Carole's Christmas at Emerson Theater Collaborative

It’s July. Carole, a middle-aged dance professor and mother of a rising college senior, finds out that she has four weeks to live. Rather than fight her diagnosis, Carole decides to celebrate Christmas. Advent is four weeks, right? While her daughter is just about to launch her adult life, Carole’s is ending. As they start to unravel the significance of their journey, the magic of Christmas intervenes and books fly off the shelves to point their way. With her daughter Ivy, best friend Marla, estranged husband Paul — and even the benefits manager from the university — by her side, Carole refuses to succumb to sadness and instead searches for the light in her situation. In the end, the magic of Christmas prevails.

Inspired by Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, Carol’s Christmas asks: What if there are only the ghosts of Christmas past and present, but not the future?