Tag: Community Theatre

Carrie: The Musical at Front Row Centre

Posted on by James Hutchison
Deidra Michel as Carrie in the FRC production of Carrie: The Musical. Photo Brittany Doucet-Lewis

Last year I started my theatre season by seeing a production of Misery at Vertigo Theatre starring Anna Cummer as Annie Wilkes and Haysam Kadri as Paul Sheldon. The production was directed by Jamie Dunsdon and it was so good I saw it twice. And this year I had a chance to start my theatre season with another Stephen King story by sitting in on the dress rehearsal for the Front Row Centre Players production of Carrie: The Musical.

Stephen King – Photo by Shane Leonard

Stephen King’s writing career or as I like to call it – his Decades-Long Reign of Terror – could conceivably be traced back to the publication of his first novel Carrie in 1974. That novel changed King’s life. In fact, he threw his first few pages of Carrie into the garbage and wasn’t going to spend any more time working on the story until – his wife Tabatha fished it out of the garbage and read it and said it was good and he should finish it.

So, he did. And when the publisher sold the paperback rights for $400,000 half of which went to King, he was able to quit his teaching job and begin writing full time. And I suppose there is an alternate universe where he threw away the story and his wife tossed it out with the garbage and Stephen King remained a teacher of high school students and retired after 40 years of public service and at the age of sixty-five moved to Florida where he enjoys lawn bowling and dining out at the all you can eat Crazy Buffet. Now there’s a horror story. If you want to hear King tell the story of how Carrie came to be check out the link at the bottom of this post where he tells the story in his own words. 

Carrie started as a novel in 1974 and became a successful movie in 1976 that starred Sissy Spacek, Amy Irving, Piper Laurie, and Nancy Allen. In 1988 Carrie was slated for a Broadway run as a musical. And why not? There are plenty of successful horror musicals such as The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Evil Dead The Musical, and Little Shop of Horrors. Carrie with its supernatural elements and high school drama seems like the perfect story to adapt into a musical. Unfortunately, the original Broadway Production shut down after only 16 previews and five performances and a loss of seven million dollars, but it was far from dead.

Production still from the FRC production of Carrie: the Musical.
Deidra Michel as Carrie in the FRC production of Carrie: The Musical. Photo Brittany Doucet-Lewis

There was an Off-Broadway revival in 2012 where the score and book were revised by the original composers Michael Gore and Dean Pitchford, and writer Lawrence D. Cohen and several of the original songs were replaced with new compositions. Our own Calgary connection to the story is that the current artistic director of Theatre Calgary Stafford Armia was involved in the readings and workshops that lead to the 2012 revival. This led to an Off-West End production in 2015 that opened to mostly positive reviews.* And when I checked Concord Theatricals which controls the performance rights for the show they had over 50 scheduled productions listed. So, I’d say Carrie has finally found its audience.

And that’s partly because one of the things that makes King such a successful writer is that he writes sympathetic and relatable characters that find themselves in unusual or supernatural circumstances. Life is often cruel and unfair in his stories and that’s one of the reasons we find them so compelling. – who doesn’t like to cheer for the underdog? In The Shining Jack Torrence isn’t simply a mallet-wielding psychopath. No, he’s a man trying to stay sober and be a good father while fighting the supernatural forces that are leading him toward a murderous path. And in The Shawshank Redemption who doesn’t cheer for the innocent Andy Dufresne wrongly convicted for the murder of his wife and sent to prison where his efforts to prove his innocence are thwarted by a corrupt warden and prison system? And who doesn’t travel back to their own long summer days of childhood while watching Stand by Me because it’s a story about friendship, doing the right thing, and being a kid on summer vacation.

  • Production still from the FRC production of Carrie: the Musical.
    Deidra Michel as Carrie White, Becky Salmond as Miss Gardner and Willow Martens as Chris Hargensen in the FRC production of Carrie: The Musical. Photo Brittany Doucet-Lewis
  • Deidra Michel as Carrie in the FRC production of Carrie: The Musical. Photo Brittany Doucet-Lewis
  • Deidra Michel as Carrie in the FRC production of Carrie: The Musical. Photo Brittany Doucet-Lewis
  • Alexa Jobs as Carrie in the FRC production of Carrie: The Musical. Photo Brittany Doucet-Lewis
  • Production still from the FRC production of Carrie: the Musical.
    Lyndsey Paterson as Margaret White & Alexa Jobs as Carrie in the FRC production of Carrie: The Musical. Photo Brittany Doucet-Lewis
  • Lyndsey Paterson as Margaret White & Deidra Michel as Carrie White in the FRC production of Carrie: The Musical. Photo Brittany Doucet-Lewis
  • Russell Bishop as Mr. Stephens and Alexa Jobs as Carrie in the FRC Production of Carrie: The Musical. Photo Brittany Doucet-Lewis
  • Production still from the FRC production of Carrie: the Musical.
    Kianna King as Sue Snell in the FRC production of Carrie: The Musical. Photo Brittany Doucet-Lewis
  • Kianna King as Sue Snell and Nolan Brown as Tommy Ross in the FRC production of Carrie: The Musical. Photo Brittany Doucet-Lewis
  • Production still from the FRC production of Carrie: the Musical.
    Willow Martens as Chris Hargensen in the FRC production of Carrie: The Musical. Photo Brittany Doucet-Lewis
  • Deidra Michel as Carrie White and Becky Salmond as Miss Gardner in the FRC production of Carrie: The Musical. Photo Brittany Doucet-Lewis
  • Production still from the FRC production of Carrie: the Musical.
    Deidra Michel as Carrie White and Selwyn Halabi as Billy Nolan in the FRC production of Carrie: The Musical. Photo Brittany Doucet-Lewis
  • Willow Martens as Chris Hargensen in the FRC production of Carrie: The Musical. Photo Brittany Doucet-Lewis
  • Dwaigne Quierra as Freddy in the FRC production of Carrie: The Musical. Photo Brittany Doucet-Lewis
  • Production still from the FRC production of Carrie: the Musical.
    Becky Salmond as Miss Gardner, Deidra Michel as Carrie White, and Nolan Brown as Tommy Ross in the FRC production of Carrie: The Musical. Photo Brittany Doucet-Lewis
  • Deidra Michel as Carrie in the FRC production of Carrie: The Musical. Photo Brittany Doucet-Lewis
  • Nolan Brown as Tommy Ross & Alexa Jobs as Carrie in the FRC production of Carrie: The Musical. Photo Brittany Doucet-Lewis
  • Lyndsey Paterson as Margaret White & Alexa Jobs as Carrie in the FRC production of Carrie: The Musical. Photo Brittany Doucet-Lewis
  • Alexa Jobs as Carrie and Kianna King as Sue Snell in the FRC production of Carrie: The Musical. Photo Brittany Doucet-Lewis
  • Alexa Jobs as Carrie in the FRC production of Carrie: The Musical. Photo Brittany Doucet-Lewis
  • Deidra Michel as Carrie in the FRC production of Carrie: The Musical. Photo Brittany Doucet-Lewis

In Carrie, the plot follows Carrie White a shy girl who lives on the edge of the high school community and when not fading into the background at school she spends her time at home with her fanatical Christian mother Margaret White who practices a particularly toxic religious faith. Margaret has kept Carrie in the dark about the facts of life and so when her daughter experiences her first period in the girl’s locker room shower, Carrie reacts with horror and panic. Rather than helping Carrie the rest of the class, being typical high school kids, make her an object of ridicule as they taunt and bully her. It isn’t until the gym teacher, Miss Gardner, steps in that the girls back off and are asked to apologize. When Chris Hargensen refuses to apologize and instead tells Carrie to “eat sh*t” Rita bans Chris from attending the prom.

Sue Snell one of the popular girls who participated in the taunting feels particularly guilty about her treatment of Carrie and convinces her boyfriend Tommy Ross to take Carrie to the prom instead of her. At first reluctant he finally agrees to ask Carrie to the prom, and she accepts. Meanwhile outraged over missing the prom and blaming Carrie for her troubles Chris along with her boyfriend Billy Noland plot their revenge. While all this is going on Carrie discovers that she has telekinetic powers and in the days leading up to the prom she practices her abilities at home by moving and levitating objects. Needless to say, while the prom goes well initially for Carrie this is Stephen King and you know things aren’t going to end well.

Production still from the FRC production of Carrie: the Musical.
Nolan Brown as Tommy Ross & Deidra Michel as Carrie in the FRC production of Carrie: The Musical. Photo Brittany Doucet-Lewis

Director Kristine Astop has assembled a talented group of young actors with the lead role being split between Deidra Michel and Alexa Jobs who play Carrie on alternating performances. On the night I saw the show Deidra Michel was playing Carrie and gave a heartfelt performance as Carrie navigates her dismal existence between her life as an outcast at school and her abusive life at home with her mother. Lyndsey Paterson as Carrie’s salvation-obsessed mother can be loving but also savage and terrifying in her zeal to wage war against the world and rid it of sin. Kianna King does a terrific job of playing the guilt-ridden Sue Snell who only wants to make amends for how she treated Carrie. Nolan Brown gives a sympathetic performance as Sue’s boyfriend Tommy Ross the jock with a poet’s heart. Willow Martens is perfect as the self-absorbed and popular mean girl Chris Hargenson who takes things too far, and Selwyn Halabi has the right mix of cocky smart-ass attitude to play Billy Nolan, Chris’ boyfriend, and partner in crime.

The set designed by Jamie Eastgaard-Ross features a multi-leveled platform across the back of the stage that effectively creates different acting spaces that represent the school, Carrie’s home, and the gym on prom night.  There’s also live music which is always a bonus when it comes to musicals. A live band can respond to the subtle differences that happen during a performance from night to night and add to the energy of the production.

As far as the actual music goes it sets the scene and moves the narrative along with the most powerful numbers being given to Carrie’s mother Margaret. And perhaps that’s because she’s the most extreme character. She’s the one who is going to save her daughter from damnation and will do anything in order to achieve that. But what I think Carrie: The Musical seems to be missing is a few hit songs – songs that go beyond the stage and make their way into pop culture. Songs like “The Time Warp” from The Rocky Horror Picture Show or “The Music of the Night” from The Phantom of the Opera – songs that a lot of people know even if they haven’t seen the musical.

Even so, I enjoyed the show and I think what makes Carrie work today is the fact that all the behaviour we see on stage is certainly reflected in the worst aspects of social media and how we treat each other online. In fact, you could simply argue that social media is just a tool for behaviours that have already been a part of our tribal repertoire for generations. And that undercurrent of hate and anger and mob behaviour creates a sinister feeling to the events that unfold on stage and that’s the perfect subject matter for a musical, don’t you think?

FURTHER READING

How Carrie changed Stephen King’s life and began a generation of horror: Writers and readers recall the shock of reading the debut novel about a high-school outcast who discovers paranormal powers and reflects on its huge influence. by Alison Flood. The Guardian. April 4, 2014

* Carrie: The Musical: Originally premiering in the U.K. in 1988, Carrie opened on Broadway at the Virginia Theatre the same year, but closed after 16 previews and five regular performances. 

Talking Volumes: Stephen King on “Carrie” Author Stephen King talks about his first published novel, “Carrie,” during the Talking Volumes series at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul, Minnesota. Kerri Miller hosted the live event on November 18, 2009. He tells the story about how his wife Tabatha fished Carrie out of the trash after King had thrown the first few pages away and decided not to finish it.

Talking Volumes: Stephen King on “Carrie”

A Christmas Carol by James Hutchison at Piper’s Opera House

Posted on by James Hutchison

A Christmas Carol at Pipers Opera House: If there’s a ghost of a chance that the spirit of Charles Dickens will turn up at a production of one of my adaptations of A Christmas Carol this year then I’d have to say that the most likely place will be the Piper’s Opera House in Virginia City Nevada. Which would be fitting considering that A Christmas Carol is not only a story of redemption but it’s also a ghost story and in some ways even a time-travelling story. And those storytelling elements along with its central message of redemption are some of the reasons I think it remains popular today.

The Piper’s Players Production of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens at the Piper’s Opera House in Virginia City, Nevada. Melody Hoover Photography.

Last spring, I was contacted by Jennifer Hunt who asked if she could customize my adaptation of a Christmas Carol to reflect the history and real-life characters from Virginia City around the time of the gold and silver rush back in 1860. I said sure why don’t we give it a try and see how it works and some months later A Comstock Christmas Carol with a Scrooge named William Sharon hit the stage at the Piper’s Opera House. I connected with Jennifer the first week of December to talk with her about Virginia City, spirits and the production of the play.

JAMES HUTCHISON

Tell me a little bit about Virginia City.

JENNIFER HUNT

Virginia City is about forty minutes south of Reno Nevada and is an incredibly small community with a population of five hundred. However, in the summer months, it can easily swell to 8000 people depending on what activity the town has going on such as our Rocky Mountain Oyster Festival. I don’t know if you know what Rocky Mountain oysters are.

JAMES

We call them prairie oysters here.

  • Virginia City, Nevada – Photo Courtesy of Visit Virginia City
  • Virginia City, Nevada 1920 – Photo Courtesy of Visit Virginia City
  • Outhouse Races – Virginia City, Nevada – Photo courtesy of Visit Virginia City
  • Chili on the Comstock – Virginia City, Nevada – Photo Courtesy of Visit Virginia City
  • Wahoe Club – Virginia City, Nevada – Photo Courtesy of Visit Virginia City
  • Chili on the Comstock – Virginia City, Nevada – Photo courtesy of Visit Virginia City
  • Rocky Mountain Oyster Festival – Virginia City, Nevada – Photo Courtesy of Visit Virginia City
  • Rocky Mountain Oyster Fry Parade – Virginia City, Nevada – Photo Courtesy of Visit Virginia City
  • Virginia Truckee Railroad – Virginia City, Nevada – Photo Courtesy of Vist Virginia City
  • Chollar Mine – Virginia City, Nevada – Photo Courtesy of Visit Virginia City
  • Virginia City Mining Co. – Virginia City, Nevada – Photo Courtesy of Visit Virginia City
  • Gold Stamp Mill – Virginia City, Nevada – Photo Courtesy of Visit Virginia City
  • Virginia City Fiesta Del Charro at the Virginia City Fairgrounds on Sunday, Aug. 19, 2018. Photo by Candice Vivien/Nevada Momentum
  • Firehouse BBQ – Virginia City, Nevada – Photo Courtesy of Visit Virginia City
  • Red Dog Bar and Grill – Virginia City, Nevada – Photo Courtesy of Visit Virginia City
  • Red Dog Saloon – Virginia City, Nevada – Photo Courtesy of Visit Virginia City
  • Merchant Sidewalk – Virginia City, Nevada – Photo Courtesy of Visit Virginia City
  • Virginia City Living Legends – Virginia City Nevada – Photo Courtesy of Visit Virginia City

JENNIFER

There you go. Yeah, I’ve heard they’re called all sorts of things. Virginia City has been able to crawl out of obscurity because of tourism. Tourism is our life’s blood. And we are very good at tourism. In fact, I believe Virginia City has more parades than any other small town in the United States. I joke that if someone sneezes on the north end, we have a parade on the south end.

We’re also an old mining town. The whole town looks very Western when you drive through it. We still have the western storefronts and the wooden boardwalks. Any improvements that are done have to be done in a historical fashion. We’re very proud of our little historical town. In fact, the mantra is, “Come to Virginia City and come to the past.”

JAMES

Pipers Opera house is where you perform and that’s a historic site. Tell me a little bit about that.

JENNIFER

Piper’s Opera House was built in 1863. It burnt down in 1875 during the great fire that ravaged Virginia City. There have been a couple of fires that have threatened the town, but the 1875 fire was the major one. It destroyed 80 percent of the buildings in the town. The opera house was rebuilt in 1878 and it burned down again in 1883 and then was rebuilt in 1885.

Piper’s Opera House – Virginia City, Nevada – Photo Asa Gilmore

JAMES

I imagining you’ve had some interesting historical folks perform in Virginia City over the years.

JENNIFER

If a theatre company was touring the circuit which included San Francisco, Sacramento, and Carson City then Virginia City was one of the stops. Some of the big names that have been here include Mark Twain, Houdini, Lillie Langtry, and Maude Adams. All of the actors or actresses of that era would have stopped and performed on our stage.

JAMES

Well then, I have to ask. You’ve got an old opera house here, so…

JENNIFER

Is it haunted? (Laughs) I get that question every day. I have worked at the opera house for three years now and I’ve seen some weird things but everything I’ve seen could easily be explained logically. I used to tell people that if you want to see ghosts then you will probably see something.

The actors and the people that are backstage at the opera house and pouring their emotions into the stage and the show they’re doing I have found more susceptible to seeing things than I am. For example, I was walking a group of actors out at the end of their show last season, and I was locking up the building and it was dark and just as I was about to lock the door a little girl, I think she was four at the time, said, “Don’t lock the door, there is a guy trying to get out.”

And I looked at the door and there’s no one there so what do you say to a four-year-old? I said, “Well you need to tell that man to come back during operating hours.” And she looked at the door and then she looked away from the door and she said, “Oh, you can close it now. He already left.” I’m like, “Oh, okay, I’ll just close the door.”

We had a school tour that was going through the opera house about a month ago and one of the kids got a picture of an apparition up on the third floor. But that’s so random. In November, we had a paranormal group that went through the building and they tried for hours and they couldn’t get a whisper.

Built in 1885 and still in use, Piper’s Opera House stage once welcomed President Grant, Buffalo Bill, Al Jolson, Lotta Crabtree, Mark Twain, and more recently Hal Holbrook. Phot Courtesy of Visit Virginia City

JAMES

Did they have any kids with them?

JENNIFER

No, I don’t believe they had any children. They were all adults. But I tried to tell them that what I’ve found is that most people will experience activity when the opera house is full because there is life in the opera house and when everyone leaves and you turn off the lights it’s almost like blowing out a candle and the life of the opera house is put on hold until it’s full of people again.

JAMES

So, you’ve adjusted the play a little bit to reflect some of the historical figures in Virginia City. Tell me a little bit about who the Scrooge character is based on now.

  • The Piper’s Players Production of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens at the Piper’s Opera House in Virginia City, Nevada. Melody Hoover Photography.
  • The Piper’s Players Production of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens at the Piper’s Opera House in Virginia City, Nevada. Melody Hoover Photography.
  • The Piper’s Players Production of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens at the Piper’s Opera House in Virginia City, Nevada. Melody Hoover Photography.
  • The Piper’s Players Production of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens at the Piper’s Opera House in Virginia City, Nevada. Melody Hoover Photography.
  • The Piper’s Players Production of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens at the Piper’s Opera House in Virginia City, Nevada. Melody Hoover Photography.
  • The Piper’s Players Production of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens at the Piper’s Opera House in Virginia City, Nevada. Melody Hoover Photography.
  • The Piper’s Players Production of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens at the Piper’s Opera House in Virginia City, Nevada. Melody Hoover Photography.
  • The Piper’s Players Production of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens at the Piper’s Opera House in Virginia City, Nevada. Melody Hoover Photography.

JENNIFER

Last season we incorporated the notion of mining and saloon girls in our last show. And I thought that’s what made the show special. It was very centralized around Virginia City. And people have a connection with Virginia City. When people come into town, I can’t tell you how often I hear people say, “This town is so special. I feel a connection here. I can see why you love it. It’s like coming home.” And that’s the allure of our town. I don’t believe in reincarnation, but many people feel a very strong emotional connection to our town.

And so, we decided to continue bringing those elements into our productions to make them special to Virginia City and when I started thinking about the Scrooge character I started thinking about who would be a good Scrooge.

Scrooge is that character that really makes it all pivotal. At first, I thought, well, one of our big icons is William Mackey. He was one of the silver barons and I thought I should use Mackey because everyone knows his name. But historically speaking, Mackey was a philanthropist and he treated his workers better and he paid them more and he tried to take care of them and that didn’t really make him a good Scrooge character.

JAMES

I think that’s good of you to consider the real legacy of a person and not just use them because their name has recognition especially if they don’t fit.

JENNIFER

You’re right. It needed to mean something. So, I went online, and I put Virginia City into Wikipedia, and I just started looking for names. And finally, I found the name of William Sharon. Apparently, William Sharon owned the Bank of California branch in Virginia City.

And Adolph Sutro who was building this amazing tunnel system underneath all the mines so he could funnel out hot water to them always blamed the failure of his project on William Sharon because Sharon wouldn’t give him the loans he needed. When Sutro wrote about Sharon it was horrible. It was nasty. Apparently, Sharon gave out loans to miners and then upped the interest rates and then took their mines when they couldn’t pay back the loans. Sharon was an awful guy and that got my brain going.

And I started looking into Sharon and he had a partner in San Francisco named William Ralston. And he was the bank Manger in San Franciso and Sharon was the bank manager in Virginia City. And Ralston was not the best of guys. He did so much internal dealings with the bank that he threw himself into San Franciso Bay when he was found out. And I’m like wow that kind of fits you know. And so, Ralston became our Marley and Sharon became our Scrooge.

JAMES

You’re calling the play a Comstock Christmas Carol. Where does the word Comstock come from?

JENNIFER

It comes from Henry Comstock. Apparently, he was one of those slimy car dealership type of guys. When a mine was booming, he’d say he owned part of it and he should be getting some money for it. Because at the time they didn’t keep very good records of who owned what mines and he was able to finagle his way into owning parts of these mines even though he had never owned them or put any money into them. He actually died in obscurity but somehow his name, Comstock, stuck to that booming era of the 1860s to the 1880s. When you drive into Virginia City Comstock is everywhere.

JAMES

Tell me a little bit about the actor you’ve got playing Scrooge.

JENNIFER

Jerry Reyes is our Scrooge and has been on the stage before and he’s also been an extra in films including being one of Jack Sparrow’s crew in the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie. He moved back to Nevada and he wanted to start doing some live theater again. He’s very charismatic. He comes with all his own costumes and props, which is great and he’s excited to be up there and he’s doing a fantastic job.

Jerry Reyes as Scrooge in the Piper’s Players Production of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens at the Piper’s Opera House in Virginia City, Nevada. Melody Hoover Photography.

JAMES

As the playwright, I’m curious about why you picked my particular play. There’s no shortage of adaptations.

JENNIFER

What I started looking for was Christmas Carol scripts and I found yours and I was looking through the pages and I really enjoyed how you adapted it. I liked how you brought the characters in and I just thought it was so classic and so memorable. And it brought in enough of Dickens but made it easy to understand. And that’s what I loved about your script. And that’s why I was so thankful you were willing to work with us and allow us to make it more local because it has been a blessing. This script is so easy. The scenes are short. The actors are really loving all the energy that you pulled in with your words. It’s just phenomenal.

JAMES

Thanks, I appreciate hearing that and I appreciate you sharing my adaptation with your audience. So, why do you think the story of Scrooge and his redemption is still so popular?

JENNIFER

Scrooge is so focused on his needs that he’s forgotten other people’s needs. And we do that in our everyday lives, whether it’s Christmas or whether it’s spring or whether it’s summer we sometimes get these blinders on and we forget about everyone else.

And I think as we watch the story we see ourselves in every character. We can be that selfish Scrooge sometimes in our lives. We can be the regretful Marley where we wish we could have said and done things differently. And we see ourselves in the love and hope of the Cratchits where you’re always hoping for the best regardless of what’s going on. And in my opinion, I think that’s what makes it special. We get to sit back and see ourselves in everything.

And Scourge is so dynamic he goes through so many changes that there’s always empathy for this character. He grovels and he’s a miser and then he’s scared and then he’s worried and then he’s sad and then he’s happy. I mean, how often do you see a character go through such a metamorphosis? And as we watch him go through it, we are also going through it. The audience gets to go through it with him especially when it’s a really good actor.

JAMES

Yes. And it sounds to me like you’ve got a really good actor playing Scrooge.

JENNIFER

I do. I’m very blessed with everyone. I’ve met friends in the theatre that started as acquaintances and turned into something special. And during the season, while we’re working on a play, it’s tough. The lines are tough, and the blocking is tough and learning all these things is tough, but there’s that moment of magic when you get on stage that makes the last three or four months you’ve been working on it mean something. And it makes it special. And it’s a joy to see them on stage. And the best part about theatre is sharing that joy with other people.

A Christmas Carol by James Hutchison at Wokingham Theatre England

Posted on by James Hutchison

“You may find me cold and unfeeling sir, but I would venture to say I am a man of my word; a man whose word carries weight; a man whose word allows him the ability to strike a deal and back it up with his signature. My signature is worth something. Yours it would appear – if you continue to treat your financial obligations and business dealings in this manner – will soon be worthless.”

Jerry Radburn as Scrooge in the Wokingham Theatre Production of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Adapted for the stage by James Hutchison. Directed by David Stacey. Photograph Simon Vail Photography

These are the words of a man who hates Christmas! A man who hates anything that does not make him richer and so he hates Christmas most of all. These are the words of a man filled with pride who has forsaken humanity and measures his life in dollars or pounds sterling only. These are the words of Ebenezer Scrooge.

And this Christmas those words, which happen to be from my adaptation of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, are being brought to life in Wokingham England where Wokingham Theatre is producing my small cast version of the play from December 4th to 14th. The production is being directed by David Stacey who I connected with in early November to talk with him about Wokingham Theatre and his production of the play.

JAMES HUTCHISON

Tell me a little bit about Wokingham. The community and the theatre.

Director David Stacey

DAVID STACEY

It’s quite a traditional lovely old English town that has a good community atmosphere. The theatre group itself started back in the 1940s. And through community spirit and amateur theatre clubs it developed and sustained itself and in the 1980s they built a theatre. Unlike a lot of other theatre groups who have to either rent accommodation or share the space with other societies or groups Wokingham Theatre has its own space.

JAMES

Why do you think A Christmas Carol still resonates so many years after it was originally written?

DAVID

The Christmas that we know, certainly here in Britain, with the roast turkey or roast goose, the Victorian Christmas carols and all those kinds of traditions come from Dickens. Everybody, when they’re celebrating Christmas, encounters all of those as part of the Christmas season. So that’s partly it, but it’s also a lovely moral story that taps into what is important about Christmas. And that’s not necessarily anything to do with religion, even though it’s obviously a religious feast, but for those that aren’t religious they can still tap into the spirit of the story and what Christmas means. And everybody knows the story and they like to listen to it, again and again, year after year, and it has a happy ending which audiences love.

Vicky Lawford as Mrs. Dilber and Jerry Radburn as Scrooge in the Wokingham Theatre Production of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Adapted for the stage by James Hutchison and directed by David Stacey. Photograph Simon Vail Photography

JAMES

What are some of the unique things that you’re bringing to your production?

DAVID

When the spirits arrive there will be some video projection onto the stage to add special effects. And we’ve got music that has been written for the show. It’s not a musical or anything but rather than just taking pre-recorded Christmas carols or Christmas music, which everyone will have heard before, we’re composing music. I also wanted to keep it traditional. So, we’re still using the Victorian setting and we still have the Victorian imagery and everything, but we’re doing things slightly different with how the spirits look and how that’s played.

So, for example, the second spirit rather than dressed exactly in the costume, as described in the book, our second spirit is going to be on stilts. So, he’s quite the giant but a bit more like a circus or Willy Wonka type of character rather than a Santa Claus character in the big beard and costume. And the third spirit is traditionally done as a grim reaper, so I wanted to do something different with that. He’s quite creepy. You look at his face that has a mask on and a black suit and he has these long fingers. And we have an interactive set that moves and hopefully the audience will be magically surprised by that.

JAMES

What do you like about directing?

DAVID

It’s the creativity. I do acting as well as directing. And when I act in something I tend to miss the directing and when I direct something I tend to miss the acting. But I really like directing and trying to get my vision of the story out and seeing it created. Whether that’s doing a small black box studio theatre show or something larger on the stage in Wokingham with more people involved. It’s about bringing the magic of the story to the audience. And I will read the script and think this is my vision of it. And I want to then be able to turn that into a reality and that’s why I really enjoy reading play scripts, rather than novels. Because the play script is written for somebody else to take and to visualize it and to physically produce it and turn it into something for people to watch. And I find that really exciting, rather than books which stay in your head, you’re not expected to physically recreate the physicality of it. And I like that the audience is watching it from the front, and then from behind you have all of these sets that are actually all fake. And it’s all people in makeup and costumes that are taking on a character and I really, really like that.

  • Jerry Radburn as Scrooge in the Wokingham Theatre Production of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Adapted for the stage by James Hutchison and directed by David Stacey. Photograph Simon Vail Photography
  • Peter Pearson as Jacob Marley and Jerry Radburn as Scrooge in the Wokingham Theatre Production of a Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Adapted for the stage by James Hutchison and directed by David Stacey. Photograph by Simon Vail Photography.
  • Becca Tizzard as the First Spirit and Jerry Radburn as Scrooge in the Wokingham Theatre production of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Adapted for the stage by James Hutchison and directed by David Stacey. Photograph by Simon Vail Photography
  • Jerry Radburn as Scrooge in the Wokingham Theatre Production of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Adapted for the stage by James Hutchison and directed by David Stacey. Photograph by Simon Vail Photography
  • Vicky Lawford as Mrs. Dilber and Jerry Radburn as Scrooge in the Wokingham Theatre Production of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Adapted for the stage by James Hutchison and directed by David Stacey. Photograph Simon Vail Photography
  • Wokingham Theatre Production of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Adapted for the stage by James Hutchison and directed by David Stacey. Photography Simon Vail Photography

JAMES

One of the things I tried to do in my adaptation was have Scrooge interact more with the spirits or speaking to the people that are memories and making him more resistant to changing by having him argue more with the spirits than what’s in the book. Scrooge has to take the whole night to change and that’s a process and a journey and I wonder if you’ve found that playing well and just how the actors are using it.

DAVID

That’s one of the things that attracted me to this particular script. And also because you introduced the device of the letters. The letters allow Scrooge to have more regret at the end. In the original book he wakes up the next morning and is going to change but there needs to be some sort of regret as well because he’s lost out on marrying his childhood sweetheart because he didn’t behave very well. And that’s life. You can’t go through life behaving badly and then decided to change your mind and get everything back that you’ve missed out on. The letters are a lovely, lovely device to really emphasize that and as you say the talking to the spirits is good fun. He’s particularly argumentative with the first spirit and we’re having the first spirit be quite argumentative back. She’s not playing it all nice. Because even though it’s not a complete nightmare, it isn’t a pleasant dream he’s having in any way.

JAMES

Well as a playwright I’m not set in you having to produce the play as I’ve described it. Generally when I write I try to minimize the amount of character description and character action I put in my scripts because I believe those things are going to be discovered by how you design the set, by the actors you cast, by how you want to stage the play, by the size of your stage, all of these things that I can’t anticipate. So, it’s absolutely wonderful and so fascinating to see the different takes on telling the story that all come from the same script.

DAVID

And because our audience is an adult audience we’re not trying to do anything that’s too saccharine or anything like that. It’s not really targeted to a child or family audience so we can have some bits that are maybe a little bit more unpleasant or you don’t have to worry about scaring kids or getting them upset.

And so one of the other things I’ve introduced for when Scrooge travels with the spirits is to make the journey quite unpleasant. Particularly with the first spirit. When she says, “I will take you or let’s go and see somebody else or the Fezziwigs – that kind of stuff – she grabs hold of Scrooge and it’s almost as if he’s being electrocuted. So, there’s going to be lots of special effects of electricity and sparks and things like that. And it’s painful for him. And then with the second spirit, it’s a bit more wonderous and swirly and everything is going to get spun around and he’s going to get physically thrown around as if he’s on a sort of like a roller coaster. I didn’t want it to be where they all just float off into the sky like Peter Pan and drift around pleasantly, because then I’m not convinced that Scrooge has changed. Or why would he change if it’s all been a nice dream? No, it’s because he’s been taught a lesson in a painful way and I think the script allows for that.

JAMES

I think you found my big cast version of the script first and then I sent you my smaller cast version for you to read. That version has one actor play Scrooge and then the other actors play multiple roles. How is that working for you in terms of staging the play and telling the story

DAVID

Wokingham Theatre is a relatively large group, but we certainly couldn’t have cast a thirty strong production. So, I really liked how you reduced it down and have the multi rolling and have it as an ensemble piece. And, that’s the main reason I went with the smaller cast version although we didn’t go strictly with the casting as you have it in your script. But I like the idea of the actors taking on more than one role because it gives them more to do and they do enjoy that in my experience, and it gives them a bit more stage time.

Peter Pearson as Jacob Marley and Jerry Radburn as Scrooge in the Wokingham Theatre Production of a Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Adapted for the stage by James Hutchison and directed by David Stacey. Photograph by Simon Vail Photography.

JAMES

Tell me a little bit about the cast.

DAVID

Jerry Radburn who is playing Scrooge and has been acting at Wokingham Theatre and at various other theatres for a very long time is someone I know very well. I’ve been in lots of plays with him but I haven’t directed him before. Most of the cast I know and I’ve worked with in various guises either being in plays with several of them or directed them in other shows but there’s one or two that I’d never met before who turned up because we have open auditions. And so, it’s really, really nice when we get new people coming along. And as part of this season I had a policy that I sent to all of my directors that you needed to cast at least one new person for each show if they’re suitable for a particular role just to expand the diversity of the group. And we have a youth theatre group, as part of Wokingham Theater, which runs classes and so we often tap into that to find keen youngsters who want to take parts and be in our main season shows. And so that’s kind of good fun to work with the youth cast as well. The key thing is that everybody’s doing it because they love it. Everyone has fun and that’s the main priority.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens and adapted for the stage by James Hutchison runs from December 4th to December 14th at Wokingham Theatre. The production stars Jerry Radburn as Scrooge and is directed by David Stacey. To find out more about Wokingham Theatre and their upcoming season visit the Wokingham Theatre Website.

Wokingham Theatre – A Christmas Carol – Cast & Crew

Jerry Radburn – Scrooge
Matthew Lugg – Fred
Claire Bray – Bob Cratchit, Scrooge as a young man
Peter Pearson – Mr. Bentley, Jacob Marley, Thomas
Chris Westgate – Mr. Granger, Second Spirit, Mr. Fezziwig
Gary Smith – Mr. Harrington, Old Joe
Vicky Lawford – Mrs. Dilber, Mrs. Fezziwig, Mrs. Cratchit
Becca Tizzard – First Spirit, Martha Cratchit. Rose
Louise Punter – Cook
Sophie Marsden – Belle, Emma, Caroline
Andi Lee – Granny Cratchit

Youth Cast:
Oliver Lees, Nicholas Zezula, Amber Pearce, Annabel Brittain, Jonathan Willis, Joseph Rea

Director – David Stacey
Assistant Director – Heather Maceachern
Production Manager – Claire Lawrence
Stage Manager – Mike Rogers
Costume – Rosemary Matthews & Sue deQuidt
Props/models – Claire Willis
Lights – Nick Gill & Richard Field
Sound – John Gold
Original Music – Charlie Lester
Choreography – Lesley Richards
Set Design – Henry Ball

Links to Play Page where you can download four Christmas Play Scripts by Playwright James Hutchison for Free including the comedy What the Dickens, the romantic comedy Under the Mistletoe, and both a large cast version and small cast version of A Christmas Carol.