Due to popular demand, Manual Cinema’s Christmas Carol, the critically acclaimed, 2020-set streaming adaption of Charles Dickens’s holiday classic, has been extended and will now be available for on-demand viewing through December 31.
The Chicago-based interdisciplinary performance collective premiered its new adaptation of the most famous holiday tale of all time as a live streaming production, December 3-20. Each show was performed live in Manual Cinema’s studio in a socially distanced manner, and live streamed directly to audiences by Marquee TV (marquee.tv) – the foremost digital deliverer of performing arts content.
Live performances wrapped up as scheduled with two shows, Sunday, December 20th.
On Monday, December 21, Marquee TV will add a recorded performance to its on-demand streaming line-up, where it will be available for 24/7 viewing through December 31. Tickets are $15. Closed captioning is available on all streams.
Visit marquee.tv/videos/manualcinema-christmascarol for tickets and more information.
Manual Cinema’s Christmas Carol:
“Themed to our shared painful year, so it will stir your emotions even as it offers a message of hope”
– Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune
Click here or above to screen and download the video trailer for Manual Cinema's Chritmas Carol.
In signature Manual Cinema style, hundreds of paper puppets, miniatures, silhouettes and a live original score come together for an imaginative reincarnation of Dickens’s holiday classic.
Since premiering, Manual Cinema’s Christmas Carol has attracted audience and critical accolades:
“An extraordinary creative achievement…This is the kind of one-of-a-kind artistic response that people will, I think, remember in Chicago as emblematic of this artistic moment”
-Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune (full review)
"A gorgeous mixed-media adaptation featuring live performance, stunning puppetry and animation, and live music"
-Maya Phillips, The New York Times (full review)
“Must-see…Every bit as magical and powerful as the most elaborate large-scale productions”
-Karen Topham, ChicagoOnStage.com (full review)
Scrooge and Christmas Present
Manual Cinema’s Christmas Carol is the story of Aunt Trudy, an avowed holiday skeptic who has been recruited to channel her late husband Joe’s famous Christmas cheer. Alone and under quarantine in her studio apartment, Trudy attempts to reconstruct Joe’s annual Christmas Carol puppet show over Zoom while the rest of her family celebrates Christmas Eve under lockdown. But as Trudy becomes more absorbed in her own version of the story, the puppets take on a life of their own, and the family’s Zoom call transforms into a stunning cinematic retelling of Dickens’s classic ghost story.
Manual Cinema’s A Christmas Carol is adapted from the novel by Charles Dickens and written by the Manual Cinema Artistic Directors: Drew Dir, Sarah Fornace, Ben Kauffman, Julia Miller and Kyle Vegter. Cast members are Lizi Breit, puppeteer; Sarah Fornace, puppeteer; Ben Kauffman, guitar, piano, lead vocals; N. LaQuis Harkins, Aunt Trudy/puppeteer; Julia Miller, puppeteer; and Kyle Vegter, cello, keys and vocals. The production team is Drew Dir, storyboards; Ben Kauffman and Kyle Vegter, original music and sound design; Drew Dir, puppet design; Lizi Breit and Sarah Fornace, puppet build assistants; Drew Dir, additional puppetry; Maddy Low, costume design; Julia Miller and Kyle Vegter, set design; Andrew Morgan, Trudy lighting design; Mike Usrey, technical director and sound engineer; Shelby Sparkles, stage manager; Ben Kauffman, streaming and UX; and Julia Miller, production manager.
Christmas Past
Feast
Scrooge and Marley
Scrooge
Scrooge and Ghost of Christmas Past
More about Manual Cinema
“Chicagoans of the Year: Directors of Manual Cinema have created a whole new art form”
- Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune
“This Chicago troupe is conjuring phantasms to die for…”
-Ben Brantley, New York Times
The five founders and co-artistic directors of Manual Cinema are (standing, from left) Kyle Vegter, Drew Dir, Sarah Fornace, (front, from left) Julia Miller and Ben Kauffman.
Since its founding in 2010, Manual Cinema has been turning heads in Chicago and around the globe for a decade, combining handmade shadow puppetry, cinematic techniques, and innovative sound and music to create immersive visual stories for stage and screen.
The Emmy Award winning performance collective, design studio, and film/video production company was founded in Chicago by Drew Dir, Sarah Fornace, Ben Kauffman, Julia Miller, and Kyle Vegter. Using vintage overhead projectors, multiple screens, puppets, actors, live feed cameras, multi-channel sound design, and a live music ensemble, Manual Cinema transforms the experience of attending the cinema and imbues it with liveness, ingenuity, and theatricality.
In addition to A Christmas Carol, upcoming projects include the debut of their shadow animations in the film remake of Candyman, directed by Nia DaCosta and produced by Academy Award-winner Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions, slated to open in theaters in 2021. Manual Cinema is also creating an adaptation of two Mo Willems’ children’s books, Leonardo, the Terrible Monster and Sam, the Most Scaredy-cat Kid in the Whole World, premiering in February 2021 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
For more information, visit manualcinema.com, follow the company on Facebook at facebook.com/manualcinema, on Instagram at instagram.com/manual_cinema and on Twitter @ManualCinema.