This Sunday brings two opportunities to hear holiday stories read out loud.
The Windsor Public Library will host its eighth annual Adult Holiday Read-Aloud from 4-6 p.m. at the Windsor Mansion Inn, located at 153 Pembroke Road. The free event includes light refreshments, music and holiday stories read by area performers.
All are invited to stay after the readings for a 30- to 40-minute history tour of the inn.
“I think it just gives them a moment to get away from the hustle and bustle of the holiday,” said Christine Porter, director of the Windsor Public Library. “As kids you get read to a lot… as adults you don’t really get that time.”
While the event is directed toward adults, Porter said it is appropriate for teenagers as well. Around 60 people attended last year’s event.
“I like to sit back and watch the whole picture taking place,” Porter said. “I like watching the reader but I also like purveying the audience and seeing their reactions. It just brings a warm feeling to my heart, it really does.”
Willem Lange will read a version of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol from 7-8 p.m. at St. Thomas Episcopal Church located at 9 W. Wheelock St., in Hanover. Admission is by donation, with proceeds benefiting the Upper Valley Haven.
Lange has been performing the reading at the church for more than 40 years.
“I love the language of Dickens,” Lange said. “He did with language what jugglers do with 15 balls in the air.”
Lange said he enjoys seeing the same people attend year after year.
“You love Ebeneezer Scrooge because he’s in each one of us,” Lange, who writes a weekly column for the Valley News, said. “When he’s redeemed at the end of the thing and I do his new voice I can just sense the relief in the audience.”
Lange starts his preparations about two months before the performance and practices while he takes walks in the park.
“People walking by me have to decide whether to call the police or the funny farm because they don’t know what I’m talking about,” Lange said with a laugh.
He has the script mostly memorized.
“The story’s become part of me,” Lange said. “It’s between me and the audience, this love of what we’re reading and what we’re looking forward to which is the change in this whole man.”
Liz Sauchelli can be reached at esauchelli@vnews.com or 603-727-3221.
