Star says details matter when you’re playing Charlie Brown
The Carousel Theatre for Young People production of A Charlie Brown Christmas brings the iconic animated TV special to the stage, complete with puppetry and live jazz. We talked to actor Andrew Cownden about existentialism in the original comic strip by Charles M. Schulz, playing the title role, and a dog named Snoopy.
This isn’t your first time playing Charlie Brown.
No. I played him in You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown. That was 11 years ago, in Kimberley, B.C. It was one of my first jobs out of school.
What do you remember about that show?
I remember it had a small budget but was done with a lot of love.
It was a good show, and it’s lovely to be getting a second chance to explore that character. It’s interesting what new things I’m finding. They’re surprisingly deep characters. They’re cartoon characters from a comic strip that, at a cursory glance, you’d think is for children. But it’s not really for children, it’s about children but it’s for everybody. There’s some very smart philosophical jokes in it. In the process at the beginning, when we were talking about it, we got into existentialism, the search for meaning and truth.
How faithful is this to the cartoon everyone knows?
We got a verbatim script from the Charlie Brown Christmas cartoon. So all the bits you know and love will be there. And we’ve added a few things, some lovely pastiches with Snoopy, and the lovely flights of fancy he often has in the cartoons. We’ve added some holiday music towards the end of the show, a medley of Christmas carols and holiday songs that people are welcome to sing along to if they want.
Do you have the iconic shirt with the zigzag pattern?
It’s picture-perfect to the cartoon. It’s amazing what our costume people have done. I’ve got this red jacket, his black pants and brown shoes, the deer-hunting hat he has, and of course, I have the yellow polo shirt with the stripe. It took us awhile to get the proportions right because the Peanuts characters look almost like snowmen, with these large circular heads and bodies and little stubby feet. It’s hard to get that right on a human being. But it looks stunning. The audience is going to be hit with a nostalgia bomb. People will be applauding just for the costumes. What about the tree? We don’t have the Charlie Brown Christmas tree yet. We’re trying to get it just right. It’s a weird challenge, where you’re not only trying to put on a good show, you’re also trying to get all those nostalgia beats just right. The kids might not care, they’ll be happy with all the singing and dancing. But there will be those 60-year-old hardcore Peanuts fans who will be delighted to know we took the time and attention to get all the decorations on Snoopy’s house just right.
Who in the cast has the hardest job?
Definitely Alan Zinyk, who’s doing Snoopy, who is a series of puppets. I did (Roald Dahl’s) James And The Giant Peach with Carousel last year, and I played the centipede in a crouched position. Your lower back doesn’t like that. Alan’s always on his knees, crawling around and hiding behind things. I really feel for him. That man is going through a lot, and he’s doing such a good job.