Interview: Chris Hutchinson, Michelle Elaine, Shawn Hamilton, John Ryan Del Bosque, Brock Hatton of A CHRISTMAS CAROL at Alley Theatre

What a privilege it has been being a part of the new production of the age-old holiday classic A Christmas Carol at The Alley Theatre. With fresh vocal arrangements, large-scale scenic pieces, elaborate costumes and wigs, a host of new cast and crew members, it felt like I was walking into an alternate universe. One I have affectionately deemed The Carolverse. Yes, the title is inspired by a certain multi-billion dollar media brand and feels just as large. The Alley Theatre's long tradition of performing A Christmas Carol has now become a staple in the holiday season. Each year, men, women and children leave their warm homes, brave the cold (or lukewarm because it is indeed Houston) to traverse the highways and byways to arrive at the Alley. Seeing the tiny audience members dressed in their tuxedos and holiday gowns has brought a smile to my face like no other. In the bliss of the applause, the merchandise sold and the Scrooge-mania, deep, deep down I have been asking myself one big question- how am I gonna do Christmas AND perform in this show?

With our criss-crossing performance schedule and my body's fatigue, when am I gonna get gifts? Am I planning to cook? Was I also then gonna decorate? Will I ever have more time? How did people with children do this? I'm single as a Pringle and can't manage it! Who will do the Christmas playlist and curate the jams? Speaking of jam, do we need homemade jelly for the breakfast biscuits? Lastly, who will do the Mac and Cheese?!

I had never performed in a Christmas production so I wondered how I could even remotely balance it all. Now let's be clear, I'm cool as a cucumber in balancing many activities at once. But something about being in the Carolverse and getting prepped for Christmas seems so daunting. HOW!? So many thoughts and hopes and worries filtered into my psyche.

It then further expanded into the need to have conversations with performers who are also in this process. I gathered my team of talented and patient folks, some that are new to the Carolverse, others who have been apart of it for years. I lured a few in with the promises of dessert, sitting down with them in between scenes or during intermission to probe their brains about how they navigate Christmas traditions and performing. Here's what my crop yielded:

A.D.:

First off, what was Christmas like growing up? Like, prior to the Carolverse, what were the norms? Traditional or non-traditional.

Brock Hatton (Male Swing):

B.H:

Growing up in Tyler, Texas, my parents split up when I was seven. After that year, I was always bouncing in between homes for multiple Christmases. No complaints here! Bunch of presents and family all over the place. I would spend Christmas Eve with my dad, and his side of the family, wake up and do Christmas presents with him, then go over to Mom's side and do a huge Christmas day lunch into a nap and dinner. Yeah, it was always time spent with family. We'd all hop in the car and drive around and look at Christmas lights. Or go to one of the Christmas Church Pageants, with the live donkeys and full manger setups.

A.D.:

You was little baby Jesus?

B.H.:

No, I didn't play little baby Jesus, but I was little! And for a couple years we would do the passion play so I would play a camel, or townsfolk or one of the wise men, or one of the shepherds and I would bring Frankincense and Myrrh!

A.D.:

So, now that you're in the Carolverse, welcome, how do you think that tradition will change? If at all?

B.H.:

Being a performer its always difficult around holidays to do family things. Thanksgiving I usually only have the single Thanksgiving day off, same for Christmas. So it's still bouncing around and scheduled around shows. I haven't had a Christmastime that wasn't scheduled around the show in like six years, excluding COVID. My family always comes to see the shows, that's a part of the tradition. Most times I will perform and drive the four hours back to Tyler just to see them. Christmas has always been a time of travel. Making sure the family gets together but things have definitely had to be condensed. We do tons of celebrating after Christmas now, like New Years celebrating.

John Ryan Del Bosque (Third Man/Ensemble/Mr. Fezziwig/Present Ghost U/S):

J.D.B.:

I'm from here but I was in New York for ten years. My family does this thing that we started doing for the past six years where we theme our Christmases. We were tired of doing the same traditional foods each year, like the ham, the mashed potatoes, that kinda thing. We started theming them, so we started doing a Tex Mex Christmas, an Italian one with a bunch of pasta. We had an Asian themed Christmas last year, that was really good. This year we're doing Cozy Comfort Christmas, all comfort foods, so I'm super excited.

A.D.:

So, now that you're in the Carolverse, welcome, how do you think that tradition will change? If at all?

J.D.B:

I don't have much time to go Christmas shopping. I'm just online all the time buying because I don't have time to get anything! The little time we do have I wanna spend to my family. So I do tons of online shopping during intermission. I do love being here at the Alley though, its so beautiful here and everyone is so professional. And I'm starting to enjoy the drive, Christmas songs.

AD:

Oooh who you listening to?

J.D.B:

Kelly Clarkson's Christmas album mostly, her song Underneath the Tree! I also really enjoy the classic stuff too!

Shawn Hamilton (Ghost of Christmas Present):

A.D.:

So, you're actually what I could call an O.G. (look it up!) in the Carolverse, so how do you decide what to do each year? What did you do prior to working here at the Alley?

S.H.:

I had a small family. So it used to be just me, my mom, my aunt, my dad and they've all passed on, unfortunately. I had a weird situation where that was my adopted family, and then I found my biological family. So it's like I've gotten a whole second chance at having a "traditional" Christmas. We used to do a big turkey for thanksgiving and christmas, but now we do a big roast beef, or maybe a big salmon. But we love to cook. My mom will make a big Pineapple upside down cake. My friend went hunting and came back with a wild boar- so I'm planning something big with that, maybe a Balsamic reduction. But we love cooking! That's what it wraps around. And family. It's the one time we get together. So it's very important we fit it all into those two days. Even if I'm tired. I try to do something.

Since 2015, so is my seventh year doing A Christmas Carol, and my daughter's second year doing it with me. (Shelby Burke Brown, who is cast as Fan) We wanted to be able to do it together one more time. She turns thirteen this year, and I still have the pictures of her when she was ten years old for her first time performing in this show. Time really passes. And the one thing this show tells you is to make use of the time you have while you've got it. 'Cause tomorrow is gonna be gone.

The illustrious Michelle Elaine (Ensemble/Mrs. Fezziwig & Mrs. Cratchit U/S):

M.E.:

I am actually preparing for a Christmas tradition right now! I have been laboring over my Instacart shopping cart, because I'm going back and forth about if I'm making a mac & cheese or not. For some reason, my maternal side of the family doesn't do a cheese! It's the oddest thing!

A.D.:

No Mac & Cheese? We're Black!

M.E.:

Exactly! And ain't nobody lactose intolerant. I don't know why they don't do it. I think everyone is intimidated that they won't master it. But I'm thinking about making this crab mac & cheese. But the tradition is that I come and I don't bring nothing. My tradition is that I also host Christmas Eve breakfast for my immediate family- which is my mom, sister, my little unit (husband and children). I'm trying to decide if I'm gonna cook or if I'm gonna order. But we come, we have breakfast and we open gifts within our little unit and then on Christmas Day we open gifts with the extended unit. We also get up early on Christmas Day and go to church. This is the first year my daughter, who's four, will be in the Christmas play! She's singing the first line in "Who Would Imagine a King" and then our Pastor, who is also my father-in-law, also reads the Christmas story from the bible to the kids. Then we go to my mom's host and eat, exchange gifts, I host the games, that's my task, and we hang out for the rest of the night.

A.D.:

So, now that you're in the Carolverse, welcome, I might come up with a Carolverse theme song- how do you think that tradition will change? If at all?

M.E.:

It just makes it challenging because you don't have enough time to shop, wrap gifts, or clean your house. But in a roundabout way, we've been getting into the Christmas spirit since what- October? So, you know, had I planned a little bit better I could've gotten things out of the way, but it's nice to be the host of something that is part of many families' yearly tradition.

Chris Hutchinson (Marley/John):

A.D.:

I've been going around asking people about their Christmas traditions, customs, cooking or etc. You've been a Resident Acting Company member here at The Alley Theatre for sixteen years, and many of those years, if not all (?), have included a production of A Christmas Carol during the holiday season. What were your holiday traditions? How has being apart of this Christmas institution altered or shifted those plans?

C.H.:

To work backwards, yes indeed, my wife and I (Elizabeth Bunch, also an Resident Acting Company member), look at the calendar and there's two months we dread in some way, as parents especially. It was different when we were childless. One of those months is May, when school ends and there's like five birthdays. But December, you know, it's crunch time at work. We're happy to do it, and we know what this play means to the theatre and to our audiences. So we're up for it. But what it means is that we have to be incredibly wise with our time. Because we want our kids to enjoy Christmas the way we did when we were growing up. We were both lucky to be brought up in loving households and Christmas was really a special time. So we want to create that for them. So we do have to bounce around from work, but we have to look at the calendar way in advance to sort of figure it out. And in some ways, being in A Christmas Carol is helpful because when we're rehearsing in November, I'm like 'Oh I better start my Christmas shopping'. So far, the tradition is not so much about the time off and what we do. Elizabeth has very strong thoughts about labeling Santa presents, presents from the family and all of that. We get the tree up pretty early in December, we really deck the house out. We do the outside - which is something I never did when I was a kid-and one of the fun things is that because we have to do our shopping so early, the presents really start to pile up under the tree. I just love seeing that. The kids get excited and I do too, I look under there and know there's gonna be something there for me!

A.D.:

It gives you something to look forward to!

C.H.:

Yeah! So I think that's it. We want our kids to feel as lucky as we felt when we were growing up, and just as loved. And we're not particularly religious people, but the message is not lost on us. So we try to bring some of that as well. My favorite day of the year used to be the 23rd. It was the beginning of the long Christmas break, for college, for high school, it was the night when everyone just hung out and you'd see everybody there. And it was so great to connect that way. I always loved that. It is funny because yes I love Christmas but the preliminary days before Christmas were some memorable times. My parents didn't have big traditions, but we were never a big foodie family. And a lot of times I got bored because it was the same food from Thanksgiving. But we mix it up now, Elizabeth loves to cook. We're doing beef bourguignon.

A.D.:

Speaking of, I hear Michelle Elaine has given you a special recipe?

C.H.:

Well, its for pecan pie.

A.D.:

C'mon pecan pie!

C.H.:

I do a few things, but occasionally when I get a bee in my bonnet, I'm like 'Ima make something'! And I decided to make a pecan pie. And it tasted pretty good! It probably could've been cooked a little longer, and I didn't make my own crust this time, I'm gonna try to make my own crust next time. I wanna branch out and make a pumpkin pie-

A.D.:

Well you've got time! It's a few days until Christmas!

C.H.:

Even if they're not Christmas pies, it can be a New Year's pie. When you work in the the theatre, if you bring a pie, it'll be eaten. But it'll be a nice way to contribute.

A.D.:

To the collective stomach of the cast and crew-

C.H.:

Right, exactly.

There you have it. I got my answer-that there was never a cut and dry answer to begin with. Performing is always a bit of a sacrifice, when you deem yourself a performer you agree to making yourself vulnerable and becoming a blank canvas for a group of potentially judgemental folks to objectively but most times subjectively intake what you deem a craft. Sometimes they hate it (I'm talking to you, Facebook commenter guy) and other times they love it (everyone else?). Either way, it's pretty daunting. Now add in performing in a holiday tradition at a Tony Award winning theatre with over sixty people working to put the show on! Add in mounting pressure to get up and do the next show but a ticking clock counting down the 12 Days of Christmas! It can get crazy.

However, talking to these lovely, talented people has given me a little reassurance that I wasn't the only one navigating questions of how to balance producing a beautiful Christmas for my family and being a part of the Christmas tradition for Houston families to come. Both can exist. It just may take a little elbow grease, a little road rage and a lot of eggnog. Merry Christmas! (Or Bah, Humbug, readers choice!)

I'll see you at the show!

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