Dickens Presents A Christmas Carol The Musical Program

and

 The Hermitage

Present

Dickens Presents A Christmas Carol

The Musical

December 13, 14, 20 & 21, 2025

Adapted from Charles Dickens by Jean Oberholtzer

Directed by John Lange

Original Music and Sound Effects by Ben Masterton

CJ Einhorn – Stage Manager

Cast

Susie Bellin	Girl/Tiny Tim/ Young Scrooge/ Spirit 3/ Boy
Steven Belloise	Fred/ Marley's Ghost
Jennifer Kim	Sister/Fiancée/ Belinda/Fred's Wife
Justin Lange	Charles Dickens/ Narrator/Bob Cratchit
James Santora	Ebenezer Scrooge
Siddhran Sen	Bobby/Fezziwig/ Spirit 2/ Man
Jane Timoney	Fan/ Martha/ Woman
Heather Wilkey	Mrs. Cratchit/Spirit 1

WHO’S WHO IN DICKENS PRESENTS

A CHRISTMAS CAROL THE MUSICAL

SUSIE BELLIN (Girl/Tiny Tim/Young Scrooge/Spirit 3/Boy) is an eighth grader with a passion for all things creative. She loves performing, writing, drawing, crochet and animation. Never shying from the spotlight, Susie shines brightest when sharing her talents with others. Want a crochet rainbow frog? She’s your girl! She is very grateful for the unwavering support of her family and friends, who have attended every one of her performances over the years.

STEVEN BELLOISE (Fred/ Marley's Ghost) is just happy to be here. Hope he can help the ball club. Favorite past credits include Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 (Ensemble) at Muhlenberg College and Dogfight (Fector) with the Streetlight Collective. 

CHARLES DICKENS (Author of “A Christmas Carol”) (1812 – 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime and, by the 20th century, critics and scholars had recognized him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories are widely read today.

CJ EINHORN (Stage Manager) is a Ho-Ho-Kus-based performer and designer who’s overjoyed to be a part of this production of Dickens Presents A Christmas Carol The Musical! Some of CJ’s on and off-stage credits include A Midsummer Night's Dream (Peter Quince and makeup design), Arsenic and Old Lace (makeup and prop design), The Prom (Angie and prop design), Legally Blonde (prop design), and The Crucible (Reverend Samuel Parris and prop design). CJ has been nominated for 3 Foxy's for their work and hopes to pursue theatrical design and production in college and beyond. Up next, CJ is working on Little Shop of Horrors at Northern Highlands Regional High School designing and puppeteering the Audrey 2 puppet. CJ would like to thank John, Frank, and Ben for this opportunity and merde to the cast! @cj_einhorn

FRANK FARRELL (Costume Coordinator & Artistic Director of the First Flight Theatre Company) in August 2025 he directed Little Jewel at the Theatre for the New City in NYC.  In 2024 he co-produced and directed Walt Kelly’s Songs of the Pogo as part of the New York City Fringe Festival, produced Hamlet on the Run at the Tank Theater and co-produced and directed Tongs and Bones Shakespeare at the Theater for the New City, he directed Little Women, Poe: An Evening of Mystery and the Macabre and Dickens Presents A Christmas Carol for the Hermitage in New Jersey.  In 2023 Frank produced and directed Shakespeare’s Ladies at Tea and Shakespeare’s Deaths as part of the Little Shakespeare Festival in NYC. He was an actor in Chicago for 40 years receiving four Joseph Jefferson acting nominations and returned to NYC and New Jersey in 2016. While in Chicago he directed and produced plays for the Free Shakespeare Theatre Company, Temporary Theatre, Shakespeare’s Herd, Steppenwolf Theater, Raven Theatre, Equity Library Theater Chicago, the North Lakeside Players, Citadel Theater, and Theatre-Hikes. Frank has formed seven theater companies including the Free Shakespeare Theatre Company (Chicago’s first year-round Shakespeare theatre company), Theatre-Hikes, the Pigeon Creek Shakespeare Company in Grand Haven, Michigan and in 2019 the First Flight Theatre Company. For FFTC he directed and produced 2022’s production of Maxwell Anderson’s play Valley Forge.  Frank has published six plays by Anderson from the 1920s: What Price Glory, First Flight, The Buccaneer, Outside Looking In, Gods of the Lightning and Sea-Wife all available at Amazon.com.

JENNIFER KIM (Sister/Fiancee/ Belinda/Fred's Wife) Jennifer Kim is a NYC-based actress. She is thrilled to be a part of Dickens Presents A Christmas Carol The Musical at the Hermitage.  Her recent roles include Gus P. Head in Morningside Players' It's Only A Play, Dromio of Ephesus in Shakespeare Sports' Comedy of Errors, Olivia in Clementine Players’ Twelfth Night, and Emily Delacey in Citygat Productions' Frankenstein.  She also recently took part in another First Flight project, a staged reading of Maxwell Anderson's Sea-Wife, in which she read for the part of Margaret.  

JOHN LANGE (Director) has appeared on Broadway in Chess the musical with Tony Nonnie's Judy Kuhn and David Carrol. As Peron in Evita with Robbie Benson, Karla DeVito and Ann Crumb. John’s US tour with the National Opera Company found him singing leading roles in Don Pasquale, The Marriage of Figaro and La Pericole. John returned to National Opera to direct and sing in the company’s production of Elixir of Love. He has sung in concert and opera performances with the North Carolina Symphony, Bel Canto opera, New Jersey Lyric Opera and the St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble. John Is the winner of the Sunwood Award for musical excellence. Recently John has gained 589K social media followers leading the movement “Touch Grass” and was featured on Subway Takes and in Creator Magazine. His best role is as husband to Sherri and father to Kelsey and Justin.

JUSTIN LANGE (Charles Dickens/ Narrator/Bob Cratchit) is a multi-skilled journalist and performer. He is currently the host of WMBC Hometown & Hometown News. At Penn State University he was President of Second Floor Stand Up Comedy. While attending Midland Park High School he was in their productions of Thoroughly Modern Millie, Spamalot, Young Frankenstein, Legally Blonde, & The Drowsy Chaperone.

BEN MASTERTON (Original Music and Sound) has composed and arranged music for dozens of Shakespeare productions in Chicago with the Shakespeare Festival of Chicago, Free Shakespeare, and Body Politic, including Midsummer Night's Dream, Macbeth, Hamlet, The Winter's Tale, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Twelfth Night, Merchant of Venice and All's Well That Ends Well. Other favorite productions include The Lennon Play, Dagon, The Lorenzaccio Story, A Dorothy Parker Revue, Dear Brutus, The Songs of the Pogo Podcast (with Frank Farrell), The Imaginary Invalid, The Successful Life of 3, The Snow Queen, The Crucible and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (Raven Theater), Three Sisters (Commons Theater), and The Enchanted (Chicago Waldorf School). Ben has written over a hundred songs and currently resides in Gainesville, Florida.

JEAN OBERHOLTZER (Adaptor) adapted this play for the Hermitage in the 1970s. It was titled Distilled Dickens. It was performed inside the Hermitage yearly for over a decade. While residing in Ridgewood, Jean was active in community affairs, serving as President of the Hermitage in Ho-Ho-Kus and as village historian in Ridgewood. Before retiring, Jean was an English and theater teacher at Northern Highlands Regional High School in Allendale. She was also a member of the Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group, and had her poetry published in literary journals and had her poetry published in literary journals. In addition, she was a member of the American Association of University Women. 

JAMES SANTORA (Ebenezer Scrooge) is very pleased to be in Dickens Presents A Christmas Carol The musical as Mr. Scrooge. This is James first musical performance. He was in A Wonderful Life as Mr. Potter at the Cumberland Regional Theatre in Cumberland, MD last Christmas Holiday. It seems James has a knack for playing villains. He was in To Kill a Mockingbird as the racist Bob Elwell with the White Plains Performing Arts Theatre in 2007. However, he can play many comic roles too. For example, playing Jesse Kiplinger and Sam Nash in Neil Simon's Plaza Suite in 2004 and 2023. He was recently in an interactive production of Pride and Prejudice this past Fall as the polite and dutiful butler in Derby, CT. James stared acting in 1994 with many community theatre groups in Darien, Stamford and Westport, CT which propelled him to be well known in many community theatre groups throughout Connecticut and Westchester County, NY. James started acting professionally in 2006 in many off Broadway and off-off Broadway productions for instance he appeared at the producer's club in New York City in their one act festival. He has always been blessed by working wonderful and talent actors and directors throughout his career which taught him and continue to teach him the art of the theatre just like his current director in this production Mr. John Lange. He like to dedicate his performance to his late mother Mrs. Marguerite Santora whose favorite Christmas film was A Christmas Carol. 

SIDDHRAN SEN (Bobby/Fezziwig/Spirit 2/Man) A Glen Rock New Jersey resident, he has appeared in several productions at Curtain Up Studios including Beetlejuice, Matilda and Elf and at Glen Rock Middle School he has appeared in Willy Wonka and Annie. He played the role of Joe Harper with First Flight in The Hermitage's production of The Adventures Tom Sawyer this past August. 

JANE TIMONEY (Fan/Martha/ Woman) has been performing in shows since she was in kindergarten and she is so grateful to be part of such an amazing production. Past credits include: Frau Blücher (Young Frankenstein), Mrs. Peacock (Clue), etc. Jane would like to thank John, Frank, and CJ for making this show come to life. Lastly, she would love to congratulate the hard working cast on a fantastic show.

HEATHER WILKEY (Mrs. Cratchit/Spirit 1) is thrilled to be part of this classic show!  Her credits include the Woman at the Well in 4 Daughters Minus One (Triad Theater), Ms. Fleming in Heathers (Secret Theater), Amahl & the Night Visitors (Lincoln Center), Music Man (Montclair Operetta Club), Scandalous, True Crime Series (Fox Nation).  She voiced Bella in the independent animated film Just Bruno (Wright Family Films) & Mary Pukui’s character for a PBS documentary with Qwave Films. She was the voice over for Kadoorie Farm & Botanic Gardens & created over a dozen characters for a children’s Faith web series. Thank you to all my family and friends who supported me! 

The Friends of the Hermitage, Inc., in Ho-Ho-Kus, Bergen County, New Jersey, was organized in 1972 as a 501(c)(3) corporation to preserve and restore The Hermitage and provide programming at the site. The Friends manages the property as an historic house museum under a lease agreement with the State of New Jersey. Over the course of its forty-five-year history, the Friends has grown from a small, fledgling group working to save The Hermitage to a broad-based educational organization working to become a center for history education. The Hermitage is a National Historic Monument.

Little Women at the Hermitage

Richard Width, Zander Kirby and Karen Eterovich as they appeared in the First Flight Theatre Company’s outdoor production of Maxwell Anderson’s play Valley Forge in 2022

is a not-for-profit company founded by Frank Farrell and a group of actors in 2018 and is devoted to presenting the plays of 20th century American playwright Maxwell Anderson as well as other playwrights who instill poetry in their writing. The company has performed live staged readings of Anderson’s plays in New Jersey, New York City and Chicago including Valley Forge, Elizabeth the Queen, Mary of Scotland, Sea-Wife, The Masque of Queens, White Desert, The Eve of St. Mark and Saturday’s Children. During the recent pandemic, First Flight presented play readings on Zoom for the public featuring actors from all over the United States and England. Productions streamed included Maxwell Anderson’s one-act plays The Feast of Ortolans, Second Overture, The Miracle of the Danube and Letter to Jackie. Also streamed were A Vampire Kiss in the Plague of 1666 written by James Fitzmaurice, which went on to win many awards on the film festival circuit; Salvador, a play about Salvador Dalí by Richard Young, another film festival winner; and a streaming version of Anderson’s first Broadway production White Desert. Post pandemic the company presented at The Hermitage in New Jersey outdoor productions of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Maxwell Anderson’s Valley Forge and a third reprise of Dickens by Candlelight: A Christmas Carol. For Earth Day in April of 2023 the First Flight Theatre Company presented streaming performances of In the Garden of Live Flowers, a play about Rachel Carson, which went on to be a winner at the Green Academy Award Film Festival. In June 2023 First Flight’s production of Little Women at The Hermitage was a well-attended outdoor success. In August 2023 it presented the double bill Shakespeare’s Ladies at Tea and Shakespeare’s Deaths as part of FRIGID’s Little Shakespeare Festival in NYC. In September 2023 the Chicago branch of First Flight presented a staged reading of Anderson’s Saturday’s Children. In October 2023 at The Hermitage in New Jersey and at the UNDER St. Marks Theater in NYC the company produced the one-woman play Mina based on Bram Stoker’s Dracula. In November 2023 First Flight again presented a staged reading of Saturday’s Children this time at the Under St. Marks Theater in NYC. In addition, the company and the Instant Shakespeare Company joined forces presenting play readings at New York City’s various public libraries including Anderson’s White Desert and Sea-Wife and in December 2023, First Flight presented a public reading of Maxwell Anderson’s 1924 play What Price Glory. First Flight recently published Maxwell Anderson’s plays What Price Glory, First Flight, The Buccaneer and Outside Looking In and Frank Farrell’s adaptation of Little Women, all available at Amazon.com.

is devoted to presenting the plays of 20th century American playwright Maxwell Anderson as well as other playwrights who instill poetry in their writing.

For more about First Flight and to donate visit www.firstflighttheatreco.com

Email: firstflight2018@gmail.com

SPECIAL THANKS: Rebecca Bellin, The Hermitage, Christine Blaylock, Eric Boehm, Andrea Kircher, Sherri Lange, Nancy Moses, Susan Smilon, Julie Zier and Martin Pfefferkorn.

A Very Special Thanks to the BCP Carolers!

FIRST FLIGHT’S 2025 DONORS: Pamela Coombe, Frank Farrell, Kathryn Schmidt, John Lange, Debbie Ruzicka, Amy Sunshine, Jay Green, Marilyn Green, Angela Lomangino, Joyce Porter, Julia Maish, Marla Weeg, & Thomas Tresser.

First Flight Theatre Company © 2025