Screw-ged 12/9/05

Staunton, VA - The minute you think there maybe is no God, a small little blessing comes to make you think twice. I am sitting in Coffee on the Corner writing this entry because this morning's matinee of Christmas Carol has been cancelled due to the fact that schools in the area have a snow day. This is the second snow day of the season down here, and what they call a "snow day" would make the average Western New Yorker laugh in utter disbelief. As I look out the window, there is barely an inch of snow on the ground. To be fair, a good portion of it is ice, and I take it from the weather reports on the radio this morning that the roadways are icy, with two major accidents on local interstates. But the other "snow day" came before any snow ever hit the ground. Schools in Augusta County closed in anticipation of a snowstorm coming which dropped maybe two inches of snow. Pretty funny. But I will take it!

It's hard to believe that six days have actually passed since I last posted. The days have been incredibly full and busy, and I've come to know the definition of "bone-weary." I've been getting to bed at about 10:30 every night after pretty much a full day's rehearsal, and getting up at 7:30 AM to make a 9:00 AM call for CC or rehearsal. We've been doing matinees since Wednesday, with dress rehearsals and polishing rehearsals since Sunday. We also had a music rehearsal for Planet prior to the benefit performance last night at Washington and Lee University in Lexington VA (about 35 minutes SW of Staunton) for the recently closed Lime Kiln Theatre. I have actually managed to do a wash and do some shopping amidst all that as well, and even had a bit of time the other night to watch The Magnificent Seven, but that's about it. I don't think I'm alone in feeling this tired; there seems to be a general sense of fatigue that everyone is battling to keep spirits up and keep us moving. I will tell you this - the American Shakespeare Center is certainly getting their money's worth from us.

So let's get into the heart of the matter - playing Ebenezer Scrooge. Back when we were in rehearsal and before we went on the road I was hoping that the two characters I would get to play would be Jacob Marley and Old Joe. I had figured that Chris, one of our three-year vets and the guy who had been playing Scrooge for the past two years, would reprise the role. But the director had other ideas, and lo and behold when the cast list came there was my name listed as Scrooge. Honestly, I wasn't too thrilled. As a lifetime character actor I've come to be comfortable in character roles, which are usually secondary roles and not the focus roles of plays. My other two roles here, Leonato and Prospero, fall neatly into that category - nice roles but not the focus roles of the plays (some might argue that Prospero has a lot of focus, but the play is so evenly balanced among characters that I think no one character dominates the show). But if CC is anything, it is Scrooge, and the role carries with it a tremendous amount of baggage, tradition and expectation. And of course, amongst the community of theatre people, CC is regarded as little more than a cash cow designed to raise a lot of money and subsidize whatever else you're doing for your season.

Now, let it be clearly understood (to mimic the Dickensian style of writing) that I have nothing personal against CC in and of itself. It's a heartwarming, fun story, and deservedly a classic of English literature. In my family it's been a tradition to watch some version of CC after all the packages have been wrapped and placed under our tree on Christmas Eve. I am torn between the Alistair Sims version (never, NEVER watch the colorized version!!) and the George C. Scott version. The Patrick Stewart version sucks, and my kids of course liked the Muppet version (I can tolerate it). I've never seen the Bill Murray version - perhaps I should rent it. So it's not like I don't like the story or anything along those lines. Of course, it is quite sentimental and mushy, and no doubt even in Dickens' mind it was written as a commercial venture to make him some money. Yet there are things in it which I truly think are insightful and poetic. As an example, there is the section during Christmas Present where Dickens talks about everyone in the Cratchit family having, for once, enough to eat. There are other passages within the fable which clearly and vigorously rail against the social ills of the times. But over the years I think the story has been so commercialized that these aspects of the story have lost their impact or disappeared altogether to the point where CC is barely more than the story of an old disgruntled codger who becomes a Christmas fanatic, and thank goodness he does. So it goes.

However, having been given the role, I have of course given some thought as to how to play him within the confines of a 90-minute script which basically hits the highlights of the main plotline. It has not been easy, partly because the rehearsal time has been so short and partly because there are long stretches of time where I do nothing but stand and watch events unfold without commenting. Also, because we are doing this play within the "original practices" tradition of the ASC, we have no special effects, lights, scenery or anything else to help us create mood or atmosphere. Dickens' text does that extraordinarily well, but I am not yet sure whether it's more successful as read text or spoken text. I will say one thing - getting your mouth around Dickensian "dialogue" is difficult. As I noted in an earlier post, I've had difficulty memorizing these lines so fast, and it's only been within the past few matinee performances that I've been working to make the dialogue and performances organic and natural. The other day I finally discovered and developed a through-line for myself to take me along the journey, and I am glad I've found those keys.

My concept of Scrooge has been from the beginning that he is basically a misunderstood man, living an austere life in contradistinction to the world around him. He is stereotypically portrayed as a grouchy misanthrope, but I have tried to cast him as a man who has become what he is because, early in life, his emotional life was crushed out of him, leaving him nothing to live with but cold reason. If you study some of the things Scrooge says in that famous first scene, much of he says is not particularly harsh or unreasonable, and some of it is true. "What's Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money" - how many of you out there will go into credit card debt this Christmas (I will)? "Keep Christmas in your own way and let me keep it in mine...Let me leave it alone then." "It's enough for a man to understand his own business without meddling in the affairs of others." Plenty of truth in those statement. He exhibits the same response to the poor and homeless that the majority of society expresses by its actions if not its words. He does not pay his clerk well, but apparently at least enough to keep a roof over his head and some food on the table (nothing indicates that the Cratchits are destitute, just poor. Think Wal-Mart and the resistance to raising the minimum wage in this country to something liveable). So in response to this I've tried to portray a man who lives by cold reason and logic and has little emotional life, and has reached an accomodation with those around him. While others may perceive him as grouchy or unreasonable, it's only because Scrooge has decided to live a life where he plays the rules of business extremely well and always to his advantage (there is no evidence that Scrooge is a cheat), and speaks harsh truths in ways which people find irritating. He is undoubtedly a cold man, and can become cruel when pressed (the charity fundraiser, for example, presses him to his limit). But I sense in the character no genuine meanness, and hence that becomes the vehicle of his reclamation.

His journey with the spirits, then, is one of reclaiming his emotional life. He is not "beyond hope" because, as we find out, there is still emotion in him which he is suppressing. He himself does not understand this emotional life, and that is what the journey is all about. His sojourn into the past is to remind him of a time when his emotional life was full and how it was slowly squeezed from him by life's circumstances (my backstory on Scrooge's past is, of course, extrapolated from hints in the text and story, but this production cannot fully bring that out. Suffice to say that Scrooge has a few things happen to him, such as Fan's death and his breakup with Belle, which leave him emotionally handicapped). His journey into the present is designed to reveal to him the value of human relationships, of family (Cratchits) and friends (Fred's party), as a source of wealth beyond that of money. His sojourn into the future is designed to remind him of death and all it entails - the limitations of existence, the desire to leave behind a legacy, the notion of "now or never" as it pertains to living life. All these aspects of his journey have nothing to do with logic or reason, and each time he tries to present a logical argument to one of the spirits (even to the Ghost of Christmas Future while staring into the grave) are one by one rebuffed through a response which encourages him through the heart. But even further, Scrooge has to realize that even a reasonable approach to emotion is not enough. It is emotional existence itself, as represented by an open heart, that is necessary for a full life. The man who misunderstands Scrooge the most, of course, is his own self. His reclamation comes when his heart is fully opened by the Spirits. Even though Scrooge, in each section of his journey, expresses a degree of intellectual understanding of each lesson he is learning ("I learned a lesson which is working now" he tells Christmas Present, as well as telling Future "I hope to be a changed man from what I was"), he only fully realizes it at the grave, and it is by facing the reality of his eventual death that his heart opens up.

It took me awhile to piece this all together, as for much of the rehearsal period I was simply trying to get the mechanical aspects of the role together. These ideas have only fully developed over the past few days, and are designed to get me honestly through each point in the play. I doubt much of this will read to an average audience member, because there isn't much action or text for me to express this, and also because they are coming to the show for much different reasons than bearing witness to Scrooge's emotional reclamation. And again, it is difficult to achieve the proper mood (Shakespeare is so much better than Dickens at that, and the expectations are so different). But I think for me playing the role it gives me some foundation and roots. I'm sure that,even though we officially open tomorrow night, I will be working on this throughout the run.

As for the overall production itself, it has been a workout not only for me but for everyone in the troupe. Keep in mind that, except for Tyler - who is playing the Narrator - and myself, everyone else is playing several roles as well as executing all the scene changes and technical effects. Jessica, Sarah and Greg are doing all the music and sound, which is the main method we have of creating mood. There are an incredible amount of costume changes, and even though everything is about down to as minimum a show as you could possibly have, there is still plenty to do for everyone. Since I am on the stage for all but maybe one minute total of the entire show, I have not seen the backstage activity, but I have been assured by my cast mates that the backstage situation is wild. Between costume changes and set changes everyone is busy every moment of the production. There is no down time for anyone. I had this odd experience for the past few days as being somewhat isolated and removed from the show, and I finally figured out that the reason was that I could not contribute anything to the running of the production backstage. I can't help with set changes or costume changes or any of that, and as we were putting the final stages of the technical aspects of the show together it was sort of odd sitting there on my "island of Scrooge" and not being able to volunteer to help with anything. It's nine people backstage pulling off everything, and it's no wonder everyone's tired. I really believe in some aspects people backstage are working harder than I am. It's always a miracle to me that any show actually gets up and running, but in this case the miracle of 11 people pulling off CC in about 10 days of rehearsal is a miracle of Christmas proportions.

I am sure after writing all this I've left something out, but I'll try to keep some notes so I don't leave too much out. Even though I've been saying "Merry Christmas" until my lungs give out, I still don't quite feel in a Christmas-y mood. I think working this hard through the holidays has somewhat dampened any Christmas spirit I have, and I just don't have a "real-world" sense of the holiday season. I'm surprised to find the Salvation Army person at Krogers when I go shopping. Dave doesn't dress up Coffee on the Corner for Christmas (Hooray! Another reason to like it!). My little room has no Christmas decorations. The best I've done is spruce up my computer desktop to reflect some Christmas spirit (a tree, lights, and a CC desktop picture). So hopefully things may slow down as we get into the performance schedule and I can slow down a bit. Looking ever so forward to my day off Monday. Can't say I'll write before then. Whatever you may do this holiday season, don't Screwg yourself! -TWL

PS - There are some new videos from the final leg of the tour available on my video page. Feel free to check them out!