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Home , Christmas carol, Fellow Passengers, Fred Barnard

Wurtele Thrust Stage / Nov 13 – Dec 29, 2018

A Carol by adapted by CRISPIN WHITTELL directed by LAUREN KEATING

PLAY GUIDE Inside

THE PLAY Synopsis • 4 Characters • 5

THE STORY Comments on • 6

PLAY FEATURES A Novel Petition for London’s Poor • 7 From Director Lauren Keating • 9

THE PLAYWRIGHT Dickens and the Christmas Tradition • 11

BUILDING THE PRODUCTION From the Creative Team • 13

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Discussion Questions and Classroom Activities • 16 For Further Reading and Understanding • 19

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Guthrie Theater Play Guide Copyright 2018

DRAMATURG Jo Holcomb GRAPHIC DESIGNER Akemi Graves

Guthrie Theater, 818 South 2nd Street, Minneapolis, MN 55415 All rights reserved. With the exception of classroom use by teachers and individual personal use, no part of this Play Guide ADMINISTRATION 612.225.6000 may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic BOX OFFICE 612.377.2224 or 1.877.44.STAGE TOLL-FREE or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system, without permission in guthrietheater.org • Joseph Haj, artistic director writing from the publishers. Some materials published herein are written especially for our Guide. Others are reprinted by permission of their publishers.

The Guthrie creates transformative theater experiences that ignite the imagination, The Guthrie Theater receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts. This activity is made possible in part stir the heart, open the mind and build community through the illumination of our by the Minnesota State Arts Board, through an appropriation common humanity. by the Minnesota State Legislature. The Minnesota State Arts Board received additional funds to support this activity from the National Endowment for the Arts.

2 \ GUTHRIE THEATER PHOTO: NATHANIEL FULLER IN A CHRISTMAS CAROL (DAN NORMAN)

“Christmas is ... the only time of year when people open up their closed-off hearts and think of those below them as if they’re fellow passengers to the grave and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.”

– Fred to in A Christmas Carol About This Guide

This play guide is designed to fuel on a play before you see it onstage. your curiosity and deepen your Or perhaps you’re a fellow theater DIG DEEPER understanding of a show’s history, company doing research for an If you are a theater meaning and cultural relevance upcoming production. We’re glad company and would like so you can make the most of your you found your way here, and more information about theatergoing experience. You might we encourage you to dig in this production, contact be reading this because you fell in and mine the depths of this Dramaturg Jo Holcomb at love with a show you saw at the extraordinary story. [email protected]. Guthrie. Maybe you want to read up

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Synopsis

The scene shifts to his nephew Fred’s house, and we see simultaneously how the other (richer) half live and that Fred, too, knows how to keep Christmas with friends and family. Generously, Fred proposes a toast to his uncle as well, hoping that Scrooge will find some happiness in life. Games abound, food is plentiful and a good time is had by all. Scrooge begins to wonder if he is

PHOTO: THE CAST OF A CHRISTMAS CAROL (JD HUDSON) truly missing something special. Before the spirit leaves him, he Scrooge, a miserly and miserable Christmas Past appears. Together reveals two small, sick children old man, torments everyone they journey back to Scrooge’s — Ignorance and Want — and he sees on most days, but is sad school days, where he delights Scrooge, moved, inquires if they especially cranky on Christmas. He at seeing his sister Fanny, and to a have no place to stay. The spirit shouts at carolers, refuses to give grand Christmas party thrown by throws Scrooge’s words back in money to charity and threatens his early employer, Old Fezziwig. his face: “Are there no prisons? Are a small beggar boy. His ebullient Scrooge begins to realize that there no workhouses?” Christmas nephew Fred comes to visit him Fezziwig’s joy was infectious, it Present, too, fades away. at his frigid office to invite him spread to all his employees and to . Scrooge, it was worth more than whatever The next visit, from the Ghost of predictably, declines. Fred leaves, the party cost him. We also see Christmas Future, shows Scrooge and Scrooge grudgingly agrees Scrooge woo, and then lose, the his fate if he does not mend his to give his clerk, , beautiful Belle. The ghost tells ways. Poor Tiny Tim has died, as Christmas off with pay, though Scrooge, “I show you only what is has Scrooge. Many grief-stricken Scrooge feels ill-used by this. good, and fine, and beautiful. So people attend Tiny Tim’s funeral; Cratchit leaves. When approached that should you glimpse it again Scrooge has not a single mourner. by his faithful housekeeper, Mrs. — as you glimpsed it once — you Mrs. Dilber begins to sell off his Dilber, for the same benefit, he will grasp it as if your life depends possessions, and Scrooge realizes refuses and demands that she on it.” As quickly as she arrived, that he must mend his ways or be at work the next day. Scrooge the ghost is gone, leaving Scrooge he will simply die forgotten and closes shop and changes into his alone again in his bed. unloved. The transformation of dressing gown. Scrooge is profound: he awakens Scrooge is soon visited by the to Christmas bells, gives money Settling in for the night, Scrooge Ghost of Christmas Present. The to charity, sends a huge turkey is disturbed — and alarmed — by ghost takes Scrooge to see how to the Cratchits, sings along with the ghost of his old partner, Jacob the Cratchits celebrate Christmas. the carolers and gives Bob a big Marley. Marley warns him to mend Though they are poor and have little raise. He even reconciles with his ways or he, too, will be forced to eat, they are happy with what his nephew. Scrooge’s story of to roam the earth in the chains he they have and to be in each other’s redemption, beloved by readers forged for himself with his cruel company. Scrooge also learns that and audiences for 175 years, ways. Marley tells Scrooge that Tiny Tim, Bob’s wise young son, is remains as powerful and uplifting he will be visited by three spirits very ill and will likely die without as it ever was. From that point and should listen to what they proper care. Despite how poorly forward, we’re told, no one kept have to say. As soon as Marley Scrooge treats him, Cratchit offers Christmas as faithfully or fruitfully leaves, the clocks in Scrooge’s him a toast nonetheless, grateful for as . house go berserk and the Ghost of what he has.

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Characters

PHOTO: THE CAST OF A CHRISTMAS CAROL (DAN NORMAN)

SETTING London, December 24–25, 1843

CHARACTERS Ebenezer Scrooge, a miserly Ignorance and Want Belle, Scrooge’s former fiancée businessman Youngest Scrooge, Ebenezer Belle’s Husband Bob Cratchit, his clerk Scrooge as a schoolboy Mr. Wimple, Scrooge’s tenant Mrs. Cratchit, his wife Fanny, Scrooge’s older sister Mrs. Dilber, Scrooge’s Martha, Peter, Belinda and Tiny Mr. Fezziwig, Scrooge’s former housekeeper Tim, their children employer Old Joe, a junk salesman Fred, Scrooge’s nephew Mrs. Fezziwig, his wife Scrooge’s Priest Kitty, Fred’s wife Daisy, Dora and Deirdre Bunty and Bumble, taking a Mrs. Polkinghorne, Kitty’s mother Fezziwig, their daughters collection for the poor Jane and Mabel, Daniel, David and Donald, Various carolers, revelers, Kitty’s sisters suitors to the Fezziwig daughters children, Fezziwig guests and , the ghost of Young Scrooge, Ebenezer citizens of London Scrooge’s old Scrooge as a young man business partner Young Marley, Jacob Marley as a young man Ghost of Christmas Present Dick Wilkins, a fellow clerk at Fezziwig’s Ghost of Christmas Future

GUTHRIE THEATER \ 5 THE STORY “This Ghostly Little Book” Comments on A Christmas Carol

it; that it must be kindness, benevolence, charity, mercy, and forbearance, or its plum pudding would turn to stone and its roast beef be indigestible.

John Forster

The Life of Charles Dickens, Volume 2, 1874

The narrow space within which it was necessary to confine these Christmas Stories, when they were originally published, rendered their construction a matter of some difficulty, and almost necessitated what is peculiar in their machinery. I never attempted great elaboration of detail in the working out of character within such limits, believing that it could not succeed. My purpose was, in a whimsical kind of masque which the good- PHOTO: FIRST EDITION OF A CHRISTMAS CAROL, 1843 humour of the season justified, to awaken some loving and forbearing [A Christmas Carol] is a national I have endeavored in thoughts, never out of season in a benefit, and to every man and this Ghostly little book, Christian land. woman who reads it a personal to raise the Ghost of an kindness. Charles Dickens Idea, which shall not Preface to a collection of his Christmas William Makepeace Thackery put my readers out of Stories published in 1852 Fraser’s Magazine, February 1844 humour with themselves, with each other, with There was indeed nobody that had the season, or with me. not some interest in the message of . It told May it haunt their houses the selfish man to rid himself of pleasantly, and no one selfishness; the just man to make wish to lay it! himself generous; and the good- natured man to enlarge the sphere of his good nature. Its cheery voice Their faithful friend and servant, C.D. of faith and hope, ringing from one end of the island to the other, Charles Dickens carried pleasant warning alike to A Christmas Carol, December 1843 all, that if the duties of Christmas were wanting, no good could come of its outward observances; that it must shine upon the cold PHOTO: PRINT BY JOHN MASSEY WRIGHT, hearth and warm it, and into BRITISH CARTOON PRINTS COLLECTION, 1814 the sorrowful heart and comfort

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A Novel Petition for London’s Poor

By Jo Holcomb Dramaturg

In the spring of 1843, Charles Dickens began work on a pamphlet titled “An Appeal to the People of England on behalf of the Poor Man’s Child.” Although beloved for his fiction, Dickens was first and foremost a political writer and reformer.

Not long after conceiving the idea for his political pamphlet, he changed course. In October 1843, he began writing A Christmas Carol and finished it in six weeks. Truth be told, Dickens was in a bit of a financial crisis himself. He was 31, already raising four (of what would be 10) children and the returns from his recent serial, , were disappointing. He “dashed off” Carol, and it was published on December 19, 1843 — just in time for late holiday sales and the Dickens’ family Christmas.

The fact that Dickens considered income when writing Carol should in no way diminish his own commitment to social reform Dickens at Warren’s Blacking Factory and his arguments on behalf of PHOTO: SKETCH BY FRED BARNARD FROM THE LIFE OF CHARLES DICKENS BY JOHN FORSTER

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the poor. The realities of his own life led him a rudimentary education for to recognize the serious need for reforms destitute children. that would provide more comprehensive care for the poor — particularly the children of poverty. As a child, Dickens experienced the “Many thousands lack the fear and uncertainty of his family’s diminishing most basic necessities. resources. His father was sent to the workhouse Hundreds of thousands for not paying his debts, and the rest of the lack common comforts.” family joined him there with the exception of – Bumble in A Christmas Carol 12-year-old Charles, who was left behind to earn his keep at Warren’s Blacking Factory putting labels on pots of blacking boot polish. Leading up to the novel’s writing, Dickens was particularly struck by As an adult, having pulled himself out of the two factors directly related to the mire of poverty, Dickens never forgot the treatment of poor children. Earlier experience of his youth and, in many ways, in 1843, he had read a government continued to be damaged by it. His writing report on child labor with statistics would reflect his memories, as evidenced that were supported by interviews in the hard road of or the with child laborers. He learned that autobiographical . By the girls who sewed for a new market year he wrote Carol, child labor in Great Britain of the middle class were housed had reached a critical tipping point. Children above the factory floor and worked who didn’t attend school worked in factories, 16-hour days, much like Martha mines, shipyards, construction or any number Cratchit. Another report revealed of menial jobs. Many children began working that 8-year-olds dragged coal at age 3 in some of the most dangerous carts through underground tunnels places, averaging 16 hours of hard labor a day. for 11 hours a day. Sadly, these Life expectancy was low, as they rarely lived stories represented a norm — not beyond their mid-20s. an exception.

Dickens also visited the Field “I have very seldom seen in all the Lane ragged school at the behest strange and dreadful things I have of a friend and philanthropist, seen in London and elsewhere, which further incited Dickens to anything so shocking as the dire take action with his pen. He was neglect of soul and body exhibited sickened by what he called the in these children. Side by side with “atmosphere of taint and dirt and Crime, Disease, and Misery in England, pestilence.” In Carol, Dickens made Ignorance is always brooding.” a plea for the poor by writing – Charles Dickens, “Ignorance and Crime,” about the living and education The Examiner, 1848 situations for poor children and adults alike and contrasting it In Dickens’ day, well over 100,000 children in to the grasping Scrooge — an London had never attended school of any kind. attempt to reveal not only the Those who received some sort of education need for Scrooge’s reclamation often attended schools run for profit by private but the need for a radical owners known as “ragged” schools, which change of heart across London’s were charity institutions created to provide entire population.

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The Transformative Power of Kindness From Director Lauren Keating PHOTO: LAUREN KEATING (JD HUDSON) (JD KEATING LAUREN PHOTO:

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It is my honor to be helming A Christmas Carol for a second year, as this production holds a uniquely special place in my heart. It served as a personal gateway to my professional theatrical career and has a meaningful history with my family.

For many of us in this Twin Cities-based company, Dickens’ classic story defines the holidays and can act as a much-needed balm for what may be a challenging time of year for many. From the first rehearsal to our final show, we all commit to the vision of a world where we can come together despite differences, believe that transformation is possible and share a great hope for what our collective future can be.

During this year’s rehearsals, I lost my beloved Aunt Carol. Her humor, spirit and ferocity inspired me to be the leader I am today, encouraging my every accomplishment with a wholehearted “You go, girl!” In my striving to make this year’s production even more magical and inclusive in its storytelling, I honor my Aunt Carol’s legacy and spirit, which always sought adventure and celebration. For me, A Christmas Carol is meant to embrace its audience wholeheartedly and live our Guthrie values to the fullest, ensuring that every single person feels welcomed, seen and invited to be authentically at home with us.

My Aunt Carol lived the lessons I believe Dickens most wants us to take away from his timeless tale — kindness and community. True kindness, as she demonstrated and Dickens espouses, is inconvenient. True kindness is when you extend a hand to someone you don’t really know or aren’t sure you really like. True kindness is when you take the time you aren’t sure you have or lend the dollar you’d rather keep. True kindness asks you to go out of your way for others and for the good of your community. Because we can only truly thrive when we all thrive. This type of transformative kindness is what Scrooge learns throughout the course of his long night’s journey and what I hope we will take with us as we venture back out into these increasingly divided times.

A Christmas Carol asks us to open our hearts and believe — to believe in the best in ourselves and others without wasting a moment. This is what is so magical, unique and imperative about this production and why we continue to return to it year after year. It isn’t about one night at the theater. It’s about creating an experience that bonds us throughout the year through shared memories and lessons learned.

My father loves to randomly ask, “You there! What day is today?!” Without missing a beat, someone will reply, “It’s Christmas day, sir!” And to that, he has only one response: “Good, then I haven’t missed it!” I hope our production will bring you and your family this kind of hope, joy, comfort and togetherness during the holidays and long after you leave us today.

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Dickens and the Christmas Tradition

“Dickens’ Christmas Carol has become such an essential part of Christmas that we can hardly imagine the holiday season without it.”

A Chronicle of Dickens’ Christmas Carol, Theodore and Caroline Hewitson, 1951

Theater, like the holiday season, This section is designed to explore always this way, and Dickens is is laden with traditions. Everyone holiday traditions and invite you to largely responsible for the festive, knows never to utter the word come and take part, once again, in family-oriented celebration we “Macbeth” in a theater; never to the living tradition of the Guthrie’s know today. wish an actor “good luck” but A Christmas Carol. rather to “break a leg”; and to There is no date given in the always keep the ghost light on. Christian Bible for the birth of Similarly, the holiday season brings It is often said that Dickens , but beginning in late with it many well-established “invented” modern Christmas. antiquity and continuing through traditions: trips to visit Santa at While this may be a slight the , the Feast of the an insanely crowded mall; the exaggeration, it is no exaggeration Nativity was usually celebrated on decoration of Christmas trees and to suggest that he radically shaped December 25. In the early Middle the hanging of ; huge — and continues to shape — the Ages, was a time of general dinners of turkey or ham; midnight way we celebrate Christmas today. merriment: harvest festivals, mass; or Chinese dinner and a feasting and revelry began on the movie. Our historical Christmas origin Feast of St. Martin de Tours on tale is generally well-known: November 11 and lasted for forty Since 1975, the Guthrie’s annual Christian belief mixed in with the days. When Charlemagne was production of A Christmas Carol Roman traditions of Saturnalia, crowned Holy Roman Emperor on has been a Minnesota tradition the Scandinavian traditions Christmas Day 800 A.D., the actual both for audiences and artists alike. of feasting and merriment and celebration on December 25 gained This tradition, like the theater itself, a mixture of northern European greater prominence so that by the is living and organic. cuisines — combined with a later Middle Ages, Christmas was heady mixture of North American the dominant feast of winter. commercialism. But it was not

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Christmas in the Middle Ages was a very public affair: communities celebrated together, and it was a time to solidify relationships through gift-giving. Employers and servants would exchange small gifts, as would landlords and tenants. On occasion, a manorial lord might give his manor the gift of a feast or some ale. All people of means would give alms to the poor. In England, where A Christmas Carol takes place, Christmas became a widely celebrated party with lots of food, wine, dancing and card-playing. AROUND THE WORLD

Following the Protestant , the Puritans in Did you know that … England sought to eliminate the celebration of Christmas. Since it had no Biblical basis, they viewed it as a Catholic • in Sweden, is often called invention and decried the lax morality of drinking and “Dipping Day” from a tradition in which dancing to celebrate the Nativity. Following the English families gather in the kitchen to soak the Civil War (1642–1651), the Puritans effectively banned juices of their Christmas meat with Christmas in 1647, which remained in effect throughout rye bread the Commonwealth and Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell. Christmas became legal again with the restoration of the • in Iran, Christians call Christmas the “Little monarchy in 1660, but celebration remained sparse, and Feast” and celebrate Easter as the largest even church services for Christmas were relatively poorly religious celebration of the year attended until the early 19th century. • the ceremonial main course of a Thus by the time Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol, medieval Christmas feast was a boar’s Christmas was a fairly subdued affair. It was neither the head — a tradition that persists today at community festival of the Middle Ages nor the important Queen’s College, Oxford religious celebration of late antiquity nor the ribald celebration of the 17th century. But the tide was turning. The • in Oaxaca, Mexico, December 23 is Royal Family began decorating and displaying Christmas celebrated as the “Night of the Radishes” trees — borrowed from their German heritage — and and as part of the festivities, large Christmas dinners became more elaborate and common. So radishes are carved into the characters of when Dickens proclaims that Christmas is a “good time: a the Nativity story kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time,” he is hearkening back to a well-established tradition of merriment, charity • on Christmas Eve, the President of Estonia and reverence, combining aspects of past. declares an annual Christmas Peace Dickens focuses his holiday not in the commons but at the family hearth. It becomes a personal celebration and a time • in Finland, children receive gifts from for reflection as well as celebration. Dickens both reflects , the Christmas goat his society’s views about the importance of hearth and home as well as projects his own social conscience into • in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Christmas. Dickens’ Christmas is not solely inward-looking, and others, visits good portraying an idealized scene of Victorian domesticity; it little children on December 6 each year to also requires that each person admit that humankind is leave goodies in their shoes his business — it is an opportunity to make the world a better place. For Scrooge, perhaps Dickens’ most famous • in China, Christians celebrate Christmas invention, Christmas is an opportunity for rebirth. No doubt by decorating trees and having a large Dickens hoped Scrooge would be an example to all: to keep family meal, but gifts are exchanged Christmas in one’s heart, always, and not to shut out the at the Chinese New Year celebration in wisdom the season offers us. January or February, accompanied by massive displays of fireworks Written by Matt McGeachy for the 2010 A Christmas Carol play guide Adapted from the 2006 A Christmas Carol program

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From the Creative Team

A Christmas Carol is one of the Each year, I think the play becomes great, great, great stories. It’s closer to Dickens’ original novella. relevant because there are still And something you might not people who think that money is know unless you are English is that the most important thing in life. we aren’t afraid to mess about with Moving back to England got me Shakespeare and even Dickens. In thinking about what Carol would my opinion, the British feel that look like in London in 2016. As long Dickens’ reputation is solid, so we as there are people who are less don’t feel squeamish about messing fortunate than the Scrooges of with his stories. this world, and as long as people chase after money believing it to Dickens is one of the greatest be the be-all and the end-all, these people in history, but I didn’t go issues will be staring us in the face. into adapting his story thinking that Crispin I was thinking, “How would one do I have to show reverence to him. a modern version of Carol?” Well, I wanted it to be un-boring, alive, Tiny Tim would be Syrian or Iraqi funny and modern in feel. It’s an Whittell and Scrooge wouldn’t be the old important show for the Guthrie to Playwright man with a bent back and a candle. try and get as right as possible for He’d be working on Wall Street or the families who come and see it. in the city.

When you think of A Christmas interactions with each other and Carol, you don’t automatically think using movement to deepen the “dance.” But I think there are so audience’s connection to the story. many opportunities to use dance It’s been a joy to play and explore and movement to serve our story. all kinds of dance with this I’ve enjoyed working with Lauren amazing cast. [Keating] and production team to find those moments that further the tale’s emotion or further the story of Belle and Young Scrooge.

Even as people are dancing and celebrating at the Fezziwig party, we can tell more of the Regina story by showing the characters’ Peluso Choreographer

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When you have artists dedicated music. I go through the entire script to creating original music for a making all my notes, and then production, a director gets to work I meet with the director. At this with that composer to specifically meeting we compare our notes, enhance what’s going on in the and hopefully we agree on where play, instead of having to finding there is music and how that music pre-existing songs to meet the should sound and feel. I always try same end. to get myself into the mindset of the director in order to support his For me creatively, everything or her vision. comes from the script. I’ll read through the new adaption of the script and mark places where I think there could be some music, Keith and I also mark where the mood or tone changes, places where I think I Thomas could support a moment with some Original Music and Orchestrations

It’s my first time in Minneapolis Each member of the cast entered and my first time working at the rehearsal at a different point on Guthrie, and I’m thrilled to be part their singing journey, and I’m proud of this production. of the beautiful work we’ve created together. What I love about A Christmas Carol is that — spoiler alert — there are a lot of Christmas carols! As I looked through the score and practiced the carols on my own before our first rehearsal, it made me happy. Singing makes me happy to begin with, but there’s just something magical about Deborah singing carols. Even though it was only October, it still gave me those Wicks warm, holiday feelings. La Puma Music Director

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When first approaching the design, Scrooge’s past is the Fezziwig the director and I looked at a party, where we see Scrooge as number of different worlds. There a young man before he changes is the London of present Scrooge, into his present miserly self. The the world of his past memories and costumes are very colorful and finally the world of his future. With bright to reflect the festive mood — the costumes, we also wanted to a stark contrast to the London represent the different class and of the older Scrooge we see later economic structures within the in the play, with its dark and London of Scrooge, especially the muted colors. difference between the upper class and the poor and destitute. There’s a reason why so many theater companies produce this Representing this distinction of story every year. It’s an uplifting Mathew J. class is a big theme in many of story, and it renews our faith Dickens’ stories and novels, and is in humanity. It’s also a great really apparent in the costuming of challenge, for no other reason than LeFebvre the Cratchit family, who are barely the sheer number of costumes and Costume Designer making ends meet. It is important the several decades represented to show their poverty in their in the play. The play has costumes clothes, so every article of clothing that are very stark and spare and is worn and has been mended also lush and vibrant. To be able to over and over and over again. In do all of those in one production contrast, the first big scene in is great.

A Christmas Carol feels like a rite We also talked about how the three of passage for any voice or dialect ghosts would sound as supernatural coach. Standard British cockney beings. My goal is always to work and Home Counties dialects are with each actor, nurture what’s a go-to, but this story takes place already in their wheelhouse and in a country where people don’t build on that. all sound the same. So we talked about how it could be exciting for a variety of characters to have a variety of British accents.

Foster Johns Voice and Dialect Coach

GUTHRIE THEATER \ 15 ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Discussion Questions and Classroom Activities

THE ROLE OF THE NARRATOR SOCIAL STUDIES/HISTORY MARLEY’S CURSE The role of the narrator is Classroom Activity: Much of According to the story, Marley is important to this adaptation Charles Dickens’ work is focused condemned to “walk the earth.” of A Christmas Carol. Which on 19th-century England and Why do you think this is his characters serve as narrators in this disparities between the classes. punishment? For what deeds or production? How do the narrators Select a topic below and research omissions is he being punished? propel the action of the play? Do it through the lens of 19th-century Do you believe the chains that he you feel like the narrator is talking England and how the topic relates wears are a metaphor? If so, what directly to you when speaking? to A Christmas Carol. Then report do they represent, and how is this How does this differ from how back to the class to paint a more metaphor central to the story’s characters usually interact onstage? complete picture of the setting for plot? What do you believe the play. is implied by the multitude of Classroom Activity: Select a book fettered spirits that accompany or story that you know well. If you • Labor laws Marley’s ghost? were retelling this story in the (especially child labor laws) role of narrator, what would you • Ghosts and ghost stories SCROOGE AND CRATCHIT include? What would you leave • English royalty How would you describe the out? Create the role of narrator for • Homelessness relationship between Scrooge and this story and, using a selection • Clothing Bob Cratchit at the beginning of of the book or story you chose, • Crime the story? Do you think that their narrate that section for your peers. • Religion employer/employee relationship is • Music and Songs representative of 19th-century labor THEMES AND IDEAS • Women in Society laws and customs? Why or why What do you believe is the central • Industrial Revolution not? Do you think their relationship theme, or main idea, of A Christmas • Slavery would be typical today? What has Carol? Where in the play is the • Printing/Publication changed, if anything, between theme most obvious? Which • Satire employers and employees as well characters help to express the • Science/Evolution as with labor laws? theme of the play? Do you believe • Colonialism this play has a moral? If so, what do • Other Writers of the Era HUMBUG! you believe it is? Can you think of (Brontë, Carroll, Conrad, Kipling, What does the word “humbug” examples of other books, movies, Thackeray, etc.) mean? What words are the stories, songs or other works of art modern-day equivalents of that have a similar theme? COMEDY VS. TRAGEDY “humbug”? Thinking back on Do you believe that A Christmas the play, which aspects of the If you are familiar with other Carol is a comedy or a tragedy? Christmas celebrations does works by Charles Dickens, can you What do each of these Scrooge call “humbug”? When is find similar themes in his other classifications mean to you? Which the first time in his life that Scrooge works? How does Dickens utilize aspects of the story are comic? uses the term? Why do you think character, plot, subject matter and Which are tragic? Which do you Scrooge has such a dour outlook narrative style to express these feel is most effective in A Christmas on these celebrations? What events ideas and themes? Are there other Carol? How does one support the led to his feelings about Christmas? artists who come to mind that are other in the telling of the story? Are there any aspects of the concerned with the same themes holiday season that you believe are as Dickens? “humbug”?

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NATURE VS. NURTURE art you have experienced that has as additional dialogue, lighting or For centuries, philosophers and made you think or feel differently setting instructions, movement, scientists have tackled the question about yourself or some aspect of music or any other element they of whether humans are born with the world? choose. Finally, have students read instincts that define their conduct their scenes aloud for one another throughout life or whether their WHAT MAKES A CLASSIC? and discuss the challenges and behavior is the result of education, Every year, productions of A choices they made on behalf of the influence of family, etc. How Christmas Carol are staged in their own adaptation. do you think this story of Scrooge theaters around the world. Why do supports one theory vs. the other? you think this story has remained Classroom Activity: Read a Do you think Scrooge is the so popular for so many years? passage from A Christmas Carol product of his environment or was Some scholars believe that a classic aloud. What aspects of the text he born that way? How do you is a story that both defines its own are effective as spoken language? explain his transformation based on era and transcends its time. Do you What aspects of the text seem your assessment? believe A Christmas Carol qualifies most appropriate for theatrical by this definition? Do you think this staging? How does the written text THE LESSONS OF THE GHOSTS makes it a classic? What qualities differ from how it was staged in the Each of the ghosts that visit do you think a book has to have production? Scrooge is meant to teach him to be a classic? What other books a lesson. What do you believe have you read that you believe are Classroom Activity: Many TV and Scrooge learns from the Ghost classics? Why should those books film adaptations have been made of Christmas Past? The Ghost of be considered? of A Christmas Carol, including “A Christmas Present? The Ghost of Diva’s Christmas Carol” starring Christmas Future? Each ghost in ADAPTATION Vanessa Williams for VH1, “Mickey’s this Guthrie production is very Adapting a novel for the stage Christmas Carol” by Disney and different from the other in terms of poses many challenges. After starring Bill Murray. If appearance, costuming, demeanor, seeing A Christmas Carol at the you were going to write a modern- gender, voice and movement. Why Guthrie and reading the book, find day version of A Christmas Carol, do you think each ghost has been examples of moments from the where would you set the story? created to appear the way they play that were adapted from prose Who would be your Scrooge? In do? How does the appearance — not dialogue. How did the play what industry would they work? complement the lesson to be use theatrical elements — lighting, Individuals or small teams should learned? symbolism, music, setting — to work to develop scenes from their capture Dickens’ novel? When do modern-day versions of the story If you were the central character you think this was most successful? to present for one another. of A Christmas Carol, what would Were there elements of the book the ghosts have revealed to you? that were “lost” in the production? THEATRICAL STAGING What lessons do you think they Were there moments in the Often, the most theatrical moments would have wanted you to learn? production that are not found in in a production highlight or point to How would the ghosts in your story the book? the play’s most significant themes. appear? In this production, what do you Classroom Activity: Ask students believe are the most theatrical Do you believe the lessons from to select a novel (other than A moments? Do you believe these the Ghosts have any meaning in Christmas Carol) of their choice moments indicate the play’s central your own life? Did you learn or — preferably a favorite book they themes? discover anything from the play have read and know well. Ask that might change your behavior students to select one section of How does the Guthrie production or attitudes? If so, what? Do you text from their book that includes create the atmosphere of Dickens’ believe it is possible to enrich both dialogue and descriptive 19th-century London? What do or understand your own life in a prose. Then, have them translate we learn about Scrooge and his deeper way through seeing plays, that section into a theatrical script world through the set, costumes, listening to music, reading books and encourage them to capture as props, lights and sound? How or experiencing other types of art? much of the prose as they are able do costumes help us understand Can you think of an example of through theatrical means — either characters’ social or economic

GUTHRIE THEATER \ 17 ADDITIONAL INFORMATION classes? What changes in fashion HOLIDAY TRADITIONS to prepare a report or create a are apparent in the costumes AROUND THE WORLD poster board that features pictures, for the scenes from Scrooge’s Classroom Activity: Christmas is images or samples of holiday fare. childhood (set around 1790) to the celebrated differently throughout Fezziwig party (set around 1800) the world. In certain cultures, to the party at Fred’s (set around Christmas is not a holiday, but 1840)? Select a scene or image other wonderful celebrations you remember from the play and take place and are honored. Ask describe each of the elements that each student to either a) select support the scene. a country to research specific Christmas traditions or b) select MUSIC a holiday other than Christmas to Describe the different ways music explore in detail. Ask each student is used throughout the play. How does the live music set a tone for a scene, advance the action of the story, define characters and contribute to the overall production?

HOLIDAYS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE Classroom Activity: Interview a parent, grandparent or older relative about their favorite memories of a past Christmas or holiday tradition of their own culture. What foods, smells, sounds, images and people do they recall from that holiday? Write a description of these memories that captures as many details as possible. Think about your own favorite holiday memory and do the same. Try to capture as many sensory details as possible. Imagine a future holiday when you are an older adult, and again write a detailed description of how you imagine your perfect holiday.

THROW A VICTORIAN HOLIDAY PARTY Classroom Activity: As a class, plan a Victorian holiday party complete with food, games, songs, dances and costumes of the era. Be as authentic as you can! Ask each student to come as a character from the play or the Victorian era. Meet and mingle in character as you enjoy the festivities.

PHOTO: ANNIE BIRKHOLZ AND NATHANIEL FULLER IN A CHRISTMAS CAROL (DAN NORMAN)

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For Further Reading and Understanding

BOOKS http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/victorians/index.shtml Dickens, Charles. Christmas Books. London: Oxford Interactive BBC site about children in Victorian University Press, 1954. England, designed for children from 9–11

Dickens, Charles. Christmas Stories. London: Oxford http://www.wwnorton.com/nael/victorian/welcome.htm University Press, 1956. Illuminating primary documents relating to British society in the Victorian Era Davis, Paul. The Lives and Times of Ebenezer Scrooge, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990. http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/snow/1859map/ Searchable map of London in 1859, from the UCLA Davis, Paul. Penguin Dickens Companion. New York: Department of Epidemiology Penguin Books, 1999. http://www.victorianweb.org Hearn, Michael Patrick. The Annotated Christmas Carol. Site designed and edited by Professor George P. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, Inc., 1976. Landrow for Brown Univeristy as a resource for Brown students studying Victorian literature Miall, Antony and Peter. The Victorian Christmas Book. New York: Pantheon Books, 1978. A SELECTION OF CHRISTMAS LITERATURE Schlicke, Paul. Oxford Readers’ Companion to Dickens. Editor’s Note: Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is New York: , 1999. one among many stories arising out of the Christmas holiday. What follows is a selected list which may Smiley, Jane. Charles Dickens. The Penguin Lives include many of your own favorites. Series. New York: Penguin Putnam, Inc., 2002. Novels, Short Stories and Poems The First Christmas, Luke, chapter 2 (Bible) FILMS AND VIDEOS The Legend of Bafana, traditional European story http://us.imdb.com/M/person Baba Yaga, folktale, probably Russian in origin exact?Dickens%2C+Charles (19th century) A list of films adapted from Dickens’ novels and The , E.T.A Hoffman (1816) short stories The Sketch Book, Washington Irving (1819–1820) The Night Before Christmas (A Visit from St. Nicholas), Clement C. Moore (1822) WEBSITES The Fir Tree, Hans Christian Anderson (1845) http://www.stormfax.com/1dickens.htm The Snow Queen, Hans Christian Anderson (1845) The text of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol The Little Match-Seller, Hans Christian Anderson (1846) Little Women, Louisa May Alcott, chapters 1–3 (1869) http://www.charlesdickenspage.com “How Santa Came to Simpson’s Bar,” Bret Harte (1870) David Purdue’s Charles Dickens Page includes Christmas Every Day and Other Stories Told for information on Dickens — on the page, onstage and in life Children, William Dean Howells (1892) “The Burglar’s Christmas,” Willa Cather (1896) http://www.lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~matsuoka/CD- “Yes, Virigina, There is a ,” Francis P. Chesterton-CD.html Church, The New York Sun (1897) G.K. Chesterton’s biography, Charles Dickens, 1906 The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, L. Frank Baum (1902) http://lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~matsuoka/CD-Forster.html “The Tailor of Gloucester,” Beatrix Potter (c. 1902) Entire text of John Forster’s biography, The Life of “The Gift of the Magi,” O. Henry (1906) Charles Dickens, 1872–1874 The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis (1950) A Child’s Christmas in Wales, Dylan Thomas (1954) A Christmas Memory, Truman Capote (1956)

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Novels, Short Stories and Poems The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, (continued) Barbara Robinson (1972) How the Stole Christmas, Dr. Christmas on Mars, Harry Seuss (1957) Kondoleon (1983) The Polar Express, Chris Van Reckless, Craig Lucas (1989) Allsburg (1985) The Eight Reindeer Monologues, The Santaland Diaries, Holidays on Ice, Eric Goode (1994) David Sedaris (1992) They Sing Christmas Up in Harlem: Santa’s Twin, Dean Koontz (1996) A Lenox Avenue Christmas Carol, Eric LeRoy Wilson (2000) Plays Mrs. Bob Cratchit’s Wild Christmas Babes in Toyland, Glen Binge, Christopher Durang (2005) MacDonough and Victor Herbert (1903) The Man Who Came to Dinner, George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart (1939) Black Nativity, Langston Hughes (1961)

PHOTO: AIMEE K. BRYANT AND JON ANDREW HEGGE IN A CHRISTMAS CAROL (DAN NORMAN)

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