Occupy Chicago To Present Adaptation Of 'A Christmas Carol'
CHICAGO (CBS) -- On Friday afternoon in Grant Park, the Occupy Chicago movement turns from protesting to playwright production, updating Charles Dickens' classic "A Christmas Carol" for the proverbial 99 percent.
As WBBM Newsradio's John Cody reports, the production is scheduled for 3 p.m. in Grant Park at the Lincoln statue, at Columbus and Congress drives.
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Playwright Bill Turck has covered strife in Bosnia and Rwanda, but for the Chicago Christmas season has turned "A Christmas Carol" into a gentler contemporary parable, with "Occupy My Heart: A Revolutionary Christmas Carol."
"Josh, the Scrooge character in the play, is a very likable guy," Turck said. "He's our banker."
Josh, an ambitious Chicago banker, loses his job and his girlfriend on a snowy Christmas Eve, when he happens upon Kay, an old flame, who is protesting the Occupy movement.
"Where once he fought for the cause and dignity of every man, Josh's heart is now indifferent to the suffering around him," the Occupy Chicago Web site says. "But on that frosty Christmas Eve night Josh will be visited by three spirits that will show him that other world, the one that might have been with Kay, a world of hope and decency and dignity for all."
The play is meant as "a celebration of the movement, to bring the spirit and message of the Occupation to a broader audience," the Web site said.
The Friday performance will be preceded by a march from Jackson Boulevard and LaSalle Street.
The play will also be performed on WCPT 820-AM radio at 10 a.m. Sunday during the program "Marshall Stern's Awakened America." Performances are also scheduled for 8 p.m. Monday at the Prop Thtr, 3406 N. Elston Ave., and from Tuesday through Thursday of next week at Studio BE, 3110 N. Sheffield Ave.
The play is one hour long and family-friendly, Occupy Chicago says.
