A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story with Willem Lange 2023 Playbill
All About the folks bringing you our A Christmas Carol: a Ghost Story presentation
performed by Willem Lange
Playwright: Charles Dickens
Lighting: Samuel Biondolillo & David Orlando, SJB Light Design
Scenic: Kim Bent & Kathleen Keenan
Sound: Andrew Vachon
Light Board Op : William Pelton
Production Coordinator: Kim A Bent
House Manager: Brandy Ann Perez
Live-streaming: Theater Engine
Featuring:
Willem Lange
as all the characters and himself!
Special Thanks to:
Andrew, Dominic, Bill, David, & Sam
Chris & Mike Zahm, Tootie and Mike Keenan
More Special Thanks:
The World Newspaper, Brandy Perez
Pat Keenan, All Our Decorators: Sophie & Jason P, Gail, McKenna Stark, Kim Ward
Special Thanks to Lost Nation Theater's 2023 Underwriters:
Recovery & Resilience Fund of the Vermont Community Foundation, Capitol Copy, City of Montpelier, Eternity, National Life Group, Vermont Arts Council/NEA, Vermont Mutual and The World
The Estate of Ted Richards, and the Mary Shriver Fund of the Alan Weiss Estate, The Point-FM,
And ALL LNT's Business/Downtown On Stage Contributors. Please support these businesses supporting Lost Nation Theater. Read All about them HERE
About our Creatives:
Who’s Who in A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story
DONA BATE (Accounts Guru) was CEO of a regional community transportation system for 18 years before joining LNT, and is founder of dbatespeaking where as a speaker, trainer, and coach she shared her love and experience of communicating.
KIM ALLEN BENT (Founding Artistic Director/Scenic) Kim is the Founding Artistic Director of Lost Nation Theater. His roots in Vermont go back six generations.
He founded LNT in 1977 in Bristol, VT, yet Kim’s worked for professional theaters and university drama programs across America, Europe, and Canada as a director, actor, writer, and designer.
As a playwright, his play, STONE, won the Hathaway Prize. His adaptations of Lyddie (2012), and Treasure Island (2015) premiered to rave reviews. In 2018, he translated Howard Frank Mosher’s Vermont novel Disappearances for the stage.
When LNT was 'born' it produced exclusively original work. Kim is excited to be honoring those roots once again by helping to develop several plays over the past 19 months - including Annie Oakley, which he is proud of LNT for commissioning.
And tho' not an original work, he is delighted to bring Willem to the LNT stage, who with his inimitable style, is using Dickens' original prompt script for his performance.
Why does he do Theater? "Because it's the only thing that makes sense of the world." Favorite Show Quote: "It takes 900 years to explain one blown spark of Love..."
SAMUEL J. BIONDOLILLO (Lighting Supervisor & Rep Plot Designer) - is a New York based lighting designer for theatre, television, and events. LNT is grateful to this Vermonter for his assistance upgrading LNT's lighting and establishing a 'rep plot' which makes creating events like "Annie Oakley" possible.
Off-Broadway: NYC Dance & Music Festival, Geek! The Musical. Regional: The Rocky Horror Show, Cabaret (Moonbox Productions), The Complete History of Comedy Abridged (Lost Nation Theater), Private Lives (Vermont Stage), Henry IV Parts 1 & 2, Shakespeare in Love (Connecticut Repertory Theatre), Flamingo Kid (Hartford Stage, Assist.) Television/Events: The Celebration of the Inauguration of Governor Wolf 2019 (ESM, Assit.), The White House Frontiers Conference hosted by President Obama (ESM, Drafting Assoc.), Ice Chips Show of Champions (Boston Skating Club, Assist.). Sam is an adjunct professor of lighting and sound technology at the University of Connecticut, a proud member of Local USA 829 in the Lighting Design category, and holds a BA from Boston College in Theatre Arts. Website: SJBLightingDesign.com
KATHLEEN KEENAN (Producing Artistic Director) is the producing artistic director of Lost Nation Theater. In addition to acting, directing, & producing theater, she is a singer-songwriter. It is giddily gleefully gratifying to be rehearsing & performing once again – and welcoming folks back into the theater! She is grateful to Willem for "saying yes!" in 2020 and being the first performer on LNT's stage in ten months - albeit without an audience, and for returning in 2021 to share his work with a live audience in the theater and at home. It is an honor to help keep Willem's unbroken streak of annual performance of A Christmas Carol: a ghost story going. She is also indebted to Willem for educating her that "a ghost story" is part of Dickens' original title!
Kathleen just directed LNT's first full production in the theater in two years, the new musical revue All Together Now! and is excited for shows to come in 2022.
Kathleen sends her deepest thanks to all the artists involved and to the audience & community for “being there.”
WILLEM LANGE (Performer)
From 1968 to 1972 Will directed the Dartmouth Outward Bound Center. From 1972 until his “retirement” in 2007, he was a building and remodeling contractor in Hanover. He's an adopted member of the Dartmouth Class of 1957.
In 1981 he began writing a weekly column, “A Yankee Notebook,” which appears in several New England newspapers. He's a commentator or host for Vermont Public Radio and both Vermont and New Hampshire Public Television. His annual readings of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol began in 1975 and continue unabated. He’s published several audio recordings and nine books and received four Emmy nominations, and won one (!) for his work as the long-running host of New Hampshire Public Television’s award-winning show “Windows to the Wild”.
In 1973 Will founded the Geriatric Adventure Society, a group of outdoor enthusiasts whose members have skied the 200-mile Alaska Marathon, climbed in Alaska, the Andes, and Himalayas, bushwhacked on skis through northern New England, and paddled rivers north of the Arctic Circle.
He first performed A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story in 1975 after painstakingly transcribing (from an old LP) Dickens' own performance cut (or prompter script) of his story. Willem has performed it every year since - even during the pandemic! LNT is so happy to have been able to make that happen. LNT Artistic Director says it's "a part he was born to play!"
His other stage credits include The Stage Manager in Our Town and Winter Tales with Vermont Stage.
After forty years in New Hampshire, Will and his wife, Ida, moved to Vermont in 2007. Following two years of declining health, Ida died in April 2018. Will remains in East Montpelier in the last house she designed. He has three children and four grandchildren.
BRANDY ANN PEREZ( Associate Managing Director) works in arts administration for LNT while still sharing her love of dance and the performing arts. She also teaches ballet at Moving Light Dance Studio and volunteers as a development committee member for Vermont Dance Alliance. Over the years, Brandy has has been a member of the Vermont Dance Collective, has created her own original choreography for ballets and musicals, helped to found and run Ballet Wolcott, taught at Johnson State College and dance studios around the state, and has collaborated with many local choreographers, teachers, and arts organizations.
DOMINIC SPILLANE (Theater Engine) - Dominic is an actor, director, and producer currently living in Northfield, VT. Past acting credits include the online presentation of Hands of Light [GAAR / The Mirror Theater], a Vermont tour of Constellations by Nick Payne, and Gruesome Playground Injuries by Rajiv Joseph [Phantom Theater & Lost Nation Dark Nights, VT]. Other acting credits include the world premieres of The Wundelsteipan [The Flea Theater, NYC]; Clown Bar [Rising Phoenix Rep, NYC]; and the production of Six Degrees of Separation [Williamstown Theatre Festival - MA]. Dominic, with his wife Maren Spillane have just launched Dirt Road Theater, a theater company in Northfield, VT (dirtroadtheater.com), and Dominic is currently developing TheaterEngine, a website dedicated to the performing arts (theaterengine.com).
ANDREW VACHON (Sound Engineer) Andrew first worked with LNT as an Intern in high school. (We won’t say how long ago that was!) Since getting his degree in Recording, he has designed sound for several shows with LNT and most recently live mixed The Addams Family, Cabaret, and All Together Now! He also handled the sound & music design for 2023's My Mother's Three Mothers and Sam & Jim in Hell.
If you enjoy Christmas Carol - be sure to check out
Two for Christmas by David Budbill - also available via digital viewing experience through December 31st
And Look for LNT's 2024 Season and Special Events!
Get 2024 Season Tickets - they Make Great Gifts!
Current office hours are:
11am-3pm, Tue-Friday.
39 Main Street
Montpelier, VT 05602
802-229-0492