The highlight of every McCarter production of “A Christmas Carol” are the 14 children who light up the stage in a variety of roles alongside the professional acting company playing roles including the Cratchit children, Ghost of Christmas Past, and Scrooge as a boy. More than 200 children auditioned for the 14 roles in McCarter Theater’s “A Christmas Carol” and two from West Windsor were cast. Cara Barkenbush plays the role of the beggar girl and Noah Hindsdale portrays Tiny Tim.
Cara, 8, is a third grade student at Hawk School. When she became interested in acting about two years ago, she began taking jazz and acting lessons. She also participated in several drama camps and Westminster’s Broadway Babies program. An active Girl Scout in Troop 70964 for the past three years, she has also participated in the Christmas Pageant at St. David the King the past two years.
“She enjoys entertaining family and friends with her own renditions of songs and scenes from shows and reading books with her cat, Jinx,” says her mother, Rose Barkenbush, the former creative director for Computer Associates in Long Island. “I left my position when we made the move to New Jersey so that I could focus on raising our children,” she says. She is now a substitute teacher in the WW-P school district and a leader of Cara’s Girl Scout troop.
The family has seen the 2007 and 2009 productions of “A Christmas Carol.” “We like to celebrate the season by doing something special as a family, and for us seeing ‘A Christmas Carol’ is a great way to do just that,” says Rose. The family also knows Andrew Chamberlain, who was in the 2009 production.
Cara’s father, Jeb Barkenbush, is a commodities trader for JP Morgan. Her older sister, Mia, is a fifth grade student at Millstone River. She takes jazz and modern dance classes, has attended various drama camps, and has studied concert harp for nearly four years.
Cara auditioned for last year’s production and was called back but did not win a part. When her mother read the audition notice in the News she proposed it to Cara. “She had such a wonderful and positive experience with the 2009 call back, that she was eager to audition again for 2010,” she says.
Although Cara has not done any community theater yet, her father and sister performed in “Fiddler on the Roof” with Playful Productions at Kelsey Theater last winter. “He became interested in performing arts on a recreational level as a way of supporting the interest for our two daughters,” says Rose.
This is the first show for Noah Hindsdale, 6, a first grade student at Hawk School who is also involved with soccer and studies at Hebrew school. He loves to sing and started taking piano lessons when he was five. He has never done acting before and has never taken acting lessons. “He fell in love with the music from the show ‘Wicked’ and so I took him to see it over the summer,” says his mother, Margie Hindsdale, who was in a few shows during her college days. “It was at that time that he decided he wanted to be in a show.” He has been taking hip hop dance class at the Dance Corner since September.
“I saw the ad in the WW-P News about the audition for ‘A Christmas Carol’ at McCarter and thought it might be something Noah would enjoy,” Margie says. “I asked him if he wanted to go and sing a song and he said yes.”
Margie Hindsdale is a homecare physical therapist with Princeton Health Care Systems. Noah’s father, John Hindsdale, is a software engineer working on Wall Street. His younger brother, Jonas, age three, attends Beth Chaim pre-school.
The family moved from Tarrytown, New York, five years ago and has not seen “A Christmas Carol” at McCarter. “We are so excited to see Noah and the 13 other kids, as well as the professional cast of actors in the performance,” says Margie. “We have heard it is an incredible show and we can’t wait!”
— Lynn Miller
“A Christmas Carol,” McCarter Theater, 91 University Place, Princeton, 609-258-2787. Wednesdays through Sundays through December 26. Visit www.mccarter.org for a complete performance schedule. Tickets are $40 and up.
