December 17, 2020–6:52 p.m.
NEWS RELEASE
Every family has its own holiday traditions, and for many, attending Rome Little Theatre’s holiday production is one of them.
“We love to bring people together for the holidays,” said RLT executive director Chris Davidson. Nearly 5000 people attended last year’s holiday production, half of which were school children served by RLT’s school show matinee program.
The pandemic, however, has changed things this year. Determined to find a way to present a holiday production as safely as possible, RLT implemented a number of policies and procedures to minimize risk to volunteers and patrons, but as community infection and hospitalization rates increased, the theatre decided to cancel in-person performances on the advice of its Reopening and Safety Committee.
RLT quickly reached out to Rome Area Council for the Arts with the idea of making the production available for free online as a gift to the community, and RACA came on as a sponsoring partner.
“We realized,” said Davidson, “that as sad as we are about the conditions in our community and about not being able to perform in person, this is really an opportunity for us to step up and serve our community in a bigger way than we could have with limited attendance. More than ever, we all need some holiday spirit. Dickens says “no one is useless who lightens the burdens of another” and we want to embrace that message. The themes of A Christmas Carol are more resonant than ever, and we hope that by making it available for free to people in their homes, that we and our friends at RACA can deliver a little bit of Christmas joy to anyone in our community who needs it.”
Chris Parker, an English and drama teacher at Coosa High School, portrays Dickens and more than two dozen other characters. The production is directed by Davidson, and filmed and edited by local filmmaker Rick Williams.
A Christmas Carol will be available to stream on-demand from 12 AM on December 19 through 11:59 PM on December 20. The link to access the stream will be available on the theatre’s website RomeLittleTheatre.com. Donations are accepted on the website, as well, or may be mailed to RLT at 530 Broad St. Rome, Georgia 30161.