Pace University & the Dept of Performing Arts Presents A CHRISTMAS CAROL

By: Nov. 09, 2010
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Pace University's Original Staged Adaptation of Dickens' Timeless Classic "A Christmas Carol" is Filled with Music, Dance, Larger than Life Puppets and Holiday Spirit

Pace University and the Department of Performing Arts take you on a fantastical journey with the timeless holiday classic A Christmas Carol, based on the novel by Charles Dickens.

Enter the world of Ebenezer Scrooge as he is confronted by larger than life puppets who teach him the value of the holiday spirit and the importance of family and kindness to others. The most
famous holiday story ever told is alive at Pace University, filled with choreography by Rhonda Miller, music by Scott O'Brien and many surprises. The production is as vibrant as it is haunting in this new adaptation by Grant Kretchik. Adults and children alike are sure to find something fresh in this inventive and festive holiday production, on top of being an affordable way to celebrate the holiday season in New York City.

December 8-12, 2010

Tickets: Students/Seniors $8 Adults $12
Wednesday-Saturday at 8pm; Saturday at 2:00PM; Sunday at 1:00PM and 7:00PM

Schimmel Center for the Arts at Pace University, New York City Campus (entrance on Spruce Street)

General Admission, to reserve tickets, email - theater@pace.edu

Directions to Pace's NYC Campus:
http://www.pace.edu/pace/about-us/all-about-pace/directions-to-all-campuses/new-york-city-campus

The cast includes Niko Papastefanou, Chris Fayne, Chris Barba, Meggan Herod, Daniel Taylor, Danielle Bouchard, Kevin Joyce, Megan Spaulding, Xavier Remnick, Alexandra Scardapane, Chris Lemieux, Diana Federico, Ian Cherry, Kaleb Wells, Daniel Rings, Joe Cordaro, Howard Schaal, Drew Paramour, Tommy McKiernen, John Hooper, Bethany Xan Jeffery, Tracey Hassel, Alexandra O'Halloran, Daniele Stout, Scott Lindley, Amanda Ebert, Kelly Reader, Andrew Guay, Emily Hughes, Ashley Williams, Cortney Taylor, Madison Embry, Christina Fushetto, Brittany Flaherty, Briana Harmon, Sarah Nathan, Brett Thiele, Richie Lucibello, Ashtain Rosschild, and Chris Brick.

Technical Director: Christopher Jensen

Assistant Directed by Olivia Gemelli and Delany Yeager

Music Directed by Meggan Herod

Stage Managed by Emily Rice

Production Staff: Martha Reutlinger

Grant Kretchik (Writer/ Director) holds an MFA in Acting from the New School University, and is the head of Pace University's BFA Acting Program. Off B'way: Silvio in The Servant of Two Masters and a youthful Sean O'Casey in I Knock at the Door and Pictures in the Hallway, both directed by Stuart Vaughan. Film/TV: Law and Order, Guiding Light, As The World Turns, Man on the Moon, and When Harry Tries to Marry (official selection Austin Film Festival 2010). Kretchik has worked as both an actor and director at La Mama, and has been accepted into the Stage Directors Choreographers Society's 2010/2011 Observership Season.

This October Kretchik will be assisting on the first National Tour of Next to Normal, directed by Michael Grief. Mr. Kretchik has been a featured guest in Lehman College's emerging artist series. He has also held positions with Entertainment Tonight and Warner Bros. Television Casting. Mr. Kretchik is a member of Actors Equity Association. His Essay "With Talent Comes Responsibility! Defining your Dream" was published in The Soul of the American Actor.

Rhonda Miller (Choreography) is the founder and co-owner of L.A.'s premier dance studio, The Edge, and was the leader of its convention business, L.A. DanceForce, for many years. She has been one of the most sought-after choreographer/dance instructors in the U.S. dance convention industry, and has worked with the likes of Drew Barrymore, Brooke Shields, Catherine Zeta Jones, Justin Bieber, and Big Time Rush. Rhonda has worked alongside Broadway choreographer-director Jerry Mitchell on his renowned Broadway Bares for the past seven years, starring the likes of David Hyde Pearce, Tim Curry, Cindy Lauper, Alan Cumming, Harvey Fierstein and Jane Krakowski. Stage: Nothing Like A Dame at the Marquis Theater starring Jennifer Holliday, Kate Clinton from "The L Word," Jill Eickenberry of "LA Law," Maureen McGovern, Tony Award winner Barbara Walsh (Company), and NYCB soloist Tiler Peck; ABC Daytime Salutes Broadway at Town Hall starring Susan Lucci and Kimberly McCullough. TV: General Hospital; The Boys; It's Garry Shandling's Show. Commercials/industrials: Chrysler; Toys R Us; Warner Brothers; Exxon-Mobil; Apple Computers; Nickelodeon. Recently Rhonda conceived, directed and choreographed "Cinematastic" for Princess Cruise Lines and choreographed RENT for Skylight Opera, Chicago at Main State Music Theatre, and "I'm Beautiful," a music video directed by comedian Margaret Cho. She is currently developing a new Broadway Dance Project, Eve's

Turn...An Erotic Journey from the Female Perspective.

Rhonda holds a BFA from the University of Utah and an MPA from Oklahoma City University. She is currently the director of the B.A. "Commercial" Dance Program (the first of its kind) at Pace University.

Gian Marco Lo Forte (Set Design) is an artist-in-residence at La MaMa where he founded Pioneers Go East Co. (www.pioneersgoeast.org <http://www.pioneersgoeast.org/>), which has developed original projects such as I Fioretti in Musica and Caravaggio Chiaroscuro. He has worked as a director and set designer in NYC and Italy for the past ten years. His directing credits include Bastiano e Bastiana in Perugia (2000) and a dance piece based on The Seagull at La MaMa (2003). He wrote, designed and directed Butter Melts Away, a dance theater piece at La MaMa in 2005. He has collaborated with visual artist Sam Samore on Love, Beauty - Pitti Immagine, Firenze. He has designed for SLANT, Watson Arts, Pan Asian Rep., Fringe NYC and Midtown Music Festival. Gian Marco is in residence with Great Jones Rep. Co., designed at Biennale di Venezia, and toured to Poland, Austria, Croatia, Serbia, and Italy. Currently Gian Marco is Lecturer in Design /Technical Theatre at Pace University.

Anne Lommel (Costume Design) has been a resident designer and adjunct faculty for the Department of Performing Arts at Pace University since 2000. Recent projects include: Streakin': A Musical Flashback to the 70's at The Babalu Club, The Shanghai Gesture for the Peccadillo Theatre Company, The Seagull, Our Town, Hamlet, Side by Side by Sondheim,
The Children's Hour at Pace University, Macbeth, The Crazy Locomotive, The Blacks: A Clown
Show, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, and Medea for The Classical Theatre of Harlem. She received the 2003 AUDELCO award for Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, and was nominated for The Crazy Locomotive (2003) and Medea (2002). She received a 2002-2003 OBIE Award for The Blacks: A Clown Show.

Scott O'Brien
(Sound and Original Music) has designed and engineered theatre, dance and concert programs at Lincoln Center, Riverside Church, Theatre North Collaborative, American Stage Company, Centenary Stage, The Abingdon Theatre, George Street Playhouse and the World Financial Center. As a composer he has scored films, concert performances and theatrical productions and designed Arts in Education programming for the NJ State Council on the Arts. He is the Resident Composer/Sound Designer for American Globe Theatre and Theatre East (both NYC) and the Resident Audio Engineer/Sound Designer for the Chautauqua Theater Company. Current Productions include scoring the NYC premieres of Richard Hoeckler's Fathers & Sons and Tim Blake
Nelson's Eye of God and for American Globe Theatre, Titus Andronicus (April '10). This is Scott's second year with Pace.

Graham Kindred (Lighting Design) is pleased to be returning for another semester at Pace, where he has been the lighting consultant for four years. He has designed extensively off-Broadway, regionally, and in China, as well as Lincoln Center, Sea World Orlando, and national tours of Gilligan's Island and Mother Load. He holds an MFA from Temple University.

A Christmas Carol runs December 8-12 at the Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts (3 Spruce Street, NYC). Tickets: Students/Seniors $8 Adults $12.

Performance schedule: Wed.-Sat. at 8pm, Sat. at 2pm, Sun. at 1pm and 7pm. Tickets at theater@pace.edu

Free Preview - South Street Seaport Tree Lighting Ceremony on November 26 at 6 pm will feature Christmas Carols sung by cast members. Pace's presentation on the day after Thanksgiving will consist of Christmas Carols with original arrangement by Junior Performing Arts Student Meggan Herod, who is the Music Director on the show. The Tree Lighting Ceremony will begin at 6pm and Pace's A Christmas Carol cast members will be presenting about 15- 20 minutes of material. Join us!



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