Dickens and doughnuts bring Iowa City residents out on day before Christmas

IOWA CITY - At noon Christmas Eve, Uptown Bill's Coffee House and Arts Center in Iowa City was filled with more than a dozen people ready to listen to - and participate in - a reading of Charles Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol” while eating doughnuts.

Tom Gilsenan, manager of Uptown Bill's, a gathering place that caters to people with physical or mental disabilities, hosted 'Dickens and Doughnuts.”

A table near the counter was laden with doughnuts decorated to look like Santa Claus, and other doughnuts Gilsenan made himself. Those who came for the reading brought chocolate-covered pretzels, homemade fudge and other treats.

On the stage, Joseph Dobrian of Iowa City, dressed in a suit, jovially read 'Scrooge tried to say ‘humbug,' but stopped at the first syllable” from the abridged version of 'A Christmas Carol.”

This is the first year Uptown Bill's has held such an event the day before Christmas. Usually, events or holiday potlucks would be held on Sunday, Gilsenan said. But this event was planned specifically for Saturday so those with disabilities could reach Bill's, at 730 S. Dubuque St., by way of SEATS paratransit services.

Having an event on Christmas Eve provides a place to gather if people don't have other plans for the holiday. 'We're always thinking of that,” Gilsenan said. 'There are people who want a place and something to do. This is one possibility.”

Josh Sazon of Iowa City came up with idea to have the reading. of the classic tale. 'A Christmas Carol” has been performed and read in many different ways. - some of which he has performed in.But by having a straight read-through, Sazon, of Iowa City, He enlisted audience members to read a section of the text.

'It's Christmas Eve, and I kind of figured it's something to do,” he said. 'It's a good excuse to get people together,” he said. 'It's a chance to show off maybe a bit, a nice way to get in the spirit of things.”

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