THE GHOST BEFORE CHRISTMAS
by Richard Thompson
In this adaptation of a Charles Dickens Christmas story, Pericles Redlaw is a man dominated by memories of his life’s disappointments and tragedies. One night he is visited by a spirit who offers him “the forgetting of all the sorrow, wrong and trouble you have known.” He will also spread that gift to others, but he soon finds that the “gift” is ruining their lives. The damage he caused is reversed, and Redlaw’s memory restored, by a character “saturated in the teaching of pure love,” who helps him realize that without the memory of past wrongs, we cannot forgive them.
- Cast Size: 10M 8W
- Running Time: 90+ minutes
- Royalty Rate: $75 per performance
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About the Playwright
Richard Thompson became a playwright after retiring in 2012 from his 42-year journalism career as reporter, editor, publisher and Navy public affairs officer. In addition to The Ghost before Christmas, he has written The Stage Is a World, the full-length musical Almost Opposites Attract, and four one-acts: The Helpless Director Zone, The Memories Come Back, The Law of Averages and And I’m Telling You I’m Not Really Going. All have been produced by theaters in Southern Maryland. As a director in Maryland, he has staged The Front Page, The Man Who Came to Dinner, Breaking Legs, God’s Favorite, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, The Odd Couple, Come Blow Your Horn, A Thurber Carnival, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, The Stage Is a World, What Was Done and Tribute. A member of both the Dramatists Guild and the American Association of Community Theatre, he has served on the board of directors for six different community theaters, the Maryland Community Theatre Festival Association and the Eastern States Theater Association. Originally from New York (by way of Pennsylvania), he and his wife reside in Prince Frederick, Maryland.
Review The Ghost Before Christmas.