‘Christmas Carol’ features stunning sets, humor
Charles Dickens definitely wrote a classic novella with “A Christmas Carol.”
For more than 150 years, the story has been interpreted in various ways.
It’s made its way onto theater stages, as well as the big screen.
This is the reason Scott Severance wanted to do something different with the play.
“Part of the comfort of this story is that we know what’s coming,” he says in a recent interview. “This is a story that brings families together because it’s become a tradition.”
Severance not only wrote the adaptation, but he stars as Ebenezer Scrooge in the play.
The story follows Scrooge, who is the most unrepentant and miserly of fellows and is made to see the light as he survives a merciless battery of revelations by the ghosts of his own life: Jacob Marley and the Christmas Spirits of Past, Present, and Future.
Severance’s adaptation of Dickens’ classic fills the stage with first-class professional actors, lush costumes, stunning sets and puppetry, song and dance, a heavy dose of humor, and a timeless message.
It also contains the music of 26 beloved traditional carols of the season weaved throughout the tale.
“We weren’t afraid to get dark,” he says. “For the Jacob Marley scene, we go for the full zombie ghost scary effect. Ideally, audiences will think, cry and gasp. I think that’s why the show has the iconography that it has achieved about Christmas. It has such traditional roots. Scrooge represents all of us and our relationships.”
The production also has a 12-foot-tall by 24-foot-wide projection screen that provides the changing backdrops.
The production is in its fourth year, and 10 members from last year’s company came back for the production.
Severance says the level of production has gone up over the years.
“Frankly, I don’t know how we got away with Year One,” he says with a laugh. “We’ve streamlined everything. Our travel arrangements are cleaner. We’ve learned from our multitudes of mistakes, but there are still surprises on a daily basis.”