(A Model of the Milwaukee Rep's A Christmas Carol stage set)

Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, A Christmas Carol is a universal story of hope -- something I think everyone needs more of, especially this year.  But there’s another side to the Milwaukee Rep’s production of A Christmas Carol -- another story of hope in an unlikely circumstance….

The mom of a struggling family was terminally ill.  Like most moms, her first worry wasn't about her disease -- instead, she worried about the kids....and how their Christmas might be ruined because of her illness.  Christmas came….and it was the best the family ever had: all because of people who cared.  These people got presents for the kids that the parents could never afford.  They arranged a day at the spa for the mom, giving her a space in time where her real-world worries wouldn’t intrude.  The people even got everyone in the family new clothes -- items that had been an unheard-of luxury only a few weeks before.  The family cherished that last Christmas together; but some months later, the mom succumbed to her illness.  The family was sad, but they remembered the kindness of those people, and they held that last, very special Christmas in their hearts forever.  These memories comforted them when they missed mom the most and even gave them hope for the future.

This is a true story; and it happened because of our own Milwaukee Rep’s A Christmas Carol.  But how?  After each performance of ACC, costumed actors greet the audience as they exit the theater and collect donations.  Then right before Christmas, all of the Rep’s employees – everyone from the cleaning crew, to the costumers, to the admin staff – go shopping with collected donations so they can “bring Christmas” to a struggling family.  The next day, everyone at the Rep wraps each present, and then they go out and personally deliver them.  The families to whom the Rep “brings Christmas” are clients served by a non-profit agency that is selected by the Rep earlier in the year.  The selected agency also receives collected donations.

(pictured above, Lanise Antoine Shelley, star of this year's "Eurydice" ready to be "Santa" in 2006.)

Annie Jansen Jurczyk, the Rep’s Fund Development Director tells me the Rep’s been helping Milwaukee non-profits and families through ACC performances for 15 years.  First time you’ve heard about this?  Well, the Rep doesn’t do this so the newspaper will pick up the story and say how great they are, or even that some some blogger will write about it.  They do it because, for them, it’s the right thing to do.  And a lot of people who go to ACC each year feel the same way.  Like the family with the kids who actually bring their piggy banks to the play.  Each year, these kids save money to give when the play’s over. 

(BTW: That's Annie & GG in the picture)

All told, since 2001, people who go to see ACC have given over $165,000 to seven different agencies and brought Christmas to over twenty families in our community.  That’s a lot of change bringing a lot of hope to people when they need it most.

So, if you go to see ACC this year (and I hope you’re planning to), toss a dime, quarter, dollar – or whatever you may have rattling around in your pocket or purse or piggy bank to Tiny Tim, Bob Cratchit or even old Scrooge himself  -- and you’ll be a part of A Christmas Carol’s other story too.  Like Annie says, “I don’t care if it’s just the change in your pocket; every bit of change makes a difference.”