A CHRISTMAS CAROL: AN ACTOR'S PERSPECTIVE--PART III

(NOTE:  Zionsville Radio Players is currently in production of an adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic novel A Christmas Carol.  The script was adapted by co-founder Susan McClelland, was directed by Len Mozzi, rehearsed in Oct. and Nov. and is now being recorded in two sessions at the WICR studios at the University of Indianapolis.  The following was written by actor Dr. Larry Adams, who plays the role of Jacob Marley.  It will be presented in three parts.)

PART III

As I look once more around this eclectic group of friends and new acquaintences, it strikes me how strange it is we should all be working on this project together, how different our perspectives on Christmas are. How some of us this year will celebrate the birth of a newborn Savior found lying in a manger, while others most certainly will not and cannot; and still others of us linger in between, no longer hearing angel choruses or following mystical stars, yet somehow unable to shake the feeling that there is something important, something true lying just beneath the surface. These are the differences that stoke the flames of the yearly battle over “the reason for the season.” It’s a tired debate, but I suspect there are many reasons, or many facets to “the” reason, whatever it may be. Perhaps, though, there is one reason upon which all of us sitting here tonight can agree, the one Dickens envisioned so powerfully and lasteningly in this classic tale, and the one I hope we can share with a holiday-weary radio audience: the power of love- whether coming from the divine, or simply from family, friends, or strangers. Or even from a decidedly non-Jedi ghost. Surely love is the reason for the season, wherever one takes it from there.

So perhaps Dickens was right after all to set his tale in this time of the year and to place “Christmas” in its title. 

But still- why a “Carol”? 

Maybe because a carol is a song of joy. And what greater joy this season- and every season- than the transforming power of love? The power to transform even an Ebeneezer Scrooge. 

The power to transform a world.

A CHRISTMAS CAROL: AN ACTOR'S PERSPECTIVE--PART II

(NOTE:  Zionsville Radio Players is currently in production of an adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic novel A Christmas Carol.  The script was adapted by co-founder Susan McClelland, was directed by Len Mozzi, rehearsed in Oct. and Nov. and is now being recorded in two sessions at the WICR studios at the University of Indianapolis.  The following was written by actor Dr. Larry Adams, who plays the role of Jacob Marley.  It will be presented in three parts.)

PART II

I set these questions aside as our director, Len Mozzi, calls the group to order. After a few introductions and warm-up exercises, the rehearsal begins in earnest, and I hurriedly glance through the few pages of the script I had printed out scant minutes earlier to familiarize myself with my role: Scrooge’s business partner, Jacob Marley. Marley is most definitely dead as Dickens’ tale begins, but at this point in the rehearsal process, I frankly can’t tell you much more about him than that. I keep flashing back to Alec Guinness in the role, from the 1970 movie musical I had seen as a lad, so when we reach my grand entrance tonight, I sound uncomfortably like Obi-Wan Kenobi. Serviceable, I think to myself, for a Dickensian supporting spirit in a show, but little more. Fortunately, Len wants more.

“I’d like to try something different,” he says, mercifully interrupting me before I go full-fledged Jedi on him. “Dickens makes a point to say that you’re Scrooge’s friend. His only friend. Don’t talk to him as a ghost. I want you to try talking to him as his friend.”

A minor thing, really. A tweak. No lines are changed- only voice, only inflection. Yet, for me at least, it makes all the difference. No longer limited by some sort of Disneyish, Haunted House intonations, Dickens’ words still show Marley’s torment, but also now his frustration, his compassion, his love for his friend. Len talks about his ideas for the direction of this production, and suddenly the rest of the show falls into place. 

The theme, simply enough, is love. 

Our Scrooge will not be changed by his fear of the supernatural, his regret for the past, or even the shock of seeing his own, future tombstone; he will not be dragged to his redemption this night by any form of self-interest, but drawn to it by the unconditional love of those all around him. 

This is our take on this overdone story; this is our message to the audience.

A CHRISTMAS CAROL: AN ACTOR'S PERSPECTIVE--PART I

(NOTE:  Zionsville Radio Players is currently in production of an adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic novel A Christmas Carol.  The script was adapted by co-founder Susan McClelland, was directed by Len Mozzi, rehearsed in Oct. and Nov. and is now being recorded in two sessions at the WICR studios at the University of Indianapolis.  The following was written by actor Dr. Larry Adams, who plays the role of Jacob Marley.  It will be presented in three parts.)

PART I

“A Ghost Story of Christmas.”

That’s what Charles Dickens called it. An odd epithet for an odd story that, one hundred and seventy years later, we take for granted as a holiday classic- and which we all know better as A Christmas Carol.

As I look around the circle of actors tonight, the night of our first read-through rehearsal, I wonder how we can possibly breathe any new life into this old chestnut. The script is good, somehow managing to both condense and flesh out the story and its many characters. The actors, many of whom I’ve shared a staged with in the past, seem first rate. But still: it’s A Christmas Carol. Done and overdone in an endless parade of motion pictures, plays and parodies. What can the fledgling Zionsville Radio Players do, in only their second production, to make it fresh, entertaining- meaningful even- to a listening audience that has seen and heard it all before?

A Christmas Carol truly is an odd story, and oddly titled, being neither a carol nor, beyond the setting, a tale having much of anything to do with Christmas. There is no mention of a stable, shepherds watching their flocks by night, or a virgin birth- not even a Charlie Brown Christmas style reading of the Gospel. Despite his heavily supernatural overlay of ghosts and seemingly miraculous travels through space and time, Dickens presents a thoroughly secularized picture of Christmas in which to work his magic on Scrooge’s heart. Sweetest Day would have worked as well, I think; Halloween certainly better. So what is it that draws us to think of this story as a Christmas classic? Why the almost universal appeal at this time of the year?  

NO REST FOR THE WICKED

Well.

We did it.

In six months' time, Zionsville Radio Players went from concept to broadcast.

Whew.

We impress even me!

Our Halloween broadcast, aired on the night before Halloween, was a hit!

Many thanks to all hands who had a part in its inception, execution and product.

But, as we all know, there is no rest for the wicked.  And wicked we must be, since we are already well into getting our Christmas broadcast rehearsed and in the studio.

Susan McClelland has adapted Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol for radio.  We are working with a one-hour script that presents Mr. Scrooge and his transformation from crusty Christmas curmudgeon to

warm Wise Man, for he truly becomes a giving and loving presence in the lives of those who love him.

Rehearsals continue apace. First recording date is Saturday Nov. 16 in the studios of WICR.

Zionsville Radio Players are working to give you a Merry Christmas!