San Francisco
Dickens.
Doesn’t that name just send a little shiver through your spine?
*crickets*
Aw, come on. Oliver Twist? A Tale of Two Cities? The Pickwick Papers? And, best of all, Nicholas Nickleby: that glorious book and its titular protagonist with whom alice has been having the world’s most one-sided literature love affair since Anne Rice discovered Lestat.
So what would you do if you had the chance to be a part of that amazing world of prostitutes with hearts of gold, innocent orphans, jovial folks without a cent to their names (and miserable folks with more than their fair share), heroes that are straight as pins, poorly written female characters, twins, true love, and the greatest character in a vast panoply of characters… the grimy city of Victorian London itself?
If only for one month.
To alice, it sounds like a dream come true – just like referring to herself in the third person when a simple ‘I’ would certainly suffice.
And *gasp* guess what? Apparently, it’s a lot of other people’s dream come true as well. So many, in fact, that they’ve organised a Great Dickens Christmas Fair in San Francisco. (Link at the bottom of the page). Basically, it offers an all-encompassing Victorian experience. Run from Thanksgiving to the weekend before Christmas, patrons get the chance to meet some of Dicken’s most famous (and infamous) characters, from Oliver Twist to Scrooge. Even the great man, Charles Dickens himself, shows up: all while wondering around 90 000 square feet of authentically decorated Victorian streets filled with dance halls, dens, docks, shops, food stalls, stages upon which are held reenactments of some of Dickens’ more well-known scenes, and even places to entertain the children. Up to 900 actors portray Dickens’ characters and even the shopkeepers are always ready to wish you a ‘Merry Christmas, guv’nor’ and give you a mince pie.
Upon hearing this, alice knew she had blundered into something amazing. She also knew she had to be a part of it. But – no – not just any part… a character from Nicholas Nickleby, her favourite book (seriously, she’s read it more times than she can count and takes pride in owning and regularly watching three versions of it: the marvellous 1982 stage version; the 2000 tv version; and the 2002 movie adaptation). The problem in this bloated plan of hers is that…
Dun Dun DUNH
… she lives in Brisbane, and sadly enough not the Brisbane that’s handily close to SanFran. The Brisbane that’s on the other side of the world. As she plans to attend the 2010 fair, she thankfully has some time up her sleeve to figure out how she’s going to audition for a part while 3000 (or insert some other, more realistic and impressive number here) miles away. Currently her hope is that she’ll be able to send over (or youtube, thank heavens for technology) a video audition. After all, there’s not much point travelling to San Francisco for two months only to realise that she didn’t actually get a part in the Nicholas Nickleby cast.
(By the way, if any people involved with casting happen to read this, she does a mean Fanny impression and comes with a suitably pretty best friend to be Tilda [and even a tall and strapping best friend's boyfriend for the John Browdie role, but she thinks she's pushing her luck with that=P].)
She is relishing the thought of building a character, and of course wearing the lovely, lovely clothes. Currently her plan is to arrive in SanFran at the beginning of November and stay there till Christmas, hopefully not being murdered while she’s there.
Of course, if she’s there, she might as well attend some of the write-ins of National Novel Writing Month, something she’s been participating in since 2006.
So, to sign off, as Tiny Tim would say… ‘God bless us, Every One.’
http://www.dickensfair.com/index.html <— click the linky for Victorian goodness. You. Know. You. Want. To.
