New sets, new music, a new cast and a familiar tale: that’s the story of A Christmas Carol at McCarter Theatre this year.
The Princeton theater’s annual holiday production of the Charles Dickens classic is a much-loved regional attraction. But director Adam Immerwahr has reimagined the cherished show. While the production will still be based on David Thompson’s classic adaptation, there will be new music by Michael Friedman, sets by Daniel Ostling and costumes by Linda Cho.
“It’s a new approach, a new way in, a fun example of how you can take the same story and tell it many, many, many different ways,” Immerwahr told mccarter.org.
Philadelphia-based actor Greg Wood is set to star as Ebenezer Scrooge, and the cast will also feature McCarter veterans Jessica Bedford (The Mousetrap), Warner Miller (Antony and Cleopatra), Lance Roberts (Sweet and Hot) and JD Taylor (The Understudy). Moving on are crowd favorites like Graeme Malcolm, who had become a regular in the part of Scrooge, and James Ludwig, who played Scrooge’s nephew, Fred.
The show’s tradition of featuring a Youth Ensemble consisting of young actors from around the area will be retained. Local children, including Graham Beers, Russell Clark, Ivy Cordle, Sofia DaCruz, Xander Kurian and Gabriella Shapcott of Princeton; Zachary McDevitt of Lawrence; Ethan Chang of West Windsor are part of the young cast.
But perhaps the most interesting new wrinkle for this year’s production is that the professional actors and youth ensemble will be joined — on stage and off — by the Community Ensemble, which will feature area adults as greeters, ushers, and most importantly, in singing and dancing roles in the show itself. Roles that were formerly filled by professionals will now belong to dedicated amateurs with a wide range performing experience.
“I’m interested in working with people to tell stories, whether they are professional actors or not,” Immerwahr told mccarter.org. “I have enormous faith in the artistic ability of everyone to get onstage and embody a role, fill a stage with joy and light, and tell a story.”
The Community Ensemble includes people with a wide variety of acting experience. Three Ewing residents are set to be a part of the ensemble: Amy Blair, Tara Parkman and Kirk Ponton. Blair, 48, grew up in Ewing. She teaches English at Reynolds Middle School in Hamilton, and in years past, she has taken her students to see McCarter’s production. She and her husband, Chris, have two children, Luke and Hope. Blair spoke to the us by phone last month.
Joe Emanski: What made you decide to audition for the community ensemble?
Amy Blair: Theater is a passion of mine. It always has been. I went to school for theater at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. I wound up going into teaching, but I always enjoyed it and I thought, what better way to blend my teaching and love of theater but to audition for a show like this?
JE: Have you been on stage before?
AB: After college, I did Nunsense in Philadelphia, and I played Aunt Polly in a national tour of Tom Sawyer.
JE: What’s it like to be back rehearsing after all these years?
AB: You’re constantly taking it all in. There’s so much for Community Ensemble members to learn, seeing how it all comes together.
JE: Your daughter has been a member of the Youth Ensemble in the past. Did she give you any advice?
AB: She said to me, “Mom, I’m so happy that you got this show because now you’ll know the great feeling that it feels like to be on stage.” I saw how being in the Youth Ensemble is like being a member of the McCarter family. They bond like siblings. I still have friendships with parents from a few years ago. I’m sure I will keep in touch with some of the people in the community ensemble after this is over.
Jeff Knoll, of Pennington, is another member of the Community Ensemble who admits he has “never done anything like this before.” His first show will be his first time ever appearing on stage. Knoll, 54, grew up in East Windsor and attended Hightstown High School. He works for Princeton University as a computer programmer. Knoll has two children: son Chris, 23, and daughter Sarah, 17.
Joe Emanski: What are your favorite memories of seeing A Christmas Carol at McCarter Theatre as a member of the audience?
Jeff Knoll: The first time I went was when my ex-wife was pregnant with my son, Christopher. I’ve always liked A Christmas Carol. I have favorite movie versions of it. Like the 1951 movie with Alastair Sim. He’s great as Scrooge.
JE: What made you decide to audition for the community ensemble?
JK: I have no clue. I’ve never been involved in theater. But I went to [the audition] and I was surprised when two weeks later, they said to come back for the second one. I thought, “This is definitely the end for me.” I was very shocked when they called me back to actually be in it.
JE: What is it like rehearsing for the show right now?
JK: We have four days a week right now. We do Tuesday and Thursday evenings and Saturday and Sunday all day. We just started this past weekend and basically I don’t have a weekend until next year. When you went to the first audition, they said this was the schedule, make sure you’re available to do this.
JE: What’s the dynamic like between the ensemble and the professional cast?
JK: Good. There’s nothing like “we’re better than you” or anything with the principal characters. Everybody’s really friendly and helpful.
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Scott Karlin, a veteran of community theater, jumped at the chance to join the Community Ensemble this year. The Plainsboro resident recently wrapped up a production of Our Town at Actors’ NET in Morrisville, Pennsylvania. Over the years he has also performed on stage at Mercer County Community College’s Kelsey Theatre and the Washington Crossing Open Air Theatre in Hopewell.
Karlin, 52, is originally from Southern California. A graduate of Loyola Marymount University and Caltech, he first came to the area to get his doctorate in computer science at Princeton University. After earning his degree, he took a job with the department, where he still works as IT manager for the research and academic computers within the department. He’s lived in Plainsboro for 20 years.
Karlin first took the stage in high school. He did a few shows in summers during his college years, and enjoyed it enough to take a singing class at a local community college, where he met his wife Rosie, who was also taking the class. They acted together in Southern California before moving to New Jersey, where they continued to perform in local shows. Rosie teaches preschool music and Spanish at Cherry Hill Nursery School in Princeton, and also teaches tap dancing to adults and seniors at the Dance Corner in West Windsor.
The Karlins’ daughter Molly, 23, was also bitten by the acting bug. The High School South graduate recently earned a degree in theater from Muhlenberg College, where she also minored in dance. “When my daughter was old enough, the three of us would be in shows together,” Karlin said in a recent phone interview. “It can be difficult to find an activity that you and your teenager can do together, but this has been something we could do.”
Interestingly, Karlin has never seen a performance of A Christmas Carol at McCarter. Actor friends had been in the show in prior years, and he’d always heard good things about it, but the first show he’ll be in is the first one he’ll have ever experienced in person.
He describes the Community Ensemble as a bridge between what happens on stage and the audience. Ensemble members will be on stage in singing and dancing roles, but they will also be greeting people and doing various pre-show activities that patrons can take part in.
“When you go see a show, there’s sort of this fourth wall,” Karlin said. “You’re the audience and you passively watch, and the actors do all the work. What the director’s trying to do, and what we’re a part of, is to make a smoother transition between them, where audience members can say, ‘I can see myself up there.’”
The ensemble began rehearsing four days a week in November. After Thanksgiving, they were expected at the theater every day to prepare. One big difference between community theater and a professional regional theater is the sheer number of shows. The longest run he can remember doing is nine or ten performances over three weekends. This one, including previews and student shows, will comprise 32 performances.
That isn’t the only difference, and Karlin said he has enjoyed observing how different a big theater is from the small productions he is used to. “I’ve never worked on a show where we’ve had the composer of music and the director and a choreographer and the person who wrote the script all in the room,” he said.
In community theater, Karlin said, typically a production licenses a script and music and the actors are required to perform the show as written. So he’s enjoyed being part of a production where the production staff are empowered to make changes that will make the show better.
“I’ve never been in a situation in community theater where we had that much support,” he said. “[During rehearsals] we would be working some bit of choreography or something, and if it wasn’t quite working, the composer would just be like, ‘I’ll just write two more measures of music,’ or the scriptwriter would say, ‘Oh, that’s OK, we’ll add a line here cut a line there.’ It’s very interesting to see how the show evolves right before your eyes.”
Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol will be on the Matthews Stage at McCarter Theatre Center Dec. 9–31. For showtimes and to buy tickets, go to mccarter.org. Philadelphia-based actor Greg Wood is set to star as Ebenezer Scrooge, and the cast will also feature McCarter veterans Jessica Bedford (The Mousetrap), Warner Miller (Antony and Cleopatra), Lance Roberts (Sweet and Hot) and JD Taylor (The Understudy).
Rupal Patel, Thom V. Kummerle, Shan Raju, and Sakshi S. Nathan, all from West Windsor, will also be in the Community Ensemble. Other members of the ensemble include Amy Blair, Tara Parkman, and Kirk Ponton of Ewing, Marie Fiorello and Gloria Schnure of Somerset, Ithamar Francois and Arielle Rabano of Hillsborough, Lew Gantwerk, Elias Malavet and Connor Crafton Marrone of Princeton, Faith E. Iloka and Bryanna Martinez-Jimenez of Trenton, Stan Karuzis of Lawrence, Jeffrey Knoll of Pennington, Camillo and Valencio Lazarczyk of Whitehouse, and Ashley Lynn Medina of Skillman.
Local children, including Graham Beers, Russell Clark, Ivy Cordle, Sofia DaCruz, Xander Kurian and Gabriella Shapcott of Princeton, Zachary McDevitt of Lawrence, and Ethan Chang of West Windsor are part of the Youth Ensemble.
Moving on from previous years’ productions are crowd favorites like Graeme Malcolm, who had become a regular in the part of Scrooge, and James Ludwig, who played Scrooge’s nephew, Fred.
Frank X, left, a first-time McCarter actor and Greg Wood, who plays Scrooge, during a rehearsal for this year’s production of “A Christmas Carol.” (Photo by Matt Pilsner.),
Scott Karlin, a veteran of community theater,
