The Votes Are In!
2024 Readers' Choice is back, bigger and better than ever!
View Winners → ‘A Christmas Carol’ at A Noise Within
Featured Dec 02, 2015
by
share with
Alan Blumenfeld (Ghost of Christmas Present/Ensemble) and Geoff Elliott (Ebenezer Scrooge). – Photo By Craig Schwartz © 2014
By May S. Ruiz
It has become an all too common occurrence – hordes of buyers fighting over the last $99 Blu-ray player at a big box store the day after Thanksgiving, heralding the Christmas shopping season. But there was a time, before the Christmas spirit took on the guise of Black Friday doorbuster specials, when this season meant goodwill towards humankind.
A Noise Within (ANW), a repertory theatre company in Pasadena, is bringing back the sentiments that this time of year should evoke. Beginning this Saturday, Dec. 5 through Dec. 23, 2015, San Gabriel Valley residents can come to enjoy its production of Charles Dickens’ timeless classic A Christmas Carol.
Julia Rodriguez-Elliott, ANW’s co-artistic director along with her husband, Geoff Elliott, says this is the perfect antidote to the consumerism that has defined the Christmas season. She said, “A lot of people just want to break away from all the shopping during the holidays.”
This is the fourth year that ANW is mounting A Christmas Carol on their stage and Mr. Elliott and Ms. Rodriguez-Elliott are sharing directorial credits. This collaboration is hugely beneficial not just for the performers but for the audience as well. As Geoff succinctly puts it, “Co-directing makes sense; two heads are better than one.”
Being the more tech-minded director of the two, Ms. Rodriguez-Elliott concentrates on all the technical elements. She expanded on this: “A director has to mind the lighting, costume, props and at the same time pay equal attention to the actors. When we co-direct, Geoff can give notes to the performers while I give feedback to the designers.”
“It isn’t that I don’t like the technical aspect of directing,” explained Mr. Elliott, “I have to say I enjoy it as well – though maybe not as much as Julia does – but I want to focus in greater detail on the performers and the honesty of the moment.”
Geoff Elliot (center) as Ebenezer Scrooge. – Photo by Craig Schwartz © 2014
Ms. Rodriguez-Elliott, for her part, said, “The more I do it, the more I appreciate the designers and what they bring – they can illuminate, elevate what you’re doing with the actors. A perfectly lit moment, or a visual scene done correctly, has an impact on the audience beyond what happens in the rehearsal room under fluorescent lights.”
This iteration of A Christmas Carol is Mr. Elliott’s 2000 adaptation from the original ANW production. He related, “The original production was incredibly successful artistically but it was dark and bloody. When we decided to revisit it in 2000, we wanted to bring the light, the love between the Cratchits and other characters in the play. We needed a different take on it.”
A Noise Within’s move to its present home in Pasadena was the excellent time and opportunity to mount this ambitious endeavor. Ms. Rodriguez-Elliott explained, “The Masonic Temple didn’t have enough seats, so it didn’t make much sense, production-wise. With a finite number of days we can play it based on our schedule and the holiday, we wouldn’t have enough performances. In this venue, we can give this adaptation a full run.”
It is a fortunate outcome for many of us who remember reading Charles Dickens’ memorable work of fiction growing up. That it is performed – with actual people on stage – gives this novella much greater extent and meaning.
“A Christmas Carol is the ultimate story of redemption and transformation ever written,” Mr. Elliott proclaimed. “While we present the play every year, it is never stale because we always find something different to do. Even the performers who think they might want to take a break from it after having done it several times come back to it because they realize it is a living, breathing fabric.”
Added Ms. Rodriguez-Elliott, “I am seeing it fresh because I am in a different place from where I was a year ago. And as a director there’s always that feeling of ‘Gosh I’m not happy with this.’ We have that opportunity to improve on it every year or make it better. And this is exactly what A Christmas Carol is all about – a tale of how even the most miserly curmudgeon on earth can change for the better”.
“As scary as some children might think of Marley, and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future, they are there out of love,” Mr. Elliott expounded. “They are all benevolent ghosts who want to help Scrooge. This is the attraction of A Christmas Carol; it is why people come to see it. We all want a chance at redemption.”
At the end of A Christmas Carol, Scrooge is overwhelmed with joy at the chance to redeem himself and is grateful for having returned to Christmas Day. He rushes out into the streets to share his newfound spirit. And from that day on, he celebrates the season by giving to the poor and treating others with generosity, kindness, and warmth.
How impressively mesmerizing it must be to behold this final scene as it unfolds before us! Maybe for longer than a few lingering moments, we wouldn’t equate Christmas with doorbuster specials. When Geoff Elliott pronounces that “live theatre is here to stay – it is life changing,” this must be what he means.
Front: The Cratchit Family (clockwise from the left): Jack Elliott, Brendan Haley, Jill Hill, Stephen Rockwell, Marty Coha, Sydney Berk, and Chize Obgobu Back: Brenda Marie Phillips (Ensemble). – Photo by Craig Schwartz © 2014
