Date: Saturday, December 5, 2020 from 2:00 to 3:30 pm
Time: Zoom doors open at 1:45 pm
This Year’s Holiday Party: A Dickens’ Read-Around
For this year’s holiday party, we have asked Charles Dickens to take us back in time to Victorian
Ghost of Christmas Present
England where we will celebrate Christmas past, present and future with Ebeneezer Scrooge and his ghosts.
We invite all branch members to join as readers of the holiday classic, A Christmas Carol, as abridged by Charles Dickens himself to entertain party-goers at wintry gatherings.
On the afternoon of our party, just step through the Zoom time-travel portal by clicking here.
Feel free to dress festively, perhaps with an eye on Victorian era garb — hats? cloaks? scarves or boas? — and supply yourself with refreshments and libations of your choice.
Our holiday Read-Around, like last February’s participatory reading of the 1914 suffragist play, The Woman of It, will be led by theater and radio artist Ruth Giordano, from Williamstown, who hosts a monthly Read-Around of one-act plays and short stories.
While we encourage all of you to take part as readers, non-readers are also welcome to join in as a virtual audience. No experience is necessary. Ruth will explain how it works at the outset, and the text will be shared on the screen so everyone — readers and audience alike — can follow along as rotating readers take us through the story.
There is no limit on the number of readers: the more, the better. To give Ruth a headcount, if you wish to be a reader, please RSVP by clicking on the button below to send an email response before December 3.
I’ll be a ReaderIf you prefer not to read, no RSVP is required, just Zoom in before 2:00 pm on December 5.
After the Read-Around, which runs under an hour, we’ll take some time to greet each other and raise a glass to a year that brought the suffrage movement to life during both its centennial and an important election year, with virtual programs that have broken through our pandemic isolation. 
We have survived, we will survive, and we will meet again — in person — in the year ahead. Till then: God bless us, every one!
To join the party by Zoom, click on the ticket below (on Saturday, December 5, doors open at 1:45 pm).
Editor’s Note: Dickens performed in the United States using the same version of the Christmas Carol that we will be reading. Explore Dickens’ journey in the United States with this clickable map of Dickens’ travels.