The Match Girl's Gift: A Christmas Story

by Laurie Brooks

Copyright 1997

3 Men, 3 Women, optional ensemble of up to 8 children

On Christmas Eve 1898, in the heart of New York City, a gentle snowfall turns fashionable Washington Square into the very picture of a Currier and Ives holiday print, except...huddled by the steps of an elegant town house is a ragged little girl. When her Gran arrives, bringing her a gift of "waking dreams," that help her imagine what might be, Lizzie the Match Girl goes into the grand house and offers a unique gift to the family inside. Helped by Pitch, the climbing boy, and Henry, the confused young gentleman in the grand house, Lizzie recognizes her own beauty and realizes that without our dreams for the future, we are without hope. This inspiring new play empowers Hans Christian Anderson's little match girl to triumph over despair through the power of hope and the pursuit of dreams.

• Commissioned by Nashville Children's Theatre. Premiere: November, 1998.
• Developed at The NYU Summer Reading Series at The Provincetown Playhouse, 1998.
• Included in The Twelve Plays of Christmas edited by Lowell Swortzell, Applause Books, 1999.
• Second production 2002 at First Stage Milwaukee Children's Theatre.