Broadstairs group to take a taste of Dickens to New York

Declaimers Alan Root, Liane Blades, Val Whitehouse and Clive Whitehead

Members of The Dickens Declaimers – part of the Broadstairs Dickens Fellowship – are traveling to New York this month to bring a taste of the Victorian author to the States.

The group reads, or declaims, in much the same manner as Charles Dickens did himself.  He gave performances reading his works up and down the country and he went to the USA to give readings on two occasions.

The Broadstairs members will follow in his footsteps to give dramatic readings of the author’s  work for the Dickens Fellowship in the ‘Big Apple.’

The Dickens Fellowship is a worldwide organisation this is thought to be the furthest a group will have travelled to attend another branch meeting!

The Dickens Declaimers appear in 19th Century dress and give dramatic performances of Dickens’ readings that would have been heard on his various tours. They have performed in Canterbury, Rochester, and Broadstairs.

Group secretary  Christine Ewer said: “We try to be faithful to his mode of delivery although there will be four readers performing whereas in Dickens’ day it would be just the great man himself – a master of voices and dramatic performance, it’s no wonder he had sell-out audiences wherever he went.

“Our trip to New York to our friends in the Fellowship there is about bringing the New York branch and the Broadstairs one closer together.  We shall be performing two  one hour readings at their meeting on September 14 at New York City Library Epiphany branch.”