I’m back from vacation to bring you more great Narnia news than you can possibly dream of. I can’t give specifics of my vacation, but I can say that I did visit Middle-earth while I was in New Zealand, and that I saw wonderful, weird and marvelous creatures while I was away. Onto the news: The C.S. Lewis Festival returns for its seventh year, expanding its offerings into early October.
The Petoskey area is gearing up for the fifth annual month-long festival on the life and works of the man who created Narnia, C. S. Lewis.
Beginning with the kickoff weekend October 26-28, community groups and guest scholars will explore the theme of The Question of God in accessible and dramatic style, delving into issues that preoccupy all thinking people today: What is happiness? How do we find meaning and purpose in our lives?
The Question of God illustrates the lives and insights of Sigmund Freud, a life-long critic of religious belief, and C.S. Lewis, a celebrated Oxford don, literary critic and perhaps this century’s most influential and popular proponent of faith based on reason.
Wheaton College scholar, Jerry Root, Ph.D., will deliver The Question of God keynote address on Friday, October 26 at 7:30 p.m. at North Central Michigan College. Dr. Root will seek to compare supernaturalism versus materialism, essential components that separated the worldviews of Lewis and Freud.
The weekend also features a daylong seminar Saturday, October 27 entitled “C.S. Lewis and The Problem of Pain,” at North Central Michigan College. Geared toward students, life-long learners, educators, and administrators, the seminar features scholars Christopher Mitchell, Ph.D., of The Wade Center at Wheaton College, IL, and Dr. Root, exploring Lewis’ experiences as expressed in A Grief Observed, and its relationship to his earlier views on suffering. Full-day registrations are $40, including lunch; half-day registrations are also available. Participants are encouraged to sign up early by registering online at
www.cslewisfestival.org or by calling (231) 347-5550.
On a lighter note, Three Streams Theatre will stage Narnia, the Musical at 7:30pm on Friday, October 26 and Saturday, October 27, and on Sunday, October 28 at 2pm at Harbor Light Christian School, 8333 Clayton Road, Harbor Springs. Tickets are $5/children and $25/family, available at the door.
The public is invited to a reception at Gaslight Gallery located on Howard Street in downtown Petoskey, featuring the work of artist, Michael Morris. He will be on hand to talk about his unique take on Lewis’ Narnia series. This event is free and open to all and refreshments will be served.
To wrap up the opening weekend, Lewis Festival advisor and Wade Center Director Dr. Christopher Mitchell will give the morning message at the First Presbyterian Church of Harbor Springs on Sunday, October 28 at 10 a.m. The church is located at 7940 Cemetery Road in Harbor Springs. For information, call (231) 526-7332
Dr. Jerry Root, will give the morning message at Petoskey United Methodist Church on Sunday, October 29 at both the 8:45 and 11 a.m. services. The church is located at 1804 E. Mitchell in Petoskey. For information, call (231) 347-2733.
Other C. S. Lewis-related events throughout the month of November include theatre performances, community arts and library programs, school reading events, discussion groups, and the special five-year anniversary gala celebration featuring an English Dinner at Stafford’s Perry Hotel and an Evening with C.S. Lewis with acclaimed English actor, David Payne. Many events are free and open to the public, while others require pre-registration or tickets. For more information, visit www.cslewisfestival.org or call (231) 347-5550.
PRESS RELEASE: The Petoskey area is gearing up for its fourth annual month-long festival honoring the life and works of author C.S. Lewis.
Activities begin with the kickoff weekend Oct. 26-29, when community groups and guest scholars will explore “Myth, Imagination and Faith: A Spiritual Journey Through Literature.” That is the title of a forthcoming documentary on authors Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. The film is co-produced by Petoskey filmmaker David Crouse and award-winning director Chip Duncan of Milwaukee, co-creators of the 2002 PBS documentary, “The Magic Never Ends: The Life and Work of C. S. Lewis.”
“Myth” features interviews with an international cast of scholars including Reza Aslan of Santa Barbara, Calif., author and scholar of comparative religions; and Dr. Christopher Mitchell, director of the Wade Center at Wheaton College. Both will take part in a screening of rough edits and a panel discussion with the film’s co-producers on Friday evening, Oct. 27, at North Central Michigan College in Petoskey.
The kick-off weekend also will feature a day-long seminar Oct. 28 entitled “Windows to Other Worlds: C. S. Lewis on Imagination and Literature,” also at North Central Michigan College.
Designed for educators, administrators, students and lifelong learners, the seminar features scholars Peter Schakel of Hope College and Leland Ryken of Wheaton College. Half-day registrations are available.
Other Lewis-related events throughout November include musical performances, community arts and library programs, school reading events, discussion groups and the annual children’s performance of “Narnia: The Musical” Nov. 3-5.
Some events are free and open to the public, while others require registration or tickets.
For more information, visit www.cslewisfestival.org or call 347-5550.
Travellers looking for the elusive Narnia should hop on a flight to Belfast and seek out clues at the CS Lewis Festival this winter.
Held between December 7th and 10th, the event celebrates the life of one of the most famous children’s authors in the world.
The writer was born in Ballyhackamore in the eastern part of Belfast and spent his early years in the city.
First held to commemorate last year’s film release of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, the festival was so successful that the city council decided to hold it again in 2006.
During the 2005 festival, a number of events appealing to CS Lewis fans of all ages were held, including storytelling, workshops, talks, tours and a lantern parade featuring drummers, puppets, dancers and more.
A similar programme of events is expected for this year’s festival.
For more information, see the official Belfast tourism website.
Author CS Lewis may have ended up writing the evergreen Narnia series of books at Oxford, he was born and bred in Belfast, and the city is set to celebrate its most famous novelist with a 10-day festival.
The festival is timed to capitalize on the release of the big-budget film version of Lewis’s best-know story – The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe – which looks set to be a major box office hit.
Events run from December 2-11 2005 and feature storytelling, literary workshops, tours, talks, a lantern parade and more, forming part of the city’s Celebrate Belfast programme.
“Celebrate Belfast is 15 months of celebrations in the city and the aim of it is to showcase what Belfast has to offer,” explained Sarah Quinlan from the Celebrate Belfast Team.
“Within that we are celebrating some of our prominent citizens of which CS Lewis was one.”
He may have the image of a dour, cloistered Oxford don with little knowledge of ordinary struggles. But C.S. Lewis, who wrote of epic struggles between good and evil in the imaginary land of Narnia, actually had a humorous side, his stepson says.
Douglas Gresham, 60, is co-producer of the film adaptation of “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” which opens Dec. 9. His biography of Lewis, “Jack’s Life,” was published last month. (Friends knew Clive Staples Lewis by his nickname, Jack.)
He also helps oversee the Lewis estate and is unofficial guardian of his legacy, believing the man and his works are often misunderstood.
“He was a very funny man, very joyous,” says Gresham, who spent “the most formative decade of my life” — ages 8 to 18 — in Lewis’ company.
Gresham recently spoke at the third annual C.S. Lewis Festival in this northern Michigan town, where schools, churches and community groups paid tribute to the beloved British author, scholar of medieval literature and Christian apologist.
He said Lewis experienced war, career ups and downs, family troubles, love and heartbreak.
A bachelor most of his life, he married Joy Gresham in his late 50s but lost her to cancer four years later. Grief-stricken, he cared for her two sons, Douglas and David, until his death in 1963. Their brief romance is portrayed — touchingly but somewhat inaccurately, Gresham says — in the film “Shadowlands,” starring Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger.
As “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” movie was developed, Gresham watched closely to make certain it faithfully represented the book and its underlying values. He’s satisfied that director Andrew Adamson, who also directed the “Shrek” films, met the challenge.
“My job, I suppose, was as resident Narnia guru, to make sure everything Narnian was Narnian in the film, to make sure there weren’t anachronisms and incongruities,” Gresham says. “But to be honest with you, the team that we have had on this film has been so good that there’s been very little that I’ve had to complain about.”
Narnia goes back to its roots at the inaugural C.S. Lewis Festival, set for Belfast from Dec. 2 to 11 to tie in with the Irish premiere of the film ”The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.”
The event will celebrate the life and works of Lewis, who was born in East Belfast in 1898, while also highlighting the influence of Northern Ireland on his novels. Local storytellers, artists and musicians will pay homage to the creator of the Narnia chronicles (whose East Belfast statue is pictured here) with performances drawing from folklore and myth. There will also be exhibitions, conferences and tours of parts of the city that influenced his writing. Highlights include the Narnia Lantern Parade; a complete, archived display of first editions and signed works, and a serialized reading of ”The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” on BBC Radio Ulster. ”Chronicles of Narnia,” a film by Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media, will be screened Dec. 8, with key cast members and filmmakers in attendance.
The event will be followed by a gala dinner in the Great Hall of Queen’s University. For a detailed program, telephone (44 28) 9027 0698 or e-mail 2006@belfastcity.gov.uk. (Tara Mulholland, IHT)
To coincide with the release by Disney of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe – planned as the opening salvo in a money-spinning series of major features – Belfast City Council launches the first C.S. Lewis Festival on December 3.
Clive Staples Lewis – bet you didn’t know that – was born in East Belfast in l898.
The film will get its Irish premiere on December 8.
The second annual Petoskey Area C.S. Lewis Festival will be held in Northern Michigan this November (www.cslewisfestival.org). Dubbed as “a month-long celebration of the life and works of one of the most beloved authors of the 20th-century,” the festival has received state-wide recognition as a unique collaborative effort between the local arts council, public schools, community college, and ministerial association.
Included among its board members is David Crouse of Crouse Entertainment, a local film producer who co-produced the PBS documentary “The Magic Never Ends: The Life and Works of C.S. Lewis”; as well as Dr. Christopher Mitchell, Director of the Marion E. Wade Center in Wheaton, Illinois. He will be leading a day-long seminar, along with another Lewis scholar, on Saturday, November 6. A Children’s Theater will perform a musical of “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” Nov. 12-14.
For more information, visit www.cslewisfestival.org. Local hotels will be doing special packages for Lewis Festival weekends throughout the month, and every weekend is packed with events. To Narnia and the North!
Blessings,
Sarah Arthur,
C.S. Lewis Festival Secretary
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