Interview: Melissa Pritchett, Actress, Talks Alley Theatre CHRISTMAS CAROL Past and Present

We revisit A CHRISTMAS CAROL, the cherished Charles Dickens Christmas fable wherein the stingy rich businessman Ebenezer Scrooge is paid visit by four apparitions-the ghost of his former business partner, Jacob Marley, who was equally cruel and close-fisted during life and the spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Future.

Alley Company Artist Melissa Pritchett ( Mary Pidgeon and Christmas Past) talks performing the Alley tradition in the newly renovated Alley theatre.

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How are audiences responding to A CHRISTMAS CAROL in the new space?

It's been really great. This is our first CAROL back in the new theatre, so being able to do it in this space has been really lovely and, I think, a great experience for everybody. It really feels like there's an intimate connection between us and the audience. It's a very different dynamic than what was there before.

I'm also the dance captain. I wear two hats. I watched a little from the house; it's sort of amazing how large everything seems and how close everything seems in this new configuration. I was comparing it to suddenly switching to HDTV. [Giggles] Everything is suddenly crisper and clearer and bigger!

The new space is pretty incredible and in this version, in this new space, we have achieved a new way of connecting with the audience. I think that this story in particular has a way to be even more touching and more heartfelt than it ever has before because we're so close to the audience and because, I think, we can feel the audience in a way that we've never felt before. It's really a magical experience this year.

You were previously a dancer so, I imagine, you have a keen perception of space. How does the new space affect your acting?

It does really affect me [as an actor] coming from a dance standpoint. Also, because I had to set the dancers for the show (being dance captain), we had to talk about how far we needed to pull things downstage or how to configure patterns. So in a way, I think of it more in stage patterns. The way you stand and speak with someone is different because you have to be more open to the audience.

How have your past artistic experiences, dance and otherwise, contributed to your performances in A CHRISTMAS CAROL?

I've danced for most of my life, since I was two. Then I went to school for musical theatre. I think there's a lot of dancer in me, especially in Christmas Past because I think a lot about making her movements like floating or gliding, being weightless. So there's a lot of ballerina deep in there that I think I'm using.

And one of my first shows professionally at the Alley was an old version of A CHRISTMAS CAROL. Then the next year was when we started doing the current version. I actually was a dancer for many years in this production. We have six dancing apparitions in this production, and I danced that for, I think, 8 or 9 years. And there were two years I danced Mrs. Pratchett. Now, I'm doing Christmas Past!

How was your first appearance in A CHRISTMAS CAROL?

The very first year I did [A CHRISTMAS CAROL] the version had automated stages that moved back and forth and everyone had this walk across from one side of the stage to the other. And I just remember, in one of the first shows, I was really trying hard. I was really going for it. But the material that the stage was made out of was really slick and the stage fog got on it so, as I was making my cross, both feet came out from under me and I landed on my bottom. And then the stage actually brought me back on stage. [Laughs] I was basically like they're never going to have me back again.

And you were wrong.

So wrong. [Laughs]

You've been the dance captain for 9 years. What are your responsibilities in the role?

It is my job to reset choreographer Hope Clark's choreography each year. I come in and if I have new dancers I have to teach them everything and for dancers who have done it before I have to make sure we're holding on to Hope's original ideas and staging.

It's been really interesting to set it on so many bodies over the years. Everyone's different and I've had nine different casts of dancers for the most part! [Laughs] You know, a lot of dancers do it year after year, but there's always a few new people and just the way they work together is different every year.

What have you observed this year?

We have a really strong group this year. I keep calling them our all-star cast. We have really amazing dancers. And because we were in the new stage, Hope came back to help make sure the staging in the new space still held true to her original concept. One of the things that she said to me was, "They're so good that they're too good." [Laughs] We had to rough them up a little bit. [Laughs]

How did you achieve that? Did you fight them?

[Laughs] Yeah, I came on stage and yelled at them. [Laughs] No, it was more about letting the movement have more of an abandonment than being quite so structured, which is hard. When I was one of the dancers, it was always a challenge because I had a corset and a hoop skirt and an axe in my neck and a mask and a hat and chains. [I laugh loudly] Then you have to figure out how to translate the movement through all of that costume. We worked a lot with that this year.

Thank you, by the way. It looks fantastic when you do it.

Oh, good. [Chuckles] Then we're doing our job.

[This interview has been edited and condensed]

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See Melissa Pritchett do her job in A CHRISTMAS CAROL, which runs through December 28 at the Alley Theatre, 615 Texas St. Remaining performances are Tuesday, Dec 22 at 7:30p; Wednesday, Dec 23 at 2:30p and 7:30p; Thursday, Dec 24 at 2:30p; Saturday, Dec 26 at 2:30p and 7:30p; Sunday, Dec 27 at 2:30p and 7:30p; and Monday, Dec 28 at 2:30 pm and 7:30p. $35-$120. 713-220-5700. alleytheatre.org

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