What the Dickens!

Signature Events

The Dickens You Hardly Know [1]
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
6:30 p.m. @ Central Library
RSVP online [2]
Think you know Charles Dickens? Help celebrate the bicentennial of the great Victorian novelist’s birth with a special performance by members of Kansas City’s acting community. In The Dickens You Hardly Know they will perform five scenes from five Dickens books in just 50 minutes.

A Christmas Carol, Reduced [3]
Friday, December 7, 2012
6:30 p.m. @ Plaza Branch
RSVP online [4]
Members of the Out Loud Teen Reader's Theatre Group, made up of local adolescents interested in reading and sharing stories out loud, have spent six weeks reading and rehearsing (and having fun) to prepare their own modern twist on Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

Dickens [5]
Sunday, December 9, 2012
2:00 p.m. @ Central Library
RSVP online [6]
British actor Pip Utton performs his one-man show about Charles Dickens, presenting the writer as a supremely contented man now that he has left his wife, taken up with his sister-in-law, and found a second career reading his works to enraptured audiences.

Book Groups

Get into the swing of the Charles Dickens bicentennial by joining the book discussions group meeting on Tuesdays at 7 p.m. at the Plaza Branch, 4801 Main St., and on December 2nd at 2 p.m. at the North-East Branch, 6000 Wilson Road.

Plaza Branch Sessions:

North-East Branch Sessions

Space is limited. Registration is required [7] (click to access the Registration Form). Participants are not required to attend all four discussion sessions, but may register for those particular sessions that either suit their interests and/or availability. Books will be provided.

Those who attend the three Plaza sessions will receive a voucher for a discount on a ticket to Kansas City Repertory Theatre’s A Christmas Carol and/or the Unicorn Theatre/Kansas City Actors Theatre production of Inspecting Carol.

Film Screenings

Read It / Watch It - Great Expectations (1997) [12]
Thursday, November 8, 2012
6:00 p.m. @ Waldo Branch
RSVP online [13]
This modern-dress version starring Ethan Hawke, Gwyneth Paltrow, Robert DeNiro, and Chris Cooper is the centerpiece of a Read It / Watch It discussion group.

Leading the discussion is the Library’s Kaite Stover, a “book doctor” on KCUR-FM’s Up to Date show. Participants are encouraged (but not required) to read the source novel before attending the film screening.

A Very Dickens Christmas Film Series
Saturdays at 1:30 p.m. @ Central Library

With the year finally shifting into holiday mode, it’s a great time to sample the many films inspired by Charles Dickens’ immortal A Christmas Carol.

• December 1: A Christmas Carol [14] (1951) Not Rated
• December 8: The Muppet Christmas Carol [15] (1992) Rated G
• December 15: A Christmas Carol [16] (2009) Rated PG
• December 22: Scrooged [17] (1988) Rated PG-13
• December 29: Scrooge [18] (1970) Rated G

Admission to these films is free.

Exhibit

Depicting Dickens [19]
Saturday, December 1 through Monday, December 31, 2012
@ Waldo Branch

This collection of illustrations, photographs, and objects (Doulton figurines, ash trays, teapots) demonstrates the far-flung influences of Dickens’ robust, indelible, and often grotesque characters.