The Ringling Presents a Holiday Classic with a Modern Twist

December 4, 2020 – Sarasota

The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art is pleased to present the retelling of a Christmas classic by the heralded Chicago-based interdisciplinary performance collective Manual Cinema. In this world premiere online event created for audiences of all ages, interdisciplinary performance collective Manual Cinema takes on Charles Dickens’s holiday classic with a visually inventive adaptation made to broadcast directly to your home. An avowed holiday skeptic, Aunt Trudy has been recruited to channel her late husband Joe’s famous Christmas cheer. From the isolation of her Chicago apartment, she reconstructs his annual Christmas Carol puppet show – over a Zoom call while the family celebrates Christmas Eve under lockdown. However, as Trudy becomes more absorbed in her own version of the story, the puppets take on a life of their own, and the family’s call transforms into a stunning cinematic adaptation of Dickens’s classic ghost story.

This family-friendly one of a kind holiday show is available as a live-streamed performance with four at-home viewing options. World premiere performances of Manual Cinema’s Christmas Carol are Dec. 18-20, 2020. Each show will be performed live in Manual Cinema’s Chicago studio in a socially distanced manner, and live streamed to audiences at the same time all over the world. Marquee TV will deliver the stream. In signature Manual Cinema fashion, hundreds of paper puppets, miniatures, silhouettes and a live original score will come together to tell an imaginative reinvention of this cherished holiday classic.

The cost for this event is $18 per household or $16.20 per household for members. Tickets may be purchased at www.ringling.org/events/manual-cinemas-christmas-carol. This program will not be available for later viewing.