About An Old-Fashioned Christmas

In a year when many of us cannot travel to be with our loved ones, we wanted to offer a Christmas presentation to lift our spirits and make the holiday feel a bit more festive.   To keep our cast members safe, we scheduled online rehearsals via Zoom.  For the video sessions, each performer had a separate time slot to perform with only our creative staff in the room with them.  


This is our first time doing a strictly virtual performance, and we very much miss having a live audience.  But we hope that you enjoy "An Old-Fashioned Christmas" as much as we enjoyed creating it.  We plan to have more events like this in the future, especially until we are able to perform for you in person.

American Readers Theatre

The American Readers Theatre is organized for the purpose of promoting literacy through music, dance, and drama.  The Corporation has 501(c)(3) Not For Profit status and is organized under the Laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. 


The American Readers Theatre (ART) had its beginning  on September 23, 1999 at the Historic National Arts Club in New York City. The Company's first production was "Night Mother" written by Marsha Norman. The performance featured Tony award winning actress Kelly Bishop (Chorus Line) and Tony Nominated actress Crista Moore (Big).  ART founder  Jeffrey David Stocker directed the initial ART offering. Over the next few years, ART performed various readings at the National Arts Club and other venues throughout New York City.

In 2005, Mr. Stocker brought ART to the Pocono Mountain, Pennsylvania area at which time ART became a   Pennsylvania Non Profit Organization. In collaboration with the United States Forestry Service Grey Towers Arts and Conservation, ART produced Orson Welles' "War of the Worlds" on October 29, 2006. The show was a commercial as well as a critical success, with the group recognized, by a local newspaper, as "One of the Year's best"

During 2006, the group  performed "Charlotte's Web" at the Grey Towers Historic Site in Milford, Pennsylvania and the National Arts Club In New York City. The group went on to perform once again at Grey Towers in a two night, sold out staged reading of Bram Stoker's classic "Dracula". During the Christmas Holidays, the ART readers performed the 2006 version of "Christmas: 1933" at the Pike County Historical Society. In 2007 ART began rehearsals for a performance of "Animal Farm" which was held at the Grey Towers Historical Site.

In 2008, ART and the Delaware Valley School District embarked on a collaboration to develop literacy skills including reading and writing through the art of music, theatre, dance, and the visual arts. The resulting product of this partnership was named the Writer's Project. ART became an approved Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EIO) in 2010  partnering with The Dime Bank and Wayne Bank. Past Writer's Project include POE, STEINBECK, SHAKESPEARE, MAYA ANGELOU, HELEN KELLER and 2020 Writer's Project: HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN.

Since 2010, ART has collaborated with the Presby Players, of Port Jervis NY,  producing musical revues and monologue showcase evenings performed by the ART Young Adult Acting and Adult Acting Workshop members.