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Mrs. Bob Cratchit's Wild Christmas Binge
''Mrs. Bob Cratchit's Wild Christmas Binge'' is a musical comedy written by Christopher Durang, a parody of the Charles Dickens 1843 novel ''A Christmas Carol''. Durang was commissioned by Pittsburgh City Theatre Artistic Director Tracy Brigden to write a Christmas comedy. The show premiered November 7, 2002 at the City Theatre with Kristine Nielsen in the title role. Plot The premise of the parody is the question, "What if Dickens' Mrs. Cratchit wasn't so goody-goody, but instead was an angry, stressed-out modern-day American woman who wanted out of this harsh London 1840s life?" The main character in ''Binge'' is the hard-drinking, suicidal Gladys Cratchit, whose harshness to her family surpasses Mommie Dearest by a mile. The other two leads are The Ghost and Ebenezer Scrooge. The Ghost, whose character is written to be an African-American woman, plays the narrator role as she escorts Ebenezer Scrooge through the past, present and future of his life. But, as she says, everything ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christopher Durang
Christopher Ferdinand Durang (born January 2, 1949) is an American playwright known for works of outrageous and often absurd comedy. His work was especially popular in the 1980s, though his career seemed to get a second wind in the late 1990s. ''Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You'' was Durang's watershed play as it brought him to national prominence when it won him—at the age of 32—the Obie Award for Best Playwright (1980). His play, ''Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike'' won the Tony Award for Best Play in 2013. The production was directed by Nicholas Martin, and featured Sigourney Weaver, David Hyde Pierce, Kristine Nielsen, Billy Magnussen, Shalita Grant and Genevieve Angelson. Durang is a former co-director of the Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program at Juilliard. Early life and education Durang was born in Montclair, New Jersey, the son of two WWII veterans, architect Francis Ferdinand Durang Jr. and Patricia Elizabeth Durang (née Mansfield), a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leona Helmsley
Leona Roberts Helmsley (July 4, 1920 – August 20, 2007) was an American businesswoman. Her flamboyant personality and reputation for tyrannical behavior earned her the nickname Queen of Mean. After allegations of non-payment were made by contractors hired to improve Helmsley's Connecticut home, she was investigated and convicted of federal income tax evasion and other crimes in 1989. Although having initially received a sentence of sixteen years, she was required to serve only nineteen months in prison and two months under house arrest. During the trial, a former housekeeper testified that she had heard Helmsley say: "We don't pay taxes; only the little people pay taxes", a quote which was identified with her for the rest of her life. Early life Leona Helmsley was born Lena Mindy Rosenthal in Marbletown, New York, to Polish-Jewish immigrants, Ida (née Popkin), a homemaker, and Morris Rosenthal, a hatmaker. Her family moved to Brooklyn while she was still a girl, and moved s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plays By Christopher Durang
Play most commonly refers to: * Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment * Play (theatre), a work of drama Play may refer also to: Computers and technology * Google Play, a digital content service * Play Framework, a Java framework * Play Mobile, a Polish internet provider * Xperia Play, an Android phone * Rakuten.co.uk (formerly Play.com), an online retailer * Backlash (engineering), or ''play'', non-reversible part of movement * Petroleum play, oil fields with same geological circumstances * Play symbol, in media control devices Film * ''Play'' (2005 film), Chilean film directed by Alicia Scherson * ''Play'', a 2009 short film directed by David Kaplan * ''Play'' (2011 film), a Swedish film directed by Ruben Östlund * ''Rush'' (2012 film), an Indian film earlier titled ''Play'' and also known as ''Raftaar 24 x 7'' * ''The Play'' (film), a 2013 Bengali film Literature and publications * ''Play'' (play), written by Samuel Beckett * ''Play'' (''The New York Times'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adaptations Of A Christmas Carol
'' A Christmas Carol'', the popular 1843 novella by Charles Dickens (1812–1870), is one of the British author's best-known works. It is the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, a greedy miser who hates Christmas, but is transformed into a caring, kindly person through the visitations of four ghosts (Jacob Marley and the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future). The classic work has been dramatised and adapted countless times for virtually every medium and performance genre, and new versions appear regularly. Public readings The novel was the subject of Dickens' first public reading, given in Birmingham Town Hall to the Industrial and Literary Institute on 27 December 1853. This was repeated three days later to an audience of 'working people', and was a great success by his own account and that of newspapers of the time. Over the years, Dickens edited and adapted the piece for a listening, rather than reading, audience. Dickens continued to give public readings of ''A Christma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elena Passarello
Elena Passarello is an American writer, actor, and professor. In 2018, she became the announcer for the PRI variety show and podcast '' Live Wire'' with Luke Burbank. Career Originally from Charleston, South Carolina, Passarello studied nonfiction at the University of Pittsburgh and The Nonfiction Writing Program at the University of Iowa. Her essays have been published in newspapers including ''The New York Times'' and national literary journals such as ''Virginia Quarterly Review'', ''Gulf Coast'', ''Slate, Iowa Review,'' and ''Oxford American.'' She is the recipient of a 2015 Whiting Award in nonfiction. Her first essay collection, ''Let Me Clear My Throat'', was published by Sarabande in 2012 and received the gold medal for nonfiction at the 2013 Independent Publisher Book Awards. In the book, Passarello writes about famous voices from cultural history, including the eighteenth-century castrato Farinelli, punk rock crows, impressionists, the rebel yell, the Wilhelm Scream ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ghost Of Christmas Yet To Come
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is a fictional character in Charles Dickens's 1843 novella ''A Christmas Carol''. The Ghost is one of three spirits which appear to miser Ebenezer Scrooge to offer him a chance of redemption. Following a visit from the ghost of his deceased business partner Jacob Marley, Scrooge receives nocturnal visits by three Ghosts of Christmas, each representing a different period in Scrooge's life. The shrouded, ominous and silent Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come is Scrooge's last visitor, and shows him a vision of a Christmas Day in the near future after his own death. Background By early 1843, Dickens had been affected by the treatment of the poor, and in particular the treatment of the children of the poor after witnessing children working in appalling conditions in a tin mine and following a visit to a ragged school. Indeed, Dickens himself had experienced poverty as a boy when he was forced to work in a blacking factory after his father's impr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ghost Of Christmas Present
The Ghost of Christmas Present is a fictional character in Charles Dickens' 1843 novella '' A Christmas Carol''. The Ghost is one of three spirits which appear to miser Ebenezer Scrooge to offer him a chance of redemption. Following a visit from the ghost of his deceased business partner Jacob Marley, Scrooge receives nocturnal visits by three Ghosts of Christmas, each representing a different period in Scrooge's life. The Ghost of Christmas Present is concerned with Scrooge's current life and the present Christmas Day. The Ghost of Christmas Present is presented as a personification of the Christmas spirit,Hearn, Michael Patrick. ''The Annotated Christmas Carol'', W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., New York (2004), p. 83 and in the novella's first edition hand-coloured drawing by John Leech resembles early- Victorian images of Father Christmas. The spirit first appears to Scrooge on a throne made of traditional Christmas foodstuffs that would have been familiar to Dickens's mor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ghost Of Christmas Past
The Ghost of Christmas Past is a fictional character in Charles Dickens' 1843 novella ''A Christmas Carol''. The Ghost is one of three spirits which appear to miser Ebenezer Scrooge to offer him a chance of redemption. Following a visit from the ghost of his deceased business partner Jacob Marley, Scrooge receives nocturnal visits by three Ghosts of Christmas, each representing a different period in Scrooge's life. The Ghost of Christmas Past is concerned with the Christmases from Scrooge's past. Appearing to be both young and old, the spirit carries a large cap in the shape of a candle extinguisher under its arm. From the top of its head shines a bright light which illuminates Scrooge's memories. Background By early 1843 Dickens had been affected by the treatment of the poor, and in particular the treatment of the children of the poor after witnessing children working in appalling conditions in a tin mine and following a visit to a ragged school. Indeed, Dickens himsel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Touched By An Angel
''Touched by an Angel'' is an American fantasy drama television series that premiered on CBS on September 21, 1994, and ran for 211 episodes over nine seasons until its conclusion on April 27, 2003. Created by John Masius and executive produced by Martha Williamson, the series stars Roma Downey as an angel named Monica, and Della Reese as her supervisor Tess. Throughout the series, Monica is tasked with bringing guidance and messages from God to various people who are at a crossroads in their lives. From season three onward, they are frequently joined by Andrew (John Dye), the Angel of Death (who first appeared as a recurring character in season two). Plot The episodes of the series generally revolved around the "cases" of Monica (played by Roma Downey), an angel recently promoted from the "search and rescue" division, who works under the guidance of Tess (played by Della Reese), a sarcastic boss who is sometimes hard on her teen colleague, but is more of a surrogate mother than a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Gift Of The Magi
"The Gift of the Magi" is a short story by O. Henry first published in 1905. The story tells of a young husband and wife and how they deal with the challenge of buying secret Christmas gifts for each other with very little money. As a sentimental story with a moral lesson about gift-giving, it has been popular for adaptation, especially for presentation at Christmas time. The plot and its twist ending are well known; the ending is generally considered an example of comic irony. The story was allegedly written at Pete's Tavern on Irving Place in New York City. The story was initially published in '' The New York Sunday World'' under the title "Gifts of the Magi" on December 10, 1905. It was first published in book form in the O. Henry anthology ''The Four Million'' in April 1906. Plot On Christmas Eve, Della Young discovers that she has only $1.87 (equivalent to about $62 in 2022) to buy a present for her husband Jim. She visits the nearby shop of a hairdresser, Madame Sofronie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Enron Scandal
The Enron scandal was an accounting scandal involving Enron Corporation, an American energy company based in Houston, Texas. Upon being publicized in October 2001, the company declared bankruptcy and its accounting firm, Arthur Andersen then one of the five largest audit and accountancy partnerships in the world was effectively dissolved. In addition to being the largest bankruptcy reorganization in U.S. history at that time, Enron was cited as the biggest audit failure. Enron was formed in 1985 by Kenneth Lay after merging Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth. Several years later, when Jeffrey Skilling was hired, Lay developed a staff of executives that – by the use of accounting loopholes, special purpose entities, and poor financial reporting – were able to hide billions of dollars in debt from failed deals and projects. Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fastow and other executives misled Enron's board of directors and audit committee on high-risk accounting practices and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
It's A Wonderful Life
''It's a Wonderful Life'' is a 1946 American Christmas by medium#Films, Christmas Fantasy film, fantasy drama film produced and directed by Frank Capra, based on the short story and booklet ''The Greatest Gift'', which Philip Van Doren Stern self-published in 1943 and is in turn loosely based on the 1843 Charles Dickens novella ''A Christmas Carol''. The film stars James Stewart as George Bailey (It's a Wonderful Life), George Bailey, a man who has given up his personal dreams in order to help others in his community and whose thoughts of suicide on Christmas Eve bring about the intervention of his guardian angel, Clarence Odbody (Henry Travers). Clarence shows George all the lives he touched and what the world would be like if he did not exist. Theatrically, the film's break-even point was $6.3 million, about twice the production cost, a figure it did not come close to achieving on its initial release. Because of the film's disappointing sales, Capra was seen by some stud ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
