How ‘A Christmas Carol’ Became A Holiday Classic

by | Jan 20, 2018 | ACTORS THEATRE OF LOUISVILLE


The long-standing annual Holiday classic, A Christmas Carol, is underway at Actors Theatre now through December 23rd. Here is a look back at the famous play and how Charles Dickens created what would become a classic tradition and the Invention of Christmas.

When Charles Dickens published A Christmas Carol in 1843, Christmas wasn’t a major holiday in England. It had become somewhat unfashionable among the middle and upper classes, and the working-class families who did celebrate it barely had time to do so—Ebenezer Scrooge’s reluctance to give Bob Cratchit a day off was no exaggeration!

Other grim aspects of life in Dickens’s England may have blunted any seasonal cheer: up to one-third of Londoners lived in poverty, tuberculosis was rampant, and child mortality was high. (more…)

David Sedaris and The Santaland Diaries – Actors Theatre through Dec. 23

by | Jan 19, 2018 | ACTORS THEATRE OF LOUISVILLE

What has become one of the most popular holiday performances at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Santaland Diaries brings great humor to the season through December 23rd.

The play was written by David Sedaris, before he became a bestselling author, who once survived by working odd jobs where he could find the opportunity. He picked apples in Oregon. He reinforced the edges of window screens with a stapler (to keep squirrels from invading attics) in Chicago. He cleaned apartments in New York City. And, broke and jobless after first moving to the Big Apple, he got a gig playing an elf at Macy’s “SantaLand,” which would inspire his beloved and hilariously biting personal essay, “Santaland Diaries.” (more…)