BWW Blog: Once Upon a Time... On All the Good Days of the Year

We are in the final rehearsals for Theatre Three's thirtieth production of A Christmas Carol. The production opens this Saturday, November 16, at 8 p.m. It is the first of the forty-nine performances that will play on Theatre Three's Mainstage.

This will mark my twenty-sixth production and my twenty-fifth as Scrooge. I have been an adaptor and director and an actor ... and, even more so, the most devoted (read "obsessive") follower of Dickens' wholly unique, powerful, and unparalleled story. (Christmas Carol was my gateway drug to other Dickens novels. Last summer I went to "Dickens Camp" in Santa Cruz.).

Often I am asked, "Why Christmas Carol?" Or, more to the point, "You're doing that again?" Well, yes. For theatres across the country, Christmas Carol serves many purposes. It is certainly popular and can be the highest grossing production of the season. In addition, it brings in people who normally don't go to the theatre. The hope is that this visit will encourage future visits. It is an ideal family show and a terrific way to introduce young people to Live Theatre.

But it's more than that. Dickens' novel is a story of redemption. At the heart is the fact that if someone as bitter, as angry, as misanthropic as Scrooge can change, so can we. Furthermore, not only can we change but we can make a difference. That is the heart of the holiday season, isn't it? The joy of giving?

On top of this, it's a tale full of memorable characters and vivid images ... Cratchit warming his hands over the candle ... Marley in chains ... Tiny Tim on Cratchit's shoulder ... Scrooge kneeling at his own grave ... Indelible images that have followed the work through 170 years and thousands of permutations in stage, film, television ... sketches, mugs, t-shirts ... (And, yes, I have sketches, mugs, t-shirts ... coasters ... sweatpants ... a set of Christmas Carol bears, mice, rabbits ...)

Each year, we try to find something new in our production. Each season, we add, delete, change, and shift. Sometimes there are adjustments made before rehearsals begin-a new line or a new approach to a costume (this year's Ghost of Christmas Past). Other times, large changes are made during the rehearsal process. These range from the big changes to what I refer to as the "Where's Waldos"-minor moments that are seen by the people who have visited Theatre Three's production year-after-year.

This year, two weeks before tech, we reconceived Christmas Morning. This was an idea that I had been stewing over for twenty-five years but didn't become real until I was listening to the company sing through the carols that are presented in the lobby before each performance. When they came to the "Gloria" of "Angels We Have Heard on High," a quarter of a century of seeking became real. Over the course of the next three rehearsals, the new vision was worked, the cast made suggestions and helped refine it, and it became the big "something new."

A Christmas Carol is a continuing process. Knowing that we will visit it again next year and the year after, each season is a process, a challenge, and a journey.

Theatre Three presents A Christmas Carol. November 16 through December 28 on the Mainstage. Box Office: 631-928-9100. Group Sales: 631-928-1130. www.theatrethree.com

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