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'A Christmas Story'
Christine Crugnola Petruniw (Miss Shields) and her students (left to right, front to back) Ri’Niyah Coullard (Esther Jane), Eva Ferreira (Helen), David Evan Bellman (Flick), Adelaide Beams (Esther Jane), Paetyn Middleton (Schwartz), Melanie Garcia (Helen). Photo by Alan Marcus.


PUTNAM — The Northeastern Connecticut at the Bradley Playhouse will present a Christmas favorite, “A Christmas Story”, opening Dec. 1 and running for three weekends.
Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 1, 2, 8, 9, 15 and 16 and at 2 p.m. Dec. 3, 10 and 17. Tickets are $23 for adults and $20 for seniors, students, veterans and first responders. All seats are reserved. Reservations may be made with a major credit card online at www.thebradleyplayhouse.org or by calling 860-928-7887. Tickets may be purchased at the theater box office, either before the performance, or at the door if available.
The TNECT production is co-directed by Jeremy Woloski and Madeline Jaaskela. Ralph Parker, who narrates the story as an adult, is played by Robert Ellis III, while Jacob Seaman appears as young Ralphie. Ralphie’s family includes Roy Simmons as the Old Man, Maegan Kelley as Mother, and Jeffrey McAteer as his little brother, Randy. Best friends are Flick, played by David Evan Bellman, and Schwartz, played by Paetyn Middleton; Caleb Hanley is the feared bully, Scut Farkas. Adelaide Beams and Ri’Niyah Coullard share the role of Esther Jane and the role of Helen is split between Eva Ferreira and Melanie Garcia. The teacher, Miss Shields, is Christine Crugnola Petruniw and Jim McAnneny appears as the all-important Santa Claus.
The play A Christmas Story is adapted by Philip Grecian. It is based on the 1983 motion picture A Christmas Story, written by Jean Shepherd, Leigh Brown, and Bob Clark, and on the book In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash by Jean Shepherd.
Jean Shepherd’s memoir of growing up in the 1940s in Hohman, Ind., follows Ralphie Parker in his quest to get a genuine Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas. He pleads his case to his mother, his teacher, and even Santa Claus himself at Higbee’s Department store. The consistent response: “You’ll shoot your eye out!”
Everything you remember fondly from the film is onstage – the temperamental furnace, Scut Farkas (who names their child Scut?) the local bully, what happens to a wet tongue on a cold lamp post, and of course, Ralphie’s father’s major award, the unforgettable leg lamp!

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