Dickensblog

Dickens, Easter, and 'The Life of Our Lord'

I went back on Art Kilmer's podcast, A Cozy Christmas, to talk about Dickens and Easter! You can listen here.

'To Begin With' returns to Minneapolis

The play inspired by Dickens's The Life of Our Lord, and starring his descendant Gerald Charles Dickens, is coming back to the city where it premiered two years ago. To Begin With will run at the Historic Wesley Center from March 28 through April 15. For more information, go here; to buy tickets, go here. 

Speaking of Gerald Dickens, you can read his thoughts on performing in this and other works by and about his famous ancestor at his blog!

'The Life of Our Lord' up for auction

The Friends of A.K. Smiley Public Library in Redlands, California, are auctioning off a first American edition of The Life of Our Lord. Go here for details on the silent auction, which ends Tuesday. 

Meeting Mr. Dickens

Novelist and blogger Julie Klassen writes about her experience seeing To Begin With and meeting Gerald Dickens. Thanks to Rachel McMillan for sending the link!

Praise for 'To Begin With'

The Minneapolis StarTribune gave the new play a glowing review. Click here to read it!

'To Begin With': A Reflection and a Review

By Dr. Gary Colledge, guest blogger

[Ed. note: As many of our regular readers know, Dr. Gary Colledge is the author of God and Charles Dickens and consultant on the new play To Begin With. He has also been a good friend to this blog. We greatly appreciate his writing this guest post for us on the development and premiere of the play. --GRD]

Three years ago, my wife and I sat with producer Dennis Babcock in my home discussing the idea of turning Dickens’s The Life Of Our Lord into a one-man play. Dennis shared with us that he had been toying with the possibility of this project for almost 20 years, and through a series of rather extraordinary—maybe even providential?—events, learned that The Life of Our Lord had been at the center of my post-graduate studies. He contacted me for the first time initially by phone, visited me at my home shortly thereafter, and at that meeting asked if I might consider serving as a consultant for the production. 

That is why, this past Friday evening, February 20, 2015, I sat with much delight and anticipation in the Music Box Theatre in Minneapolis waiting for the curtain to rise on the premiere of To Begin With, Dennis’s theatrical production about the writing of Dickens’s The Life of Our Lord. 

'To Begin With' premieres this weekend

To Begin With -- the play that, as its star Gerald Dickens says, "presents a Dickens that people have not seen before" -- has its preview performance tonight and its premiere tomorrow night at the Music Box Theatre in Minneapolis. Go here and here to read interviews with Gerald, playwright and director Jeffrey Hatcher, and producer Dennis Babcock.

We here at Dickensblog would like to wish them all a very successful opening night! 

Press release for 'To Begin With'

Thanks to Gary Colledge for sending this along!

'To Begin With' to premiere next month

Tickets are now available for To Begin With, the new play about Dickens's writing of The Life of Our Lord, starring Gerald Dickens. It premieres February 19 at the Music Box Theatre in Minneapolis. If any of you are lucky enough to go, please comment and tell us all about it!

New Dickensian play coming to the U.S.

Last year I mentioned that a play about the writing of The Life of Our Lord was in development. The other day, Gary Colledge, who's serving as consultant, wrote to give me an update on the project.

The title of the play is To Begin With. It's being written by Jeffrey Hatcher and produced by Dennis Babcock. And Gerald Dickens, who has spent so much time portraying his ancestor in one-man shows and who participated in several staged readings of this play in London, will star in the U.S. production. They hope to open in Minneapolis, "perhaps as early as February 2015."

Below is a short synopsis from a draft of a brochure that Gary sent: