CHRISTMAS CAROL Reading Returns to Florence Library Friday

FLORENCE– A holiday tradition returns at 7 p.m. Friday, December 6, as Pillar of Fire and the Florence-Lauderdale Public Library present their annual concert reading of Charles Dickens’s perennial yuletide favorite A Christmas Carol.

The performance – which follows the 6:30 p.m. lighting of Florence’s official city Christmas tree in Wilson Park – will take place in the colonnade of the library, 350 N. Wood Ave., downtown Florence. Admission is free, and all ages are welcome.

Professional actor, Shoals native and University of North Alabama graduate Will Stutts – best known for his one-man portrayals of Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe, Walt Whitman, Noel Coward, Frank Lloyd Wright and other famous historical figures – will narrate the dramatized reading of Dickens’ timeless literary tale.

Pillar of Fire favorite Ken Lawson will perform the central role of hardhearted Victorian miser Ebenezer Scrooge, whose twisted and callous soul is redeemed through instructive visitations by three spirits – the Ghosts of Christmases Past, Present and Yet to Come – on a foggy Christmas Eve in Victorian London.

In addition to Stutts and Lawson, the ensemble of players for the evening will include Nancy Sanford, Tony Holzer, Anna Eastep Gibson, Rob Koch, Julia Gilchrist Matthews, Elise Gilchrist, Terry Pace, Sara Biddle, Lily Holly, Forrest Pace and Alexandra Pace.

This year’s performance will also feature live musical accompaniment by multi-talented Muscle Shoals musician N.C. Thurman, keyboardist for the Shoals rock-and-soul band The Decoys. Thurman’s credits include studio and concert work with Gregg Allman, Kris Kristofferson, Percy Sledge, Tony Joe White, Hank Williams Jr., Little Richard, Jimmy Hall and many others.

The Christmas Carol performance will be directed by Pillar of Fire co-founder Pace, who adapted the script from Dickens’ original 1843 tale. The concert reading – which premiered with back-to-back performances at the Ritz Theatre in 1997 and 1998 – found a new home at the Florence library in 2007 and has been performed there annually ever since.

“A dramatization of Dickens’ Carol is always an ideal way to launch the holiday season, and we’ve had standing-room-only attendance each time we’ve performed this piece,” Pace explained. “This year we’re delighted to have an opportunity to pair the Dickens classic with ‘Dear Santa,’ one of the final short stories written and published by our late friend and co-founder, Ray Bradbury.”

Published in 2012 in The Strand Magazine, Bradbury’s “Dear Santa” relates the short, moving, bittersweet tale of an encounter between a department-store Santa Claus and a 12-year-old boy who refuses to lose faith in the wonder of childhood and the magic of Christmas.

“We’ll also be sharing a whimsical holiday poem Ray wrote called ‘Dogs Think That Every Day is Christmas,’ ” Pace added. “Together these three beautiful pieces – the Dickens story, along with the Bradbury story and poem – reflect the spiritual themes of faith, hope, humanity and love that represent the holiday season at its finest.”

Admission is free to the Christmas Carol reading, but donations will be accepted to benefit the John S. and Gertrude Cassimus Endowed Scholarship at UNA. For details, call Pillar of Fire at (256) 366-4512 or the library at (256) 764-6564, e-mail pillaroffire@bellsouth.net or visit the Pillar of Fire page on Facebook.

“It was always said of him that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that truly be said of us, and all of us!” – Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol(1843)