This is our third year of producing family-friendly entertainment for the season, and we’re pleased to offer that most famous of holiday stories, A Christmas Carol.  Written by Charles Dickens in 1843, the short story on which our play is based has proven to be an enduring classic which has had a major influence on the way millions of people around the world celebrate the winter holiday season.  I hope you will all find something to cherish in this tale of charity and redemption.

Even as we celebrate the holiday season, we’re busy planning for the summer of 2010.  As previously announced, we will be offering another exciting season of five plays in repertory in our two venues.  The season includes what many people consider to be Shakespeare’s best play – King Lear.  Playing the title role will be John Hutton, a distinguished actor with many years of experience in some of America’s best theatres, including almost twenty years at the Tony Award-winning Denver Center Theatre Company.  Our Shakespeare comedy will be that ever-popular The Taming of the Shrew, and we follow up the success of last summer’s To Kill a Mockingbird with another great American classic:  Thornton Wilder’s Our Town.

On the indoor stage we’ll be presenting one of Shakespeare’s most contemporary plays:  Measure for Measure, paired with the world’s longest-running musical, The Fantasticks.  Based on a play by Edmond Rostand (author of Cyrano de Bergerac), this beloved American musical opened in New York in 1960 and ran for 42 years!

I hope you’ll join us for our holiday production of A Christmas Carol, and I look forward to seeing you in 2010 for our 53^rd summer season.

Regards,

Philip Charles Sneed
Producing Artistic Director
Colorado Shakespeare Festival