By FALLS CHURCH TIMES STAFF
December 2, 2013
Creative Cauldron will present its holiday classic: The Christmas Cabin of Carnaween weekends from December 6 through 22 at ArtSpace Falls Church, 410 S. Maple Avenue.
“We are presenting our finest production ever in this final year,” offered Director Laura Connors Hull. “Audiences that have been making it part of their holiday tradition will find some fresh new scenes added and new cast members joining the ensemble. And for those that are making their first visit, we are sure that this beautiful story will tug at your heart strings and work its fairy magic once again.”
Since it first premiered in 2009, this original adaptation of an Irish folktale has played annually to critical acclaim and full houses. “Poignant and bracing…. a reminder of the season’s rich ideals,” Washington Post 2009. “This uplifting, engaging and poetic tale celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and reminds of the ‘Christmas within,” Maryland Theatre Guide 2011. “The spirit of selflessness and giving is at the heart of this production, and is shown in a loving way that enchants the entire family!” DC Metro Theater Arts 2012. The 2013 production will be the final year for the production that was first conceived and adapted by Hull.
Christmas Cabin of Carnaween is set in the time of the great potato famine in Ireland and follows the journey of Oona Hegarty, the abandoned daughter of a family of tinkers. Oona is taken in by the Donegal village folk who inhabit Carnaween. She makes her way caring for the young and the sick and the elderly, but as a tinker’s child she is never quite fully accepted. The years pass and her yearning to have a cabin of her own would go unfulfilled were in not for the intervention of some wee folk on a snowy Christmas eve.
Katie Culligan will play the role of Oona for the fourth time. Culligan has been seen in Creative Cauldron’s 2010 Helen Hayes Awards Recommended® production of Nevermore and this past summer’s sold out cabaret performances “Voices of Vantage.” Katie will be joined by an ensemble of storytellers and village folk that includes Judy Butler, E. Augustus Knapp, James Lynch, and Laura Quackenbush Steele. The ensemble also includes members of Creative Cauldron’s young Learning Theater program: Anna Brotman-Krass, Libby Brooke, Olivia Laurine, Grace Rollins, Sarah Tarpgaard, and Alex Weinstein. The production is underscored by the live Irish music trio Magh Meall featuring Rosemary Gano on flute and whistle, Mary Wilkerson on fiddle and Katie Boyle on Guitar.
Performances are Fridays at 7:30 pm, Saturdays at 2 pm and 7:30pm and Sundays at 2 pm and 7 pm. The closing performance will be on Sunday, December 22 at 2 pm. Tickets for Christmas Cabin of Carnaween are $18 for adults and $15 for students and seniors, and can be purchased online at www.creativecauldron.org or by calling 703-436-9948.
Creative Cauldron is a non-profit arts organization whose innovative programs in the performing and visual arts embody collaboration, experimentation and community engagement. Creative Cauldron was founded by Producing Director Laura Connors Hull in 2002. In June of 2009, Creative Cauldron acquired a permanent home in ArtSpace Falls Church, a 3,000 square foot flexible arts space that provides a venue for year-round classes, live performances of theater, music and dance and visual art exhibits. Programs are presented in part through grants from the Virginia Commission for the Arts, The National Endowment for the Arts, the Arts Council of Fairfax County, the City of Falls Church and the Little City CATCH Foundation.
