A Christmas Carol

Producer: Rubicon Theatre Company

Category: Holiday · World Premiere · Professional

Photo Gallery (1 images)

Rubicon Theatre celebrates the holidays with the company’s first presentation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, a World Premiere adaptation written by Producing Artistic Director Karyl Lynn Burns and directed by Brian McDonald. Rubicon’s A Christmas Carol features a 24-member cast (the largest ensemble since the company’s production of Fiddler on the Roof and the largest ever for a play).

This timeless tale of redemption and hope follows the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge (Peter Van Norden), who is visited by the ghost of his former partner Jacob Marley (Joe Spano) and three spirits, who show him the error of his ways.

Director Brian McDonald describes Rubicon’s version of the holiday tale as, “a dynamic actor-driven, ensemble-devised production, full of surprises. The story is told in an imaginative, narrative style, with actors directly addressing the audience at various moments,” says McDonald. “The artists portray multiple characters, dogs, food – even dressing gowns and doors,” he continues.

“It’s a little in the style of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s landmark production of The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, only shorter,” says McDonald. “We hope our audiences will find the approach playful, engaging and impactful.”

According to McDonald, Burns’ adaptation also provides an intimate glimpse into Scrooge’s past. “The script provides a revealing portrait of the lost and lonely child who became the miserly man,” says McDonald. Elijah Graham, a thirteen-year-old resident of Santa Paula plays the Boy Scrooge and sings “Veni, Veni, Emanuel” in both the Prologue and the Epilogue.

“As I have watched rehearsals,” says Burns, “I have been deeply touched by the healing aspects of the story. In the performances of Eli and Peter we ache for the hurt, abandoned child who has become cold-hearted and closed-minded man in order to steel himself against his own vulnerability.” “Eli’s opening song,” says Burns, “is a beckoning from the Boy Scrooge and the Boy Dickens – a call to all of the spirits – the observers, the ancestors, the angels, the uncommitted, the outcasts – within and without – to bring healing to a broken world and rejoice, knowing God is come.”

“Whatever one’s belief system,” continues Burns, “we hope attendees will find A Christmas Carol both entertaining and moving. Whatever hurts we have experienced, whatever wrong turns we have made,” says Burns, “it is never too late to change. We can honor the past, present and future. Like Ebenezer Scrooge, we can become a child again and be reborn.”

More on Van Norden and Spano as Scrooge and Marley
No stranger to the role of Scrooge, Peter Van Norden portrayed the crotchety character for two seasons at San Diego Rep. Stepping into the role again, he finds this version refreshing in its approach as compared to traditional productions. “Scrooge has been dear to my heart since I was a boy,” says Van Norden. “When you do the play right, Scrooge finds the meaning and joy in life again. It’s a great role to play. What I love Karyl Lynn’s astonishing adaptation is the constant theatricality. It gives the story vibrancy and clarity.”

Van Norden is a New York native whose Broadway credits include Hamlet with Kevin Kline and Sam Waterston, Jungle of Cities with Al Pacino, Henry V with Meryl Streep, and Saint Joan with Lynn Redgrave. He has worked at many of the nation’s most prestigious rep companies, including The Globe Theatre, San Diego Rep, San Jose Rep (Bay Area Theatre Critics Award for Andrew Undershaft in Major Barbara), Center Stage, Seattle Rep, Intiman Theatre, and Berkeley Rep. His dozens of film and TV roles include leads opposite Jodie Foster in “The Accused,” as Steve Guttenberg’s partner in “Police Academy 2,” and as Ralph Brentner in the Stephen King mini-series “The Stand.”

Joe Spano is playing the role of Jacob Marley for the first time (whom he enjoys calling “the voice of tough love”). For him, working on this adaption has been an exciting opportunity to, “discover the beautiful language of the original novella and remember why A Christmas Carol is an enduring holiday tradition.”

Spano has appeared in thirty feature films, including “Hart’s War,” “Primal Fear,” “Apollo 13,” “American Graffiti,” “Hollywoodland,” “Fracture” and “Frost/Nixon.” Series TV credits include Special FBI Agent T. C. Fornell on “NCIS” (now in its 13th year), Lt. Henry Goldblume on “Hill Street Blues,” “Mercy Point,” “Amazing Grace,” “Murder One,” “NYPD Blue,” and “Midnight Blue,” for which we won an Emmy Award. He made his Broadway debut in Arthur Miler’s The Price with Hector Elizondo. West Coast stage credits include three shows at South Coast Rep; Bill Cain’s Equivocation at the Geffen Playhouse; The Guys at Berkeley Rep, of which he is a founding member; and multiple shows at Rubicon, including Sylvia, R. Buckminster Fuller…, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and The Sunset Limited.

Presented as a play with music, Rubicon’s production also incorporates traditional carols sung a cappella by cast members including Teri Bibb (Christine in Phantom of the Opera on Broadway for seven years); Jennifer Leigh Warren (Big River, Little Shop of Horrors and Marie Christine in New York); Parker Harris (a Ventura resident making his mainstage debut who has grown up in Rubicon youth productions of Urinetown and West Side Story); and Trevor Wheetman (a Nashville-based artist whose credits include Lonesome Traveler at Rubicon and Off Broadway, and It Ain't Nothin’ but the Blues at Seattle Rep). Wheetman and Bibb also plays fiddle and accordion, respectively, in the Fezziwig party scene in A Christmas Carol.

Low-priced previews for A Christmas Carol begin this Wednesday, December 2 at 7 p.m. Opening night is Saturday, December 5 at 7 p.m., and is followed by an after-party hosted by Watermark on Main with the artists and local dignitaries. A Christmas Carol continues through December 20, with performances Wednesdays at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., Thursdays at 8 p.m., Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. (except opening night), and Sundays at 2 p.m. Rubicon Theatre is located 1006 E. Main in Ventura’s Downtown Cultural District, For tickets and information, call (805) 667-2900 or go to www.rubicontheatre.org.

Cast

	Joe Spano	.... Jacob Marley
	Peter Van Norden	.... Scrooge

*=featured role

Staff

Brian McDonald

....

Director

Record created by: MHunter

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