Dawidziak is on his 'Christmas Carol' kick again

If it’s December, then it must be time for Plain Dealer and former Beacon Journal TV critic Mark Dawidziak and the Largely Literary Theater Company to stage Charles Dickens’ "A Christmas Carol." The performances:

Sunday, Dec. 6
St. Paul Episco- pal, 317 East Lib- erty St., Me- dina, 2 p.m. $12 adults, $10 students. Information: 330-723-3355. Benefits Medina American Association of University Women scholarship program.

Tuesday, Dec. 8
Stow-Munroe Falls Public Library, 3512 Darrow Road, 7 p.m. Registration required at 330-688-3295 or at library information desk.

Saturday, Dec. 19
Cleveland Public Library, Louis Stokes Wing Auditorium, 525 E. Superior Avenue, 2 p.m. Library has a collection of Dickens material on exhibit.

Sunday, Dec. 20
Cuyahoga County Public Library’s Beachwood Branch, 25501 Shaker Boulevard in Beachwood, at Richmond and Shaker Boulevard, 2 p.m. Information: 216-831-6868.

Dickens is played by Dawidziak. Retired Stow High drama teacher Tom Stephan plays Scrooge. Sara Showman, Mark’s wife, plays almost all the other roles.

Over the years The Largely Literary Theater Company has taken its production of “A Christmas Carol” to Cleveland, Columbus, Akron, Kent, Solon, Kirtland, Hudson, Cuyahoga Falls and Nordonia Hills.

Dawidziak has 11 published books -- including a novel, “Grave Secrets,” and non-fiction “The Barter Theatre Story: Love Made Visible,” “The Columbo Phile: A Casebook,” “Mark My Words: Mark Twain on Writing,” “The Night Stalker Companion: A 25th Anniversary Tribute,” “Horton Foote’s The Shape of the River: The Lost Teleplay About Mark Twain” and “The Bedside, Bathtub & Armchair Companion to Dracula.”

The Largely Literary Theater Company was founded in 2002 by Mark and Sara. It also does plays linked to Edgar Allan Poe and Mark Twain.

Stephan retired after 31 years as English and drama teacher at Stow-Munroe Falls High School. He has appeared in Weathervane Playhouse, Coach House Theater, the Stow Players, Goodyear Theater, the old Bath Players, and the Players Guild of Canton productions.

Mark and Sara also do sketches at the annual Books for Africa fundraiser at St. Bernard Church in Akron.