Our Daily Show! Ft: Theater Thursday, Coco + Oak, and More!
Get The Latest News!
Don't miss our top stories and need-to-know news everyday in your inbox.
ALTON - Alton Little Theater (ALT) is preparing for the holiday season and a jam-packed new year between their upcoming production of “A Christmas Carol” and plenty of entertainment already lined up for 2025.
7:30 p.m. showings for “A Christmas Carol” are set for Dec. 13, 14, 15, 19 & 20, 2024, while matinees will be shown on Dec. 15, 21 & 22, 2024 at 2 p.m. Tickets for the production are nearly sold out, so if they don’t appear on the website, call the Box Office at 618-462-3205 to ask about availability.
ALT Executive Director Lee Cox and Artistic Director Kevin Frakes discussed the theater’s next production and some of what’s in store for next year on the latest “Theater Thursday” segment on Our Daily Show! on Riverbender.com.
“It’s exciting, it really is,” Frakes said. “The cast is great, it’s going to be a great show.”
Frakes has been hard at work building the set for “A Christmas Carol,” which he will also direct. He said the newest set helps each scene transition smoothly into one another, featuring “a big light show” and some “surprises” when it comes to the show’s famous ghosts.
Noting the popularity of Christmas productions, Frakes added it’s been years since ALT did “A Christmas Carol” and chose this year to bring it back. He also noted this upcoming production will be the standard show, rather than the musical version.
The theater’s 2024 run of “A Christmas Carol” will mark Frakes’s final production with ALT as he’s set to retire after 57 years with the theater.
“This is my last show, yeah. I’ve been talking about it for a while, and now it’s here,” he said. “I’ve got a great cast and we’ll close on [Dec. 22, 2024], we’ll do strike and then I’ll be done.”
Cox said the upcoming production of “A Christmas Carol” includes a cast of 25 new and seasoned actors. She said Frake’s departure from the theater is “bittersweet,” though his long career with ALT makes his retirement well-earned.
“I’m happy for him, he absolutely deserves it,” Cox said. “Kevin and I have produced 50 shows together since 2015. We’ve been kind of a team - so he’s tired, because he builds all of them.”
The show will be accompanied by the theater’sTwelve Days of Christmas Gifts Raffle, which aims to raise funds for ALT in a festive, family-friendly atmosphere. Participants can increase their chances of winning prizes with each gift or purchase made, and all prizes will be visible at the Dorothy Colonius “Dickens of a Christmas” display. The raffle runs during the showings of “A Christmas Carol,” with winners announced during each intermission - though Cox noted visitors not attending the show can still make other purchases to be eligible.
The season marks a series of holiday specials offered by ALT, including a $60 Three-Show Season Package which grants visitors access to performances in January, March, and May 2025. The holidays are also a great time for ALT gift certificates, which are available for any amount and packaged with a festive holiday card.
The theater shows no signs of slowing down for the new year, kicking off 2025 with multiple installments of its Extra, Extra Entertainment Series. The new year will also bring a new comedy play, “The Exes,” led by a new director, Randy Manning. More details about that show, other upcoming shows, and the Extra, Extra Entertainment Series are available on altonlittletheater.org.
For more about everything coming up at ALT this Christmas and next year, check out the full “Theater Thursday” segment with Cox and Frakes at the top of this story or on Riverbender.com/video.
