asks for a paragraph on “an amazing coincidence” or “a wish for one thing to manifest.”

Its intent is to unify images and phrases — and build a community around them.

“We affirm that all the arts are in dialogue with each other; our mission is to start the conversation,” owner Jocelyn Winn wrote in late October. The gallery, she continued, “champions the written word and elevates the creative vibration within the … arts community through monthly text-art exhibitions, workshops, and literary events.”

It also offers professional writing and editing services, something Winn has done as owner of The Eleventh Letter since it opened in 2014. The Writing Gallery, across from the Statehouse on North Main Street, is the first retail location. In a sit-down interview during Art Walk, Winn talked about how it came to fruition.

“It’s always been my dream to have a brick-and-mortar space where people can actually come in and enjoy writing,” she said. “So this is sort of a play on the idea that writers are artists … everything here, every piece, is art, but it has to have a word or text element to it.”

There are two exhibits currently running at the gallery. One features erasure and collage works by artist in residence Laci Mosier. Many are provocative, like “Froot Loops: The Fungus Among Us,” which combines the cut-up profile of a naked woman and a boy on a tricycle with phrases like, “How much Windex do men go through to create history?”

“Kismet” is Winn’s artwork. On one piece, “Manifest,” a framed photo of cut-up lemons sits next to a few paragraphs delving into the title’s etymology — manus combined with festus, two words that respectively mean “hand” and “joy” — and how its meaning has shifted since it was first coined in the 14th century. It ends with a meditation on ellipses.

Winn is big on vision boards. She calls them “manifestation posters,” and the path to opening a writing gallery was lit by hers.

“I got very specific,” she explained. “I said I want a Main Street space. My name is Jocelyn Winn. It’s in Concord, New Hampshire, 03301. A couple months later, I could see these spaces opening up, and so I took my chances.”

An array of activities is ahead in the coming weeks, like a workshop on making holiday cards, a class on the art of letter writing, and a session on appreciating winter, perfect for folks prone to seasonal affect disorder. “It’s based on the book Wintering, about how to love winter,” Winn said. “Which is my favorite season, true.”

There are also two free events: a writing circle led by local arts writer Rachel Wachman, and Solstice Open Mic, which invites writers to read their work. “Five minutes each, and everyone is welcome, even if they’re not reading,” Winn said.

In January there will be two six-week sessions, on fiction and nonfiction writing.

“The gist is every month there’s an array of workshops for advanced writers as well as those looking to start or curiously dip their feet,” Winn said. Along with classes, the gallery will have a monthly main exhibition with a local writer-artist, with works from an artist or writer in residence showing for three months.

“I do have a lot of opportunities and plans for the future, bringing writing to the community,” Winn said. “I think a lot of people are maybe scared of writing, or they shy away from it.” She hopes her workshops, along with the writer’s utensils she’ll be selling soon, will inspire many to the impulse of turning words into art — and vice versa.

The Eleventh Letter Writing Gallery
Open: Monday through Friday, noon to 5 p.m., and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Where: 146 N. Main St., Concord
More: theeleventhletter.com

Upcoming Events:
The Art of Letter Writing – Wednesday, Dec. 3, 6-7:30 p.m., $22
Winter Is My Favorite Season – Monday, Dec. 8, 6-7:30 p.m., $33 (includes free copy of Wintering by Katherine May)
Holiday Card-Making – Tuesday, Dec. 9, 6-8 p.m., $40 (led by Art Plus NH owner Karen Hicks)
Writing Circle – Wednesday, Dec, 9, free (led by local arts writer Rachel Wachman)
Solstice Open Mic – Wednesday, Dec. 17, free (five minutes each, all welcome even if not reading)

Featured photo: Courtesy photo.