Artistic Director • Director • Actor • Writer • Educator
Books
A short version for kids of the Charles Dickens classic book, based on the popular Orlando Shakes production. Available on Amazon. Click the image to purchase.
A companion coloring book to A Christmas Carol for Kids, with fill in the color pages, puzzles and games.
Available on Amazon. Click the image to purchase.
Acting Shakespeare's Text
Acting Shakespeare's Text is an instructional manual of the tools used to bring Shakespeare to life onstage: text sessions, paraphrasing, beats and actions, using the First Folio, breathing, scansion, thee and thou, rhetorical devices, and more.
This title is not yet published and is currently only available via UCF classes or in beta copies for those who request to proofread it. If you are interested in proofreading, send me a note through the Contact page.
Dracula: The Journal of Jonathan Harker
Full length, one-person adaptation of the Bram Stoker novel. Seven years after the events in the novel, Jonathan Harker receives a letter from Bram Stoker asking for information on vampires. As Harker collects his mementos, journal, and papers from his attic, he is transported into the past and relives the horrifying tale. Performance rights available through Concord Theatricals.
Year Theatre / Producer Location
1994 Cape May Stage — workshop Cape May, NJ
1995 Orlando-UCF Shakespeare Festival — World Premiere Orlando, FL
1996 Orlando Shakespeare Theater Orlando, FL
2003 Orlando Shakespeare Theater Orlando, FL
2005 Cape May Stage Cape May, NJ
2006 Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival Center Valley, PA
2011 On Stage Woodward Woodward, OK
2013 Coterie Theatre Kansas City, MO
2013 Orlando Shakespeare Theater Orlando, FL
2014 Joslyn Castle Omaha, NE
2015 Prague Shakespeare Company Prague, Czech Republic
2016 Mile Square Theatre Hoboken, NJ
2019 Alman Theatre Alloa, Scotland, UK
2020 Trinity Theatre Company San Diego, CA
2021 Prague Shakespeare Company / Mermaid Productions Prague, Czech Republic
2021 Prague Shakespeare Company Prague, Czech Republic
2022 Mermaid Productions Prague, Czech Republic
2023 Open House Theatre Company Vienna, Austria
2024 BLUEBARN Theatre Omaha, NE
2024 Prague Shakespeare Company Prague, Czech Republic
2025 Bannerman Castle Trust Glenham, NY
2026 Bannerman Castle Trust Glenham, NY
REVIEW QUOTES
"Frightening... wizardly one-man show... returns the audience to Stoker's novel by returning you to the world of the imagination.... There's no better way to tell a story than that."
The Orlando Sentinel
Shows like this aren't just a ton of Gothic fun: They're a rip-roaring reminder of how much we're entitled to expect from the theatrical arts… Seven years after the ungodly events that turned his veddy British life upside down, Jonathan Harker sits in his relic-strewn attic, poring through old diaries intended for one Bram Stoker. immensely satisfying… Lighting crashes. Boards creak. Props spring forth to support the plot in the most unexpected of ways. And through it all, the timing is immaculate."
Orlando Weekly
“This is the very essence of theatre… Don’t miss it.”
Bethlehem Press
...The most amazing performance in the history of Cape May Stage!
Jacob Schaad Jr., Cape May Gazette
This show is designed to deliver the kind of good scare that theatergoers love to experience... Without the help of grotesque makeup, Carleton transmogrified himself into several diverse characters while never really leaving the stage. ...Carleton's interpretation can be described as amazing
Ed Wismer, Cape May Star and Wave
Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus
Full-length, one-person adaptation of Mary Shelley's novel. A morality tale of abandonment, fatherhood, responsibility and murder. Rights available via the author using the contact form on this website.
Year Theatre / Producer Location
1997 Orlando Shakespeare Theater -- World Premiere Orlando, FL
1999 Cape May Stage Cape May, NJ
2005 Orlando Shakespeare Theater Orlando, FL
2007 Cincinnati Shakespeare Company Cincinnati, OH
2010 Cincinnati Shakespeare Company Cincinnati, OH
2016 Bridge Street Theatre Catskill, NY
2020 Jobsite Theatre Tampa, FL
Frightening… gripping… Helsinger has pared more than 200 pages of the novel into less than two hours of stage time… a Frankenstein gripped by the fury of invention and a creature whose bloodless intensity comes from the certainty that he has been wronged.
The Orlando Sentinel
Quite a tale… the Festival has added another jewel to their stable of original one-man gothic dramas. This "Frankenstein" is a monster smash.
The Orlando Weekly
Robinson Crusoe
Full-length, three-person adaptation of the Daniel Defoe novel. Rights available via Concord Theatricals. After a terrible shipwreck, Robinson Crusoe must survive alone on a remote island, relying on ingenuity, resilience, and an unexpected friendship to find his way home.
Reading (2005) Orlando Shakespeare Theater
World Premiere (2006) Orlando Shakespeare Theater
Mainstage Production (2011) Gallery 7 Theatre
The Orlando Sentinel
Terrific… a wild ride, filled with shipwrecks, cannibals, ferocious animals, religious conversion, faithful friends and a journey into self that leaves Robinson Crusoe a changed man. With so much action packed into a slim couple of hours, chances are you'll barely have time to catch your breath.
The Trial of Joan the Maid
Full-length (3F, 3M). Rights available via the author using the contact form on this website. Available for a world premiere. Set during Joan’s ‘Trial of Condemnation,’ a cast of six enacts Joan’s story as the trial unfolds, leading to her death. The text is taken directly from the actual trial transcripts of Joan’s Trial of Condemnation and Trial of Redemption.
Staged Reading (1999) Orlando Shakespeare Theater
Workshop (2000) Orlando Shakespeare Theater
Versions of A Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol
Full-length, Cast of 16 (8 Male, 4 Female, 4 Children) adaptation of the Charles Dickens story. Rights available via the author using the contact form on this website. A large cast full length version for all ages, featuring 28 different Victorian Christmas carols.
A Family Christmas Carol
One-act (60-minute), eight-person adaptation of A Christmas Carol for young audiences and families. (5M, 3F). Rights available via the author using the contact form on this website. A Victorian family goes into the attic to gather things for Christmas and Dickens' marvelous tale unfolds around them. Also available in full-length 90-minute version.
World Premiere (2004) Orlando Repertory Theatre
Mainstage Production (2017) Orlando Shakespeare Theater
Set in the quaint and masterfully designed attic of a Victorian Era family's home, director Kristin Clippard's unique storytelling experience of "A Christmas Carol" places the audience alongside the family as they tell the story of the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge (played by the convincing Steven Patterson) to their youngest child... From being drawn into the home of the family narrating the story, to being transported into Dickens' tale, the cast smoothly carries the story with their emotion on their sleeves. A storytelling experience unlike others that have been presented at Orlando Shakes, "A Christmas Carol" can easily entertain the entire family while spreading a clear message of hope and absolution during the holiday season.
BROADWAY WORLD
A Christmas Carol in Five Parts
Full-length, five-person (4M, 1F) adaptation of the Charles Dickens story. Rights available via the author using the contact form on this website. One man, four ghosts, one night. The Ghosts of Marley, Christmas Past, Present and Future change the destiny of the meanest man in England.
Staged Reading (2000) Orlando Shakespeare Theater
Workshop (2001) Orlando Shakespeare Theater
World Premiere (2002) Orlando Shakespeare Theater
"The festival's appealing production gets to the heart of the matter... Helsinger's decision to focus on Dickens' ghost story… concentrates attention not on all the subsidiary characters but on Scrooge himself, and the old miser's single night with the spirits in London feels as though it whizzes by…as glorious an example of redemption as the holidays can ask for."
The Orlando Sentinel
"This is what great theater is all about… God bless the Orlando-UCF Shakespeare Festival for this magnificent Christmas present to the community… I don’t recall seeing in any other version, the courage with which Scrooge faces his demons…. if you are willing to look into your heart and ponder the true meaning of Christmas, then hie yourself to the Orlando-UCF Shakespeare Festival for an experience that will assure you that the arts are alive and well in O-Town and doing what the arts do best.
TheOtherOrlando.com
