Family Theater Project to Present A CHRISTMAS CAROL

Saline Community Education’s Family Theater Project will present Charles Dickens’s A CHRISTMAS CAROL, Saturday, Dec 5 at 3:00 & 7:30 P.M. and Sunday, Dec, 6 at 3:00 P.M. at Liberty School Auditorium (Old Middle School), 7265 Saline-Ann Arbor Road, Saline.

Tickets are $5.00/(general seating) and will be available at the door approximately one hour before curtain.  All proceeds from ticket sales will benefit performing arts students’ camp and college scholarship funds.

Family Theater Project is made possible by a grant from the Saline C.A.R.E.S. Advisory Council and creates theater experiences that:

• Provide an intergenerational theater opportunity for parents and their children.
• Provide a non-competitive educational and process based acting experience which encourages group collaboration and cooperation and   creative risk taking for all ages and skill levels
• Provides inexpensive entertainment for the local community.

Comments Rebecca Groeb-Driskill, founder of the program and artistic director for the production, “Some of my most vivid memories as a child are of doing community theater productions with my mom.  I was a shy little girl and my mom pushed me toward the stage as a way to help me “come out of my shell”.  In the process of preparing for auditions, attending rehearsals, learning lines, and performing in front of my family and friends, I learned invaluable lessons about self-expression, risk-taking, creativity, collaboration, leadership, discipline, and responsibility.  Moreover, the experience provided me with a life-long passion, hobby and, ultimately, a career that I could continue to share with my mom as I grew older.

Over my many years of teaching drama and directing children’s theater and high school productions, I’ve often had parents of my students come up to me to share how they used to do theater in high school or college and how seeing their own child participate in the same activity reminded them of how much fun they used to have doing the same thing!

Other adults would approach me curiously inquiring about how they could get involved, seeming terrified about the idea of actually having to get up in front of a room full of people to audition in order to be a part of it!

Why couldn’t I come up with a theater experience that parents could share with their kids, while at the same time being a non-threatening and all inclusive process for all who were interested in participating?  That’s how Family Theater Project was born.”

The 25-member cast includes:  Charles Antonelli, Kristin and Peter Attig, Randy, Kendra & Matthew Aungst, Sarah Bunten, Tom, Joy, Dillon, Tate and Ian Burns, Joe Eadie, Tracy and Lauren Getsov, Bob and William Kinningham, Mark and Caitlin Pellerin, Richie Slater, Cassie Thoms, Gloria Tonks, Kyle Wagner, Elizabeth Weeden, and Susan Zill.

For additional information regarding this production, please contact Rebecca Groeb-Driskill, Cultural Arts Specialist/Theater Manager for Saline Area Schools at (734) 429-8000 X2338 or groebr@saline.k12.mi.us