9 minute read
Looking Back at A Christmas Carol
Looking
Back at A Christmas Carol
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Anne Scurria as Scrooge and Noah Brody as Bob Cratchit with the cast, directed by Peter Sampieri, 2003 PHOTO BY T. CHARLES ERICKSON For more than four decades, Trinity Rep’s production of A Christmas Carol has been a part of the holiday tradition for millions in southern New England. Though we can’t gather in person, that tradition won’t end this year. As our gift to the community,
we are creating an online production of the Charles Dickens classic and offering it free to
everyone. Along with a team of actors, designers, and staff, director Curt Columbus has created a wholly unique and thoroughly Trinity Rep take on the story that integrates traditional theatrical storytelling with technological possibilities only available with digital production. The cast includes Joe Wilson, Jr. as Ebenezer Scrooge and features many other familiar and beloved faces. Bring A Christmas Carol into your living room this December with an on-demand streaming video and share this holiday treat with family near and far. You
can register for your free access to the show now and read more about the production at trinityrep.com/carol or call (401) 351-4242.
On these pages, we’ve asked current resident acting company members who have played Scrooge to reflect on the challenges and joys of creating this iconic character.
Anne Playing Scrooge was one of the
Scurria most amazing experiences of my career. It’s a perfect part: Scrooge goes from being really cold and barely human to being not only happy, but goofy and not caring what anyone thinks of him. A terrific journey. As a woman it was incredibly moving for me and the audience to see Scrooge at the Cratchits: seeing a woman who has forfeited having a family in order to be a business woman, something we’re still having to negotiate. Also seeing her younger self as a woman again was extremely potent, women vanish after 40, even now. I have had so many women come up to me and tell me how moving it was for them. I’ve also had kids tell me I played with them when I got giddy and it stayed with them. I think I was the first woman to play Scrooge, I played it three times, and the Dickens Society and other men’s groups got all bent out of shape!
Stephen One of the great things about
Thorne the part is that there is such a huge journey built in to the story. So even on your tenth show of the week, you get to start at the beginning and really go somewhere. That journey acts upon you — not that it’s a piece of cake by any means — but getting to go on that ride, with the audience, is a big gift. There is a completeness to Scrooge’s journey. And a great charge that is offered to the audience at the end of the play. Now that change has happened, now that my/our eyes are open, how will I/we live that out for the rest of my life? It is of course a question for Scrooge to consider, but more importantly, it is THE question for all of us.
PHOTO BY MARK MORELLI
Timothy It has been a great experience to
Crowe participate in such a moving and joyful story. I have been honored to have been part of it and I never tired of it.
Brian I love this role. I’ve played McEleney it five times, and every time it’s a challenge, a wonderful opportunity to explore something profound in the human experience. It’s also a big responsibility. For a lot of children A Christmas Carol is the first piece of live theater they’ll ever see; and for a lot of adults it’s the only piece of live theater they experience in a year. So it’s up to us to make the production as lively, as truthful and as memorable as we possibly can. The greatest challenge is the final part, the “Reclamation,” after Scrooge wakes up on Christmas morning. It’s there that the whole play comes together in an extended moment of joy, of hope, and the giddy promise of a second chance at life. I love doing this section of the play the most, even though it can be the most exhausting to perform. continued on next page CLOCKWISE FROM CENTER: Anne Scurria as Scrooge with Fred Sullivan, Jr. as the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, directed by Brian McEleney, 1996. Timothy Crowe as Scrooge, directed by Neal Baron, 1991. Timothy Crowe as Scrooge with Mia Ellis as the Ghost of Christmas Past, directed by Tyler Dobrowsky, 2012. Brian McEleney as Scrooge, directed by James Dean Palmer, 2016. Brian McEleney as Scrooge with Jay Bragan & Janice Duclos as Bob & Mrs. Cratchit, directed by Mark Sutch, 2002. Timothy Crowe as Scrooge with Barbara Orson as Mrs. Partlet, directed by Neal Baron, 1998. Stephen Thorne as Scrooge with María Gabriela Rosado González as Mrs. Crummel, directed by Mark Valdez, 2018.
THE TRINITY SQUARE • FALL 2020 9PHOTO BY MARK TUREK
Stephen Most major dramatic roles take Berenson a character from joy to sorrow, for instance Romeo and Juliet. Or the character moves from a tragic state to even greater devastation, as is the case with Hamlet and Willy Loman. I’ve played Scrooge four times, most recently in a production directed by Curt, and the greatest joy of the part is that the trajectory is exactly the opposite of most major roles. Scrooge begins in a dark, lonely place and, as an actor, you have to be prepared to inhabit that place at every performance. But by the end of the evening, Scrooge is happiness incarnate. He’s laughing, dancing, and sharing his pleasure with all the other characters in the story. Just as wonderful, he shares his merriment with the audience, too. It’s exhilarating to finish the show feeling energized and full of the holiday spirit, although, let’s admit it, kind of exhausted, too.
Jude I’m constantly struck by how
Sandy much legacy is contained in this show as it gets renewed over and over again every year. I grew up as an actor watching these incredible artists taking on this role. I remember sitting on the benches in the audience watching Tim Crowe as Scrooge, thinking ‘I want to do what he’s doing one day’ because I was so moved by what the cast was creating - the fullness of emotion and experience and transformation that gets invoked by the story. So then to be able to enter into it, I go back to my experience as a Black, queer immigrant artist, member of this company, member of this community. You get to really relish being one point in reflecting the real richness of our community.
Mauro I’ve been thinking a lot about Hantman Scrooge lately because he’s someone who has intentionally isolated himself from society, like we’re all doing right now, not so intentionally. As an acting challenge, you look at him as a man who has shut himself off from everything on purpose in order to avoid the pain of all the things that he’s been through and the people he’s lost, but also the joy of other human beings. So this journey, which lasts only about 90 minutes, you have to go from being totally shut down and aggressively defensive to the realization of all that you’ve missed over the course of a lifetime and how wonderful it is.
Joe Like any great story handed
Wilson down from generation to Jr. generation, we re-tell these iconic tales to remind us of common, shared humanity. These moments in the theater give us a chance to see that which is good and possible in all of us. This story teaches us that in the midst of darkness, hope can be discovered and renewed. The stories that we tell become internal sources of inspiration. A Christmas Carol is one of those stories
CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE:Stephen Berenson as Scrooge with Barbara Orson as the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, directed by Michael Baron, 2001. Mauro Hantman as Scrooge, directed by Michael Perlman, 2010. Joe Wilson, Jr. as Scrooge, directed by Angela Brazil & Stephen Thorne, 2017. Joe Wilson, Jr. as Scrooge with David O’Connell, directed by Liesl Tommy, 2008. Mauro Hantman as Scrooge with Robert Casey, Jr. as the Ghost of Christmas Present, directed by Liesl Tommy, 2008. Jude Sandy as Scrooge, directed by Kate Bergstrom, 2019. Stephen Berenson as Scrooge with Whitney White as Lucy, directed by Curt Columbus, 2015. ALL PHOTOS BY MARK TUREK UNLESS INDICATED
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