Update: Saturday, Dec. 16, at 1:04 P.M.
The Queen Village production of “A Christmas Carol” has been postponed from Sunday, Dec. 17, due to weather. A reschedule date has not yet been released.
The original story follows:
PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — It’s described as a “holiday celebration of city life and Philly strengths at a time when both are being criticized.” So… what’s Charles Dickens got to do with it?
It all started during the COVID-19 pandemic. With neighbors cooped up inside their homes, writer and Temple University adjunct professor Terese Zeccardi got an idea: a safe, socially distanced way to celebrate the holiday season. Her inspiration: a Charles Dickens classic.
“Living where I do on a street that I always felt looked like something out of Dickens, I said, let’s try and do this outside on my block,” she said.
That block: South Hancock and Queen streets in Queen Village. Zeccardi’s neighbors were game, so 20 people, of all ages and backgrounds, came together to perform “A Christmas Carol.”
Some shouted lines from second-story windows, while others delivered theirs from doorways or in the narrow cobblestone street. Few had any acting experience.
Now for their third year, the neighborhood troupe is borrowing costumes from local theater companies as well as special lighting, props, fake snow and other special effects.
And, Zeccardi said other neighborhoods have been asking her to share her script so they can stage their own productions. She does, gladly.
“A Christmas Carol” is a “wonderful redemption story,” she said — “and right now, we could all use a happy ending.”
The Queen Village production is being staged on Sunday, Dec. 17 at 6 p.m. on South Hancock Street. Attendees are asked to bring their own chairs.