DICKENS RETURNS

Vaillancourt Folk Art is pleased to announce that Gerald Charles Dickens, the great, great grandson of famed author Charles Dickens will be returning to Sutton this year to perform the holiday classic “A Christmas Carol”. Like last year, the presentations at Vaillancourt Folk Art will be the kick off of his United States tour.

Mr. Dickens will give five performances during Thanksgiving weekend in Vaillancourt’s Blaxton Hall in the historic Manchaug Mills. Because all of last year’s shows sold out, an additional performance has been added. The scheduled times for the “One- Man Show” are:
Friday November 26th 7PM
Saturday November 27th 2PM and 7PM
Sunday November 28th 2PM and 6PM

Tickets are $30.00 for premier seating (rows 1 & 2) and $25.00 for general seating.
Tickets are available at Vaillancourt Folk Art 9 Main Street Sutton, by telephone at 508-476-3601 or on line at www.MeetDickens.com

Mr. Dickens has worked as an actor, director and producer in the United Kingdom for many years. In 1993, he created his first one-man show of “A Christmas Carol” inspired by the public readings done by his great, great Grandfather Charles Dickens. He has since performed it to rave reviews and thrilled audiences across the world. His performance is truly a theatrical event. Using different voices, mannerisms and expressions he commands the stage and transforms into all 26 characters of the story. The performance is about one hour in length and Mr. Dickens will be available for signing after each program.

“A Christmas Carol “was published in 1843 and is considered to have inspired the Christmas traditions of family centered festivities and spirit of generosity we today. Gerald Dickens’ performance of this wonderful work is the perfect way to begin the Christmas season.
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Vaillancourt Folk Art is a company based in Sutton, Massachusetts that produces highly detailed, hand-painted collectible chalkware figurines from antique moulds. They have operated since 1984 and sell have sold to stores around the nation—including Macy’s, Nordstroms. The company’s a goal is to create that one special traditional gift, that will be handed down for generations. Vaillancourt Chalkware was the original contemporary chalkware sold as a collectible product.
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Judi Vaillancourt’s presentation on a history of illustrators of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.

Live music, Smoking Bishop Punch, Meade, traditional English food and the introduction of the Premier Numbers of several of the Collector’s Weekend pieces… the perfect way to start a Friday off right!

From the Dickens and Vaillancourt family, to your family, Merry Christmas!

All of us at Vaillancourt Folk Art wish to thank all who attended the performances of A Christmas Carol performed by Gerald Charles Dickens, the Great-great-grandson of Charles Dickens. We had four fabulous performances to sold out crowds! All attendees were touched by Mr. Dickens’ performances of this one man show, as he took the stage in a modified version of Charles Dickens’ readings of the timeless story, A Christmas Carol.

Even more so, it was gratifying to see the generations of families come in to our Gallery and Museum see the performance and then meet Mr. Dickens!

Vaillancourt is about traditions and we are happy to not only have families continue their traditions with us, but hundreds started new traditions with us this weekend!

We would like to thank the Byers family, from Byers Choice in PA, for all of their assistance in making this performance happen. Like us, Byers Choice is an American made treasure and Joyce, Bob Jr. and Jeff Byers have always been extremely helpful in making sure that “American Made Christmas” survives.

We would also like to thank Paul Boutiette and Neil Crites of the Manchaug Mills for their assistance in creating Blaxton Hall. WSRS and WTAG for their media sponsorship and Millbury Federal Credit Union for their sponsorships. We also want to thank Mechanics Hall for sharing their Charles Dickens story, Professor Joel Brattin, Margaret F. Anderson, and Michael Dorsey of the WPI George C. Gordon Library, Fellman Dickens Collection—a premier source of Dickens materials— for sharing their knowledge, expertise, and producing the images used for the posters in Blaxton Hall. Most importantly, thank all of our attendees for making this performance of A Christmas Carol possible.