Album Notes

My edited version of “A Christmas Carol” was supposed to be a one-time dramatic reading at a library podium, an offshoot of my children’s storytelling. Instead, it was the beginning of a whole lot of adult and family storytelling, with the Dickens classic at the center: I’ve been performing the “Carol” for more than 10 Christmases now, and it’s grown into a fully-memorized one-man show, with blocking, props, and lighting and sound cues. It’s great fun trying to play all the Cratchits sitting around the table, or all the guests at the nephew’s party, or be both sides of the conversation between Scrooge and each of the spirits.

This CD was recorded in studio in 2003, when I was preparing for the first theatrical production. It uses all the music and sound effects of the stage show, and we did some things that I can’t do on stage, too – like overlapping my characters’ voices in spots, and using effects on each of the ghosts’ voices.

I’ve always loved this story. It is different every time it’s told, or filmed, but the heart is always the same. It’s a wonderful message for the holiday season, or anytime . . . and it’s been a pleasure to add my own twists, my performance of my favorites of Dickens’ scenes, to the great sea of “variations on a theme” that are out there.

Enjoy!


***Storyteller Grant Fitch has entertained all ages with children's fables, folk tales, scary stories, and classic literature. He has shared the works of Mark Twain and Edgar Allan Poe, Shel Silverstein and O. Henry, and Sherlock Holmes and Winnie the Pooh, and is well known for his annual one-man performance of “Christmas Carol.” Fitch is a former teacher and children's librarian, and an award-winning actor in northwest Indiana community theatre, starring recently in “My Fair Lady,” “Same Time, Next Year,” “Charlie Brown,” “Mary Poppins” and “Inherit the Wind.”***