Interview: Jefferson Mays of A CHRISTMAS CAROL: A GHOST STORY at The Old Globe

Tony Award winner Jefferson Mays returns to San Diego and The Old Globe with his one-man show “A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story.” Mays talks about his love for this story, adapting this to the Globe’s theatre in the round, and the beauty of the audience connection in this storytelling experience.  Playing for a limited run at The Old Globe from December 12 - 22nd.

Jefferson Mays brings Charles Dickens's classic story of Scrooge, a miserly man who is visited by the ghost of his former business partner Marley, and the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet To Come - in hopes that he will transform into a better man with a kinder more open heart with charity towards his fellow man.

While many people are introduced to this story as kids in some form, either the book, movie, or animated piece, Mays says that the inspiration for this piece comes from a memorable family experience thanks to a dog chasing a cat and crashing the television to the ground beyond repair.

“My dad reached up behind him and pulled down a yellowing volume of Charles Dickens's Christmas book, in which, was ‘A Christmas Carol.’ He began reading it to me, my two siblings, and my mother.  When he got tired, he would pass it to my mother, and she would take over and they read the whole thing.

It was about three hours, and we were transfixed. I distinctly remember my dad's lovely, lilting, detached narrative voice. Then he would pass it to my mother, and she became this mad person who would transform into every character she was reading.

She would be a ghost, Bob Cratchett, and Tiny Tim, and it was so terrifying and compelling to see this woman I thought I knew so intimately become something completely other before my young eyes.”

Along with a love for this spooky seasonal tale, Jefferson says this may be one of the first moments that planted the seeds for a love of performance and theatre.

“I think it was at that moment that I sort of fell in love with the idea of performance. At least I fell in love with “A Christmas Carol” and perhaps even fell in love with the theater.

Because it was a theatrical experience reduced to its purest form, a cracking good story, able performers, and a rapt audience, I've been hooked on all three things ever since.

I'm so grateful to my dear parents for introducing me to this at that age.”

Jefferson has extensive experience playing multiple characters in a show. He won a Tony Award for his performance of over 40 characters in “I Am My Own Wife” and was also nominated for his turn in “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder,” where he played multiple members of the ill-fated D’Ysquith Family. Mays says this production offers something different than a play or a musical; it is more of a storytelling experience.

“All theater is storytelling in different ways, and this, even more so, I think, because a lot of Dickens' narrative is preserved in this adaptation, which I think is lovely.

It is a story, and the characters, I convey the characters through my voice. Sometimes, the voice of the narrator, as he is describing a person or a thing, will change to color that description or a salient gesture that the audience and I can associate with a particular character.

 I try to keep things simple, subtle, and economical as possible and emphasize the actual telling of the story.”

While Jefferson may be alone on the stage in this telling, the audience is an active participant in the show, which makes each show a uniquely wonderful and collaborative experience.

“In this production, I do hope that the special effects, ultimately, will be in the minds and the imaginations of the audience.  They're the ones who will provide the magic that only I can suggest, you know.

My most thrilling theatrical experiences over the course of my life have been those that are actually quite inexpensive. In these, the audience and performers are forced to lean towards each other and create something in the middle of them.

It becomes a collaborative act.”

Mays has performed variations of this show before, but performing at The Old Globe in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre in the round offers a new and exciting challenge. 

“No one's more curious than I am; I haven't played that space before!

I very rarely play in the round. I will work intensely to create a physical shape for this story, but I want to keep it choreographed in broad strokes and loose so that I can relate to the audience clustered around our metaphorical fire.  So it's kind of an experiment in some ways.”

Jefferson says that the fact that every performance is specific and unique to each performance is one of the most exciting and challenging things that keeps bringing him back to the stage.

“Even this story, which I am so familiar with, will be completely different in that space with that audience.

I think that's my favorite thing about theater, that every show, and every audience is different. So no matter how much anyone can prepare, there's still so much variability.

That's why I hope it means we'll live forever as an art form; it's so singular in that way.”

How To Get Tickets

You can see Jefferson Mays in “A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story”  at The Old Globe from December 12th - 22nd.  For ticket and showtime information, go to www.theoldglobe.org 

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