A Child’s Christmas in Wales

A Child’s Christmas in Wales is a holiday musical based on Dylan Thomas’ sensitive heartwarming short story about a Welsh working family’s Christmas experience. Intertwined with traditional Christmas songs, it’s a tale that recounts a Christmas of long ago – a time before the age of the information highway and the freeway fast lane.

The show was a perennial tradition at the Gem Theatre from 1986-1992 and is presented with several members of the original cast, as well as returning co-directors Daniel Cartmell (1986-88) and Bud Leslie (1991-92). Returning to this season’s cast are Grove Shakespeare Festival veterans and family members Danny Oberbeck, Gary Bell, and Marnie Crossen. Oberbeck originally played a young Dylan Thomas in the show, but returns in the role of the much more mature Dylan. Oberbeck’s fifteen year old son, also named Dylan, makes his own debut appearance in the production. Also featured in the cast is Nancy Estes, wife of the late composer Chuck Estes, who served as the original music director for A Child’s Christmas in Wales.

“It’s a tale for the ages,” commented Thomas F. Bradac (Shakespeare Orange County Founding Artistic Producing Director), “a story that needs to be told over and over again. I’m just happy that we were able to reassemble many of the original actors that appeared in the production so many years ago, as well as a directing team that knows the show. We have had a terrific response from the local community.”