A Christmas Carol by CHARLES DICKENS Adapted by CRISPIN WHITTELL Directed by LAUREN KEATING

Home , Fellow Passengers, Ghost of Christmas Past, Joulupukki, The Christmas Carol

Wurtele Thrust Stage / Nov 12 – Dec 29, 2019

A Christmas Carol by CHARLES DICKENS adapted by CRISPIN WHITTELL directed by LAUREN KEATING

PLAY GUIDE Inside

THE PLAY Synopsis • 4 Setting and Characters • 5

THE STORY Comments on A Christmas Carol • 6

PLAY FEATURES A Day in the Life of a Director • 7 The People of London’s Past • 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

DRAMATURG Anna J. Crace GRAPHIC DESIGNER Akemi Graves EDITOR Johanna Buch Guthrie Theater, 818 South 2nd Street, Minneapolis, MN 55415 ADMINISTRATION 612.225.6000 All rights reserved. With the exception of classroom use by teachers and individual personal use, no part of this Play Guide BOX OFFICE 612.377.2224 or 1.877.44.STAGE TOLL-FREE may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic guthrietheater.org • Joseph Haj, artistic director or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Some materials published herein are written especially for our Guide. Others are reprinted by The Guthrie creates transformative theater experiences that ignite the imagination, permission of their publishers. stir the heart, open the mind and build community through the illumination of our The Guthrie Theater receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts. This activity is made possible in part common humanity. by the Minnesota State Arts Board, through an appropriation 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: JUAN RIVERA LEBRON, A YOUNG ACTOR AND 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 Scrooge 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 Anna J. Crace love with a show you saw at the extraordinary story. at [email protected]. Guthrie. Maybe you want to read up

GUTHRIE THEATER \ 3 THE PLAY 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 truly

PHOTO: NATHANIEL FULLER IN A CHRISTMAS CAROL (DAN NORMAN) missing something special. Before the spirit leaves him, he reveals two Scrooge, a miserly and miserable Christmas Past appears. Together small, sick children — Ignorance old man, torments everyone they journey back to Scrooge’s and Want — and Scrooge, moved, he sees on most days, but is sad school days, where he delights inquires if they have no place to especially cranky on Christmas. He at seeing his sister Fanny, and to a stay. The spirit throws Scrooge’s shouts at carolers, refuses to give grand Christmas party thrown by words back in his face: “Are money to charity and threatens his early employer, Old Fezziwig. there no prisons? Are there no a small beggar boy. His ebullient Scrooge begins to realize that workhouses?” Christmas Present, nephew Fred comes to visit him Fezziwig’s joy was infectious; it too, fades away. at his frigid office to invite him spread to all his employees and to Christmas dinner. 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, Bob Cratchit, beautiful Belle. The ghost tells ways. Poor Tiny Tim has died, as Christmas off with pay, though Scrooge, “I show you only what has Scrooge. Many grief-stricken Scrooge feels ill-used by this. is good, and fine, and beautiful. people attend Tiny Tim’s funeral; Cratchit leaves. When approached So that should you glimpse it Scrooge has not a single mourner. by his faithful housekeeper, Mrs. again — as you glimpsed it once Mrs. Dilber begins to sell off his Dilber, for the same benefit, he — you will grasp it as if your life possessions, and Scrooge realizes refuses and demands that she depends on it.” As quickly as it that he must mend his ways or be at work the next day. Scrooge arrived, the ghost is gone, leaving he will simply die forgotten and closes shop and changes into his Scrooge 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 more than 175 ways. Marley tells Scrooge that Tiny Tim, Bob’s wise young son, is years, remains as powerful and he will be visited by three spirits very ill and will likely die without uplifting as it ever was. From that and should listen to what they proper care. Despite how poorly point forward, we’re told, no one have to say. As soon as Marley Scrooge treats him, Cratchit offers kept Christmas as faithfully or leaves, the clocks in Scrooge’s him a toast nonetheless, grateful for fruitfully as Ebenezer Scrooge. house go berserk and the Ghost of what he has.

4 \ GUTHRIE THEATER THE PLAY Setting and Characters

PHOTO: MEGHAN KREIDLER, JUAN RIVERA LEBRON AND YOUNG ACTORS IN A CHRISTMAS CAROL (DAN NORMAN)

SETTING London, December 24–25, 1843

CHARACTERS Ebenezer Scrooge, a miserly Ignorance and Want Belle, Scrooge’s former fiancee 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. Wimple, his wife Martha, Peter, Belinda and Tiny Mr. Fezziwig, Scrooge’s former Mrs. Dilber, Scrooge’s Tim, their children employer housekeeper Fred, Scrooge’s nephew Mrs. Fezziwig, his wife Old Joe, a junk salesman Kitty, Fred’s wife Daisy, Dora and Deirdre Scrooge’s Priest Fezziwig, their daughters Mrs. Polkinghorne, Kitty’s mother Bunty and Bumble, taking a Jane and Mabel, Daniel, David and Donald, collection for the poor suitors to the Fezziwig daughters Kitty’s sisters Various Londoners, children, Jacob Marley, the ghost of Young Scrooge, Ebenezer carolers, party guests and Scrooge’s old Scrooge as a young man pallbearers business partner Young Marley, Jacob Marley as a Ghost of Christmas Past 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 Two, 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- IMAGE: 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 the Christmas Carol. 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 IMAGE: PRINT BY JOHN MASSEY WRIGHT, 1814 hearth and warm it, and into (BRITISH CARTOON PRINTS COLLECTION) the sorrowful heart and comfort

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A Day in the Life of a Director

By Lauren Keating Director

7 A.M. 10 A.M. Rise and shine! I take a morning My Guthrie meetings begin. Right run around the lake, which helps now, we’re deciding which plays me feel focused and grateful will be onstage during our 2020– to live in a beautiful place like 2021 Season. I stay in touch with Minneapolis. I also meditate to colleagues and theaters around center my thoughts and think the country to discuss potential about my intention for the day. collaborations and work with the When time allows, I make breakfast Guthrie’s Literary Projects Group to and coffee for my wife, Claire. It’s determine which plays feel urgent important to be supportive when and of the moment. squares of white and blue tissue I’m working so much. paper that floats down around 11 A.M. the Ghost of Christmas Past. Matt 9 A.M. Production meeting for A Christmas dubbed the mixture “Season’s I get ready, review the day’s Carol. I meet with the Guthrie’s Keatings,” and I happily use the schedule and eat breakfast. While department heads and the creative phrase any chance I get. sipping black tea, I listen to NPR team to ensure everything is on news. The artistic work of theater track. We’re working on some NOON is deeply connected to the present exciting updates to the lighting, Rehearsal begins for the moment, so being informed snow and ghosts — but I’ll stop professional actors who comprise about what may be impacting there so I don’t give anything away! the core company — all 17 of them. the company or the audience I’ve worked with many of these is essential. I end the meeting by thanking actors for years, which has allowed everyone and saying, “Season’s us to develop trust and deeply 9:30 A.M. Keatings!” Shout-out to Matt explore the work. New company I drive to the Guthrie while Dawson, one of our incredible members help us examine our catching up on voice messages via stage crew members, for coining choices and keep the work fresh. the Voxer app, which is one way the pun. Last year, I was working It’s important to make space for I keep in touch with loved ones. with Sarah Gullickson, our props new perspectives and encourage Sometimes I sing in full voice to manager, to design a mix of silver actors to be generative artists. get energized — most likely to glitter, plastic silver coins and Together, we have built a true songs by Lizzo. company — including everyone STUDIOS DALE NATHAN PHOTO:

GUTHRIE THEATER \ 7 PLAY FEATURE

songs, assigns harmonies and helps the company sound like one gorgeous voice. Then comes the hard part — moving and singing and acting all at once. The actors make it look easy, but it is not. Our choreographer, Regina Peluso, leads a warmup and teaches the company the main components of the dance.

When everyone knows the basics, we create the scene. I direct the actors while Regina builds the movements. When we have a beat — a moment we identify as one point in the story — we run it again and give notes. Little by little, we build the entire Country Cross.

9:30 P.M. The actors head home, and I review what we accomplished and what’s on deck for tomorrow. It feels like a game of Tetris to create the schedule, but Tree is a champion at this. Then I check my email and answer questions that came in about A Christmas Carol, my other roles at the Guthrie or Antigone, from past productions and our They join H. Adam Harris, our which I’m preparing to direct at understudy company — and assistant director, for warmups Cleveland Play House. become a network of local artists while the creative team and I who continue to influence and tell discuss our plan for the evening. 11 P.M. this story. Home sweet home. I wind down 6 P.M. with a cup of hot tea and chat 4:30 P.M. Everyone’s here! Our stage with Claire if she’s awake. I stay off Time for the long break before manager, Tree O’Halloran, rings a my phone and keep a good book the rest of the company arrives. bell, I share the evening’s agenda handy to quiet my brain after a I might have a meal, prep for and we dive in. I’ll use the Country busy rehearsal day. evening rehearsal or take a walk Cross — when Scrooge first goes to recharge. If I’m lucky, Claire will back in time — as an example. 2 A.M. stop by on her way home from First, I describe the story we are Sometimes my eyes pop open in work. She calls herself the “First trying to tell, why it is a pivotal the wee hours and I have a vision Lady” of A Christmas Carol, and I moment and how each performer’s about something we staged earlier love when she visits — especially role contributes to the story. It is in the day. I blurrily type a note in with treats in tow. vital that everyone in the room my phone and go back to sleep. understands this. Many ghosts and visions occupy 5:30 P.M. my dreams during the rehearsal Our young actors arrive full of Next, music director Deborah period, so it’s nice when they infectious energy and enthusiasm. Wicks La Puma teaches the prove useful.

8 \ GUTHRIE THEATER PLAY FEATURE

The People of London’s Past

By Anna J. Crace Dramaturg

Although the dense, yellow fog that once covered Victorian London has cleared, many of its streets remain the same. As your feet pound the pavement, they walk the same paths that Charles Dickens walked. Every night, he would wander the streets for hours, discovering new pockets of London and being confronted with the poverty and destitution that plagued the city.

IMAGE: LONDON LIFE AT THE EAST END, 1875 (BRITISH NEWSPAPER ARCHIVE)

As London shifted from agricultural writing. As the son of a debtor than go to a workhouse. Those who to industrial labor, the population who was forced to blacken boots weren’t in the workhouses labored exploded from 1 million to more as a child, Dickens had lived the in factories — hazardous places than 4.5 million, spilling into life of many of London’s poor, that regularly resulted in serious the suburbs and creating the and he saw those who were more injury. Factory owners offered Greater London we know today. fortunate possess no desire to help lower-cost rental properties, which The introduction of the railroads and a growing desire to divide the placed the urban poor in the slums that cut through the city meant classes even further. of the East End and forced them to commuting from the suburbs to live in appalling conditions. London was feasible, and many The harsh, inhumane treatment flocked to work and live in the of the poor is arguably one of In addition to the poor, other city’s outskirts. the darkest shadows to fall over groups living in London during London in the 19th century. The Dickens’ day were people of However, the Industrial industrial laborers represented color and queer Victorians. Revolution didn’t just bring jobs the poorest societal classes and The population of men, women to Londoners — it also brought were regarded as a drain on the and children of African birth or extreme poverty. As the separation economy. As a result, workhouses descent, along with those of Asian between the classes grew, the were put into effect in 1834 and Chinese descent, was around spirit of the age became one and inhabited by the poor and 50,000. It is difficult to arrive at of hard hearts, hard minds and destitute, including women and exact population figures as there “good” business. This is the spirit children. They were so brutal that was no formal segregation in that Dickens rails against in his many said they would rather die Britain’s schools, hospitals and

GUTHRIE THEATER \ 9 PLAY FEATURE

IMAGES: ABOVE LEFT: THE POOR MAN’S GUARDIAN NEWSPAPER, 1847 (THE BRITISH LIBRARY); ABOVE RIGHT: ILLUSTRATION OF LONDON BY GUSTAVE DORÉ, 1872 (THE BRITISH LIBRARY); BELOW LEFT: UNIDENTIFIED SITTER, LONDON, 1880s (A&G TAYLOR, COURTESY OF AUTOGRAPH ABP); BELOW RIGHT: FANNY AND STELLA (FREDERICK SPALDING, ESSEX RECORD OFFICE)

accepted in London, but they were holiday — a tradition forged by the “‘Are there no prisons?’ said the part of the Victorian population Victorians — when the prosperous Spirit, turning on him for the and deserve to be mentioned would open their hearts to help the last time with his own words. among the multicultural makeup of poor and powerless. His great hope ‘Are there no workhouses?’” the city — something that modern was that those in power would see – A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens London now takes pride in. the humanity within the industrial machine London had become. In A Christmas Carol, the Ghost cemeteries. However, interracial of Christmas Past warns Scrooge, In that same spirit of love and marriages occurred and mixed-race “You cannot escape your past.” And compassion, this production hopes relationships were not uncommon. in many ways, Dickens could not to honor Dickens and his intention Although much of queer history escape his. He uses London’s past to bring forth our shared humanity. in Victorian England is not widely to confront its future by forcing his As the Ghost of Christmas Past says, spoken about, at the time Dickens readers to face the city’s present “We are not finished yet.” Many of wrote A Christmas Carol in 1843, circumstances. He asks us to search these communities continue to face the strict laws surrounding male our souls for compassion and offer the same struggles in our modern homosexuality were not yet in it freely and without judgment to world. As Dickens shows us through place. Lesbianism was never made the poor, exiled and needy. Scrooge’s transformation in A illegal, and some women engaged Christmas Carol, it is only through in what were known as “female Dickens uses two tools to reach his revisiting the past that we see how marriages.” None of this suggests readers: the poor child whose heart far we have come and how much that these groups were openly is filled with love and the Christmas more we have to do.

10 \ GUTHRIE THEATER THE PLAYWRIGHT

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 commercialism. But it was not is laden with traditions. Everyone holiday traditions and invite you to always this way, and Dickens is knows never to utter the word come and take part, once again, in largely responsible for the festive, “Macbeth” in a theater; never to the living tradition of the Guthrie’s family-oriented celebration we wish an actor “good luck” but A Christmas Carol. know today. rather to “break a leg”; and to always keep the ghost light on. There is no date given in the Similarly, the holiday season brings It is often said that Dickens Christian Bible for the birth of with it many well-established “invented” modern Christmas. Jesus, but beginning in late traditions: trips to visit Santa at While this may be a slight antiquity and continuing through an insanely crowded mall; the exaggeration, it is no exaggeration the Middle Ages, the Feast of the decoration of Christmas trees to suggest that he radically Nativity was usually celebrated and the hanging of mistletoe; huge shaped — and continues to on December 25. In the early dinners of turkey or ham; midnight shape — the way we celebrate Middle Ages, Advent was a time mass; or Chinese dinner and Christmas today. of general merriment: harvest a movie. festivals, feasting and revelry began Our historical Christmas origin on the Feast of St. Martin de Tours Since 1975, the Guthrie’s annual tale is generally well-known: on November 11 and lasted for production of A Christmas Carol Christian belief mixed in with the 40 days. When Charlemagne was has been a Minnesota tradition Roman traditions of Saturnalia, crowned Holy Roman Emperor on both for audiences and artists alike. the Scandinavian Yule traditions Christmas Day 800 A.D., the actual This tradition, like the theater itself, of feasting and merriment and celebration on December 25 gained is living and organic. a mixture of northern European greater prominence so that by the cuisines — combined with a later Middle Ages, Christmas was heady mixture of North American the dominant feast of winter.

GUTHRIE THEATER \ 11 THE PLAYWRIGHT

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 CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS with lots of food, wine, dancing and card-playing. AROUND THE WORLD

Following the Protestant Reformation, 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, Christmas Eve 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 Christmases past. declares an annual Christmas Peace

Dickens focuses his holiday not in the commons but at the • in Finland, children receive gifts from family hearth. It becomes a personal celebration and a time Joulupukki, the Christmas goat for reflection as well as celebration. Dickens both reflects his society’s views about the importance of hearth and • in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany home as well as projects his own social conscience into and others, Saint Nicholas visits good Christmas. Dickens’ Christmas is not solely inward-looking, little children on December 6 each year to portraying an idealized scene of Victorian domesticity; it leave goodies in their shoes also requires that each person admit that humankind is his business — it is an opportunity to make the world a • in China, Christians celebrate Christmas better place. For Scrooge, perhaps Dickens’ most famous by decorating trees and having a large invention, Christmas is an opportunity for rebirth. No doubt family meal, but gifts are exchanged Dickens hoped Scrooge would be an example to all: to keep at the Chinese New Year celebration in Christmas in one’s heart, always, and not to shut out the January or February, accompanied by wisdom the season offers us. massive displays of fireworks

Written by Matt McGeachy for the Guthrie’s 2010 A Christmas Carol play guide Adapted from the Guthrie’s 2006 A Christmas Carol program

12 \ GUTHRIE THEATER BUILDING THE PRODUCTION

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 today. 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 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.

While A Christmas Carol is a play audience’s connection to the story. with music — not a musical — the I’m thrilled to be back again this movement is such an inherent part year to discover new things and of the play because it allows us explore all kinds of movement with to physically manifest the story. this amazing cast. Movement helps the characters express their emotions and react to Scrooge, and it also impacts our story transitions from beginning to end.

We can tell more of the story by showing the characters’ interactions with each other and Regina using movement to deepen the Peluso Choreographer

GUTHRIE THEATER \ 13 BUILDING THE PRODUCTION

What I love about A Christmas I am so delighted to be invited back Carol is that there are a lot of this year. Even though I’m not a fan Christmas carols! As I looked of the cold Minnesota weather, this through the score and practiced is the dream team. I would travel the carols on my own before our to Antarctica to work with them first rehearsal, it made me happy. on this beautiful show. It’s another Singing makes me happy to begin home being here. with, but there’s just something magical about singing carols. Even though it was only October, it still gave me those warm, holiday feelings. And this year, we have a new Country Cross that will be Deborah really exciting. Wicks La Puma Music Director

A Christmas Carol is a huge part of complete devastation, so their of my life because it was the first clothes needed to communicate production I saw at the Guthrie in the precariousness of their the early 1980s. It’s been a privilege economic situation. to be part of the creative team so many times. Working on a production like A Christmas Carol is fairly unusual When we first started talking about in my career. Most of the time on the costumes for A Christmas shows, I design the costumes once Carol nine years ago, we were and it’s done. For this show, the focused on the importance of costume design stays relatively the novel and Dickens’ words. I the same year after year, but what found this old copy of the novel changes are the actors and what with illustrations by Gustave Doré they bring to the characters. It’s Mathew J. that were incredibly inspiring. been wild and rewarding to see We focused on the differences how the actors bring different LeFebvre between the characters based on aspects to the costumes and how their economic status and reflected the costumes serve different actors Costume Designer that in the costumes. For example, in different ways. the Cratchit family is on the verge

14 \ GUTHRIE THEATER BUILDING THE PRODUCTION

I’m a native Londoner and this is is how focused she is on knowing my first Christmas in Minnesota, who the audience is and making so I’m excited to spend it with this sure there is space for everyone. So incredible show and theatrical I’ve done much work and research community. As a dramaturg, I’m around visibility, including queer deeply interested in reimagined people and people of color in classics and how we find their Victorian London and their place in place in history and bring them to a Dickens’ world, which I think will be modern audience. timely and relevant to our modern Minneapolis audience. What interests me most about Lauren Keating’s directing work Anna J. Crace Dramaturg

A Christmas Carol feels like a rite possibilities in the voices in the of passage for any voice or dialect characters from these stories. This coach. Standard British cockney year, my goal is to build on that and Home Counties dialects are a work with each actor and nurture go-to, but this story takes place in what’s already in their wheelhouse. a country where people don’t all sound the same. Just like America I’m thrilled to be back this season has a plethora of voices, so is the and look forward to working with case in Victorian London. the singers and speakers onstage to uncover more possibilities and Last year, we wanted to stay true make the vocals thrive. to Dickens’ storytelling and find 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 Which characters serve as narrators Classroom Activity: Much of According to the story, Marley is in this production of A Christmas Charles Dickens’ work is focused condemned to “walk the earth.” Carol? How do the narrators propel on 19th-century England and Why do you think this is his the action of the play? Do you disparities between the classes. punishment? For what deeds or feel like the narrators are talking Select a topic below and research omissions is he being punished? directly to you when speaking? it through the lens of 19th-century Do you believe the chains that he How does this differ from how England and how the topic relates wears are a metaphor? If so, what characters usually interact onstage? to A Christmas Carol. Then report do they represent, and how is this back to the class to paint a more metaphor central to the story’s Classroom Activity: Select a book complete picture of the setting for plot? What do you believe or story that you know well. If you the play. is implied by the multitude of were retelling this story in the fettered spirits that accompany role of narrator, what would you • Labor laws Marley’s ghost? include? What would you leave (especially child labor laws) out? Create the role of narrator for • Ghosts and ghost stories SCROOGE AND CRATCHIT this story and, using a selection • English royalty How would you describe the of the book or story you chose, • Homelessness relationship between Scrooge and narrate that section for your peers. • Clothing Bob Cratchit at the beginning of • Crime the story? Do you think that their THEMES AND IDEAS • Religion employer/employee relationship is What do you believe is the central • Music and songs representative of 19th-century labor theme, or main idea, of A Christmas • Women in society laws and customs? Why or why Carol? Where in the play is the • Industrial Revolution not? Do you think their relationship theme most obvious? Which • Slavery would be typical today? What has characters help to express the • Printing/Publication changed, if anything, between theme of the play? Do you believe • Satire employers and employees as well this play has a moral? If so, what do • Science/Evolution as with labor laws? you believe it is? Can you think of • Colonialism examples of other books, movies, • Other writers of the era HUMBUG! stories, songs or works of art that (Brontë, Carroll, Conrad, Kipling, What does the word “humbug” have a similar theme? Thackeray, etc.) mean? What words are the modern-day equivalents of If you are familiar with other COMEDY VS. TRAGEDY “humbug”? Thinking back on works by Charles Dickens, can you Do you believe that A Christmas the play, which aspects of the find similar themes in his other Carol is a comedy or a tragedy? Christmas celebrations does works? How does Dickens utilize What do each of these Scrooge call “humbug”? When is character, plot, subject matter and classifications mean to you? Which the first time in his life that Scrooge narrative style to express these aspects of the story are comic? uses the term? Why do you think ideas and themes? Are there other Which are tragic? Which do you Scrooge has such a dour outlook artists who come to mind that are feel is most effective in A Christmas on these celebrations? What events concerned with the same themes Carol? How does one support the led to his feelings about Christmas? as Dickens? other in the telling of the story? Are there any aspects of the holiday season that you believe are “humbug”?

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

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

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For Further Reading and Understanding

BOOKS http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/snow/1859map/ Dickens, Charles. Christmas Books. London: Oxford Searchable map of London in 1859, from the UCLA University Press, 1954. Department of Epidemiology.

Dickens, Charles. Christmas Stories. London: Oxford http://www.victorianweb.org University Press, 1956. Site designed and edited by Professor George P. Landrow for Brown Univeristy as a resource for Brown Davis, Paul. The Lives and Times of Ebenezer Scrooge, students studying Victorian literature. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990.

Davis, Paul. Penguin Dickens Companion. New York: ABOUT BLACK VICTORIANS Penguin Books, 1999. Curtin, Philip D. The Image of Africa: British Ideas and Action, 1780–1850. London: Macmillan, 1965. Hearn, Michael Patrick. The Annotated Christmas Carol. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, Inc., 1976. Guy, Jeff. The View Across the River: Harriette Colenso and the Zulu Struggle Against Imperialism. Oxford: Miall, Antony and Peter. The Victorian Christmas Book. James Currey, 2002. New York: Pantheon Books, 1978. Fryer, Peter. Staying Power. London: Pluto Press, 1984. Schlicke, Paul. Oxford Readers’ Companion to Dickens. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. Malik, Kenan. The Meaning of Race: Race, History and Culture in Western Society. London: Macmillan, 1996. Smiley, Jane. Charles Dickens. The Penguin Lives Series. New York: Penguin Putnam, Inc., 2002. Martin, S.I. Incomparable World. London: Quartet Books, 1996.

FILMS AND VIDEOS Myers, Norma. Reconstructing the Black Past. London: https://www.imdb.com/list/ls003558245/ Frank Cass, 1996. A list of films adapted from Dickens’ novels and short stories. Sandhu, Sukhdev. London Calling: How Black and Asian Writers Imagined a City. New York: HarperCollins, 2003. WEBSITES http://www.stormfax.com/1dickens.htm Stanton, William. The Leopard’s Spots: Scientific The text of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Attitudes Toward Race in America, 1815–59. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960. http://www.charlesdickenspage.com David Purdue’s Charles Dickens Page includes information on Dickens — on the page, onstage and in life. https://manybooks.net/titles/chestertother09CD-1.html G.K. Chesterton’s biography, Charles Dickens, 1906. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25851/25851- h/25851-h.htm Entire text of John Forster’s biography, The Life of Charles Dickens, 1872–1874.

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ABOUT QUEER VICTORIANS Kaplan, Fred. Dickens: A Biography. Baltimore: John Acton, William. Functions and Disorders of the Hopkins University Press, 1988. Reproductive Organs. London: John Churchill, 1865 [1857]. Slater, Michael. Charles Dickens. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009. Donoghue, Emma. Passions Between Women: British Lesbian Culture 1668–1801. London: Scarlet Press, 1993. Slater, Michael. Dickens and Women. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 1983. Esher, Viscount, ed. The Girlhood of Queen Victoria: A Selection From Her Majesty’s Diaries Between the Tomalin, Claire. The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Years 1832 and 1840. London: John Murray, 1912. Ternan and Charles Dickens. New York: Knopf, 1991.

Foucault, Michel. The History of Sexuality: Volume 1. Translated by Robert Hurley. London: A SELECTION OF Penguin, 1998. CHRISTMAS LITERATURE Note: Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is one among Gaskell, Peter. The Manufacturing Population of many stories arising out of the Christmas holiday. England: Its Moral, Social and Physical Conditions. New What follows is a selected list which may include many York: Amo, 1972 [1833]. of your own favorites.

Ruskin, John. “Of Queens’ Gardens” from Sesame and Novels, Short Stories and Poems Lilies, Unto This Last and the Political Economy of Art. The first Christmas, Luke, chapter two, Bible. London: Cassell, 1909, [1865]. “The Legend of Befana,” traditional European story. Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky. Epistemology of the Closet. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990. “Baba Yaga,” folktale, probably Russian in origin, 19th century. Sweet, Matthew. Inventing the Victorians. London: Faber, 2001. “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King,” E.T.A. Hoffman, 1816. Victorian Queer Archive http://vqa.dickinson.edu The Sketch Book, Washington Irving, 1819–1820.

Although Oscar Wilde often appears in literary “The Night Before Christmas,” Clement Clarke classes as the token queer writer for the semester, Moore, 1822. the Victorian period (1830–1900) was full of writers addressing what we now consider LGBTQIA+ themes “The Fir Tree,” “The Snow Queen” and “The Little in their works. Victorian writers who called themselves Match-Seller,” Hans Christian Andersen, 1845. “sexologists” and theorized about sexual desire helped pave the way for the field that has now become Little Women, Louisa May Alcott, 1869. queer studies. This digital archive contains texts on LGBTQIA+ themes. “How Santa Came to Simpson’s Bar,” Bret Harte, 1870.

Christmas Every Day and Other Stories, William Dean ABOUT CHARLES DICKENS Howells, 1892. Ackroyd, Peter. Dickens. New York: HarperCollins, 1990. “The Burglar’s Christmas,” Willa Cather, 1896. Forster, John. The Life of Charles Dickens (two volumes). London: Chapman and Hall, 1871 and 1874. “Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus,” Francis P. Church, New York Sun, 1897. Johnson, Edgar. Charles Dickens: His Tragedy and Triumph. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1952. The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, L. Frank Baum, 1902.

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

The Tailor of Gloucester, Beatrix Potter, 1902. Plays Babes in Toyland, Victor Herbert and Glen “The Gift of the Magi,” O. Henry, 1906. MacDonough, 1903.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Man Who Came to Dinner, George S. Kaufman and C. S. Lewis, 1950. Moss Hart, 1939.

“A Child’s Christmas in Wales,” Dylan Thomas, 1954. Black Nativity, Langston Hughes, 1961.

“A Christmas Memory,” Truman Capote, 1956. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Barbara Robinson, 1972. How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Dr. Seuss, 1957. Christmas on Mars, Harry Kondoleon, 1983. The Polar Express, Chris Van Allsburg, 1985. Reckless, Craig Lucas, 1989. “Santaland Diaries” from Holidays on Ice, David Sedaris, 1992. The Eight: Reindeer Monologues, Jeff Goode, 1994.

Santa’s Twin, Dean Koontz, 1996. They Sing Christmas Up in Harlem: A Lenox Avenue Christmas Carol, Eric L. Wilson, 2000.

Mrs. Bob Cratchit’s Wild Christmas Binge, Christopher Durang, 2005.

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