AUTHORS WANTED!
The Riverside Dickens Festival is looking for scholars to portray their favorite authors at the 2014 festival in February.
We are looking for:
Arthur Conan Doyle
Mary Shelley
George Elliot
Emily Bronte
Victor Hugo
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Henry M. Stanley
Emily Dickenson
H. Rider Haggard
Financial Compensation is available.
If you are interested in portraying one of the authors listed above, please submit a proposal to: info@dickensfest.com
Lecturers
Learn more about Charles Dickens and his era. Check the Festival program for offerings from outstanding local scholars who will entertain and educate you with information about Dickens, his works and the era in which he lived.
The Royal Victorian
Tea Room & Music Hall
The First Congregational Church will once again host the Royal Victorian Tea Room & Music Hall, featuring Mr. Treacle and his cast of colorful characters. They will entertain Her Majesty Queen Victoria and her guests at special Queen’s Teas. In addition to the rousing entertainment, costumed servers will pamper guests with traditional hot and cold tea delicacies such as our famous scones with all the trimmings, sandwiches, fruit, other assorted treats, and of course, a pot of hot tea.
The First Congregational Church is located at the corner of Mission Inn Avenue & Lemon Street in Riverside.
There will be two Queen’s Teas on Saturday, February 2 at 11:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m., and one tea on Sunday, February 3 at 3:00 p.m. All teas are $20 per person and reservations are required. Please call 951-352-1502 or visit www.FCCriverside.org.
Evensong
A beautiful program of readings and fine music is presented at the First Congregational Church. The English Evensong had its origins in the monastic Vespers, for which the monks put aside their tools and came together for a moment of reflection and celebration. .
In 1996, Professor John T. Hamilton of La Sierra University conceived the idea of presenting an English Evensong in the First Congregational Church in conjunction with the festival. His request was approved, and he conducted the Riverside Choral Artists in a Festival Evensong each year from 1997 to 1999.
In late 1999, Steve Kester, Organist/Choral Director of Victoria Presbyterian Church, was asked to organize a group to continue the wonderful tradition begun by Dr. Hamilton. That group became the Raincross Chorale who performed its thirteenth Evensong at the 2012 festival. This beautiful program seems to be one of Riverside's best-kept secrets, except to the 400 devotees who fill the church each year and make the Evensong one of the best-attended activities of the festival.
The Evensong has been mostly unchanged since the first English Prayer Book of 1549, developed by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556). Especially important is the over-arching theme of light and peace.
The service presented by Raincross Chorale is a modified Evensong based upon the Book of Common Prayer and includes many of the standard elements, but places an emphasis on choral music appropriate for the occasion. In addition to the usual responses to the Scripture readings, the Chorale performs some stunning church anthems, which reverberate so magnificently in the church. It is always a great pleasure to hear the fine 38-rank Austin pipe organ.
It is meet and right that the Evensong be a splendid part of the Dickens Festival.
Oliver's Alley
Oliver's Alley is the place to be for the under 12 set.
The Children's Tea Parties feature "tea" (apple juice) and cookies served as a Tea Nanny shares a bit of the manners and mores of Victorian England.
At the Victorian Photo venue children have the opportunity to select Victorian-era clothing from the dress-up trunk and have a picture taken as a keepsake of their visit to Oliver's Alley.
There were hands-on demonstrations of Victorian-era games, wool spinning and crafts such as creating a cup and ball game or a Victorian greeting card and dressing a Dickens character. Queen Victoria, Mr. Scrooge, Mr. Dickens, Mr. Pickwick and other of Dickens’ characters frequently stop by The Alley to say hello.
Oliver's Alley was conceived to provide children with a fun and free Dickensian experience and is funded by a Community Arts Partnership grant from the Riverside Arts Council.
Mr. Fezziwig's Ball
Return to the romantic times of Mr. Dickens and Queen Victoria at Mr. Fezziwig’s Grand Ball. The ball is conducted exactly the way such an affair would have been managed in Victorian times complete with dance cards and beautifully dressed ladies and gentlemen twirling about the dance floor.
The Philadelphia Quadrille Orchestra provides appropriate music for dancing and Dance Mistress Robin Bancroft guides the dancers through Quadrilles, waltzes and polkas.
Do you need to brush up on your dance skills? Dance Classes return in November. Please see the Dickens Diary for class dates.
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Author's Salon
Be the envy of your neighbors. Gain the admiration of your friends. Host an Author's Salon for the Riverside Dickens Festival!
Invite one of our famous authors to entertain an intimate gathering in your home.
Choose from Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Edgar Allen Poe, or H. G. Wells, with many more to come.
You supply the parlor and tea for thirty, and we will furnish the literary giant.
All proceeds benefit the Riverside Dickens Festival
To book a Victorian Author in your home, email us at: info@dickensfest.com
Queen's Tea
Sunday June 2, 2013
Join Queen Victoria and her closest friends for a wonderful afternoon of tea and stimulating conversation on,
"Why Herbs Matter
to Victorians and Everyone."
Aloha Smith will discuss the three aspects of herb utility throughout history and today:
• Herbs for gustatory pleasure •
• Herbs for sensory pleasure •
• Herbs for the pleasures of household and health •
There will also be some special surprises such as an array of fresh living herbs for every table, cultivated and cosseted by Linda Dilday. Each guest will receive a Tussy Mussie to make and take so you will have creative cheerfulness in your hand!
When ordering tickets, please let us know who you would prefer to sit with and we will do our best and accommodate all requests. Seating is assigned and tickets will not be issued at the event. A guest list and seat assignments will be at the door.
If you have special dietary requests, please advise us in advance. When ordering tickets, please specify your menu preference: Regular, Vegetarian or Gluten-free on the drop down menu.
Pickwick's Pub Night
"Return to Pub Nights Past", with Mr. Pickwick himself as your host, along with his faithful band of talented zanies providing an evening of delightful delicacies, cold drinks and bawdy entertainments!
Sleary's Circus
Magic, music, and mountebanks pop from the pages of Hard Times when Sleary's Circus confounds the crowds with juggling, tumbling, and gob-gaping, gyroscopic acrobatics on the gravity-defying, belief-suspending Cyr Wheel. Christopher Yates will appear as Sleary, the ringmaster.
I Met the Queen
Queen Victoria and her family first attended in 1995 and have become an integral part of the Riverside Dickens Festival. They celebrate along with every participant and visitor the writings of Charles Dickens and help to promote the festival named for him.
The Queen shares her comments and observations about the various performances with visitors to the Royal Pavilion. Although she attends the festival in support of Mr. Dickens and his writings, to become closer to her subjects and to enable her children to enjoy and participate in the events, she also performs several duties. On Saturday and Sunday the Gordon Highlanders present a firing and drill demonstration of their rifles and Gatling gun. Queen Victoria is escorted onto the parade ground to inspect the troops, and then takes her place in the viewing area and covers her ears just like everyone else. On Saturday night, during Mr. Fezziwig's Victorian Grand Ball, she knights a deserving citizen. This honor is bestowed to the surprise of the recipient and delight of the ball attendees.
For much of the afternoon, she can be found in her pavilion attended by some family members and courtiers as she welcomes visitors who want to chat informally with her. Each visit is rewarded with a memento stating, "I Met the Queen."
Meet Mr. Dickens
In this one-man show, Charles Dickens addresses an American audience in Baltimore during his second visit to the United States in the year 1867.
Paul Jacques is a local actor, director, and drama teacher who has portrayed Charles Dickens at the festival for nine years.
Bydand Forever
Recreating a company of The Gordon Highlanders as they were in 1882, “Bydand Forever” is a regular at the Riverside Dickens Festival. They present daily firing and drill demonstrations featuring 1875 Manual of Arms, an 1874 Gatling gun, and their Drums and Pipes. The group establishes an authentic billeting area, and are available to answer questions about life in the Highland Brigade.
The plaintive sounds of bagpipes can be heard on the rainy, gray afternoon. Suddenly the staccato sound of rifle fire ring out, followed by the rapid crackling of a Gatling gun. Men in red jackets and plaid kilts kneel in battle position and fire on an enemy only they can see.
Volunteer Guild for the 2014 Festival
The Volunteer Guild for the 21th Annual Riverside Dickens Festival is now forming. Hop on board!
Your help is in great demand. The Dickens Festival would not happen if it were not for a volunteer board of directors, committee chairpersons, committee members, and scads of days-of-the-festival assistants.
Many people enter into the fun of it all by showing up at the festival as Dickensian or Victorian characters. Some volunteers have been with us since the beginning in 1993.
The festival needs a large number of people to be involved even if just for a single two-hour shift. Groups and organizations are welcome to join us to help with a particular event or with set-up and teardown.
Areas of need are: Committee members, pre-festival assistance with flyer and poster distribution, street characters, venue greeters, announcers, venue attendants, ticket takers, Information Booth assistants, set-up, tear-down, and much more.
If you would like to join our Volunteer Guild please send us an email at info@dickensfest.com with the following information:
- Contact information including both telephone and email.
- Assignment preferences.
If you have questions please contact Carolyn at 951-369-9110 or Chris at iqprint@aol.com.
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