The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
It’s a few big (digital) days for Great Lakes
Company offering audio-only ‘Christmas Carol,’ virtual fundraiser
After more than three decades of presenting a theatrical production of “A Christmas Carol,” Great Lakes Theater has canceled this year’s version of the Northeast Ohio tradition, obviously due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.
“It’s brutal for us as a company because these holiday shows become really important to the bottom line of our budget,” GLT Producing Artistic Director Charles Fee said. “Losing ‘A Christmas Carol’ for us is harder than losing anything else in our season from a financial standpoint.
“From an artistic standpoint, and from engaging our community, the long history of this piece as our holiday offering is really deeply important. It brings in an audience every single year that’s pretty much new to Great Lakes Theater. It’s our largest and broadest audience base of the year.”
Going into the fall, Fee knew it would take some kind of a Christmas miracle to keep the streak alive for the theater company based at Cleveland’s Playhouse Square.
Although the stage production is taking a year off, well, Virginia, er, Northeast Ohio, there is a Santa Claus. And he’s apparently turning back the clock to provide the Charles Dickens classic on the wireless.
GLT, in partnership with ideastream, presents a radio adaptation of “A Christmas Carol” at 8 p.m. Dec. 22 on ideastream stations WCLV-FM 104.9 and 9 p.m. Dec. 23 on WCPN-FM 90.3.
The free program is available to stream on-demand online, as well, on greatlakestheater.org and ideastream.org.
“This story needs to be told right now in the middle of this pandemic,” Fee said. “It couldn’t be more powerful. That’s why we’re doing it. We’re not going to make any money. We’re just doing it because it’s important to have this text of Charles Dickens alive as it is every year. In a way, it’s a gift to the community.”
Directed by Fee, the radio adaptation features GLT company members Leilani Barrett, Laura Welsh Berg, Lynn Robert Berg, Aled Davies, Jodi Dominick, Patrick Kiernan, Colleen Longshaw, Daniel Millhouse, Jessie Cope Miller, Marlowe Miller, David Anthony Smith, Nick Steen and Mark Anthony Taylor.
“What’s powerful about broadcast and streaming is that it reaches an audience that probably could never get to Playhouse Square,” Fee said. “They’re either too far away or it’s too dif
ficult for them to travel. We’re really excited about opening it up to our larger communities in a much broader way.”
More importantly, Fee confirmed the GLT “A Christmas Carol” streak is intact. This marks its 32nd production of the Christmas favorite.
There’s also another pandemic-related Great Lakes Theater trend continuing. The company again is offering fans a special livestream show following its successful October presentation “Ghost Light — A Virtual Cabaret Fundraiser.”
“We had such a great time creating ‘Ghost Light’ that we immediately thought, ‘OK, we have to do another one’,” Fee said. “That’s when the notion of a holiday cabaret came up.
“Director Sara Bruner said, ‘I know what we’re going to do. It’s going to be called “The Snow Must Go On,”’ which we all felt was hysterical. It’s going to be like a Judy Garland Christmas special that she used to do hosted at her house.”
Produced in partnership by GLT, Idaho Shakespeare Festival and Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Fe st iva l, “The Snow Must Go On” — which can be streamed at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 20 — includes performances by Adrian Bumpas, Jodi Dominick, Jillian Kates, Marcus Martin, Jessie Cope Miller, Colton Ryan and Alex Syiek.
“Hosting the holiday show from her newly reoutfitted trailer in Strongsville will be Jillian Kates, who is one of the stars of our company,” Fee said. “It’s going to be just a blast.
“The company members are creating these pieces on their own, of course, because no one can get together with anyone else. We edited (the footage) for this show featuring them performing classics from the holiday canon.”
Speaking of the holidays, part and parcel of Fee’s many Christmas wishes — peace on earth, a new president and the end of the pandemic — is the notion the Great Lakes can return to full operation next fall for its 202122 season.
“While who can tell for sure, I think we’re in really positive territory about next fall in terms of vaccines and immunizations,” Fee said. “We feel really confident we’re going to see our audiences again in late September and early October. We can’t wait.”