🌲A Christmas Carol🌲 2023

Congratulations on a fantastic run of A Christmas Carol!  We are so proud of you all!

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Cast List for ACC with descriptions

In order of appearance

Narrator/Undertaker (Tackleton)/Marley/Dickens

The archetypal look of the older Dickens. Twinkle in the eye, caring, thoughtful, a great eye for detail. Sprightly but with much gravitas. A philanthropist. Thin and wiry. He also plays a number of roles in his story. He both narrates and performs.

       Jacob Marley was Scrooge’s partner, an ambitious, practical man, with no sentimentality. Marley was a product of a newly industrialized England and placed money and financial stability above all else. As a young man, he coerced Young Scrooge into joining the dark and ruthless side of the business world. When we first meet him, he has been dead for seven years.

Scrooge:         60 yo.  No better than Dickens for this one:  Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. A frosty rime was on his head, and on his eyebrows, and his wiry chin. He carried his own low temperature always about with him.

NOT a nice chap!

Young Scrooge: 20s-30s. An innocent Scrooge before he is corrupted at the hands of Marley. A conflicted youth torn between the need for financial security and the desire to connect with other human beings. At the beginning, he possesses a sense of fun and humor and is a viably positive member of society. He’s easily influenced and changeable, and though he falls in love with Belle instantly, one year later, he spurns her just as quickly.

Boy Scrooge: 9-13. This is the sweet, innocent Scrooge before he becomes the Scrooge of legend. He is the only one left alone in his school yard during Christmas recess. His only hope is to go home to his family and when his sister Fan shows up, he things she will make that dream come true. When he learns that is not the case, his heart is broken – as is ours.

Bob Cratchit: 30s-40s. Scrooge’s clerk, a family man. Scrooge has worked Cratchit to the bone, but his joy for life and affection for his family remain untouched. Despite his difficult existence, he is still filled with hope and humor. Though he worries about how to put food on the table, he somehow always finds a way to provide treats for his children. He is shattered when Tiny Tim dies and try as he might, his sorrow is impossible to hide from his other children.

Nephew Fred: 20s-30’s.  Scrooge's nephew. An optimistic and kind young man. Witty and able to trade barbs with his Uncle. Should be an attractive leading man with a slightly goofy edge.

Mr. Jeeves & Mr. Howell, Charity Solicitors:  Very polite but determined men. Good-hearted and well-intentioned, they seek charity as a dynamic duo. They cannot believe that anyone would NOT give towards their cause. These gentlemen finish each other’s sentences as if they were one person.

Street Urchin: Meets Scrooge in the street as he leaves his office.  Singing a carol.

Spirit of Christmas Past 1: 10-14. Very spirited girl with an ethereal quality. Must have great command of language. She bosses Scrooge around a bit and knows how to use tough love to her best advantage.

Johnny Dalton and Eli Wesley:  Schoolboy acquaintances of the young Scrooge.

Fan: (13-20) Scrooge’s young, fragile, and devoted sister. She exudes warmth when she visits Child Scrooge in the schoolyard and desperation in her final goodbye with her brother.  She is Fred’s mother.

Mr. Fezziwig: 20’s-50s. Young Scrooge and Marley’s boss, generous (to a fault) and expansive and giddily in love with his wife. Fezziwig is a kind hearted and jolly man, but not a fool. He has great integrity and refuses to sell out to Scrooge and Marley.

Mrs. Fezziwig: 20’s-50’s. Ditzy, gabby, and overflowing with warmth; she is certain that she and her daughter are great beauties. A good-hearted meddler.  In love with her husband and entirely convinced of the goodness of those around her and the bounty of the world.

Charlotte Fezziwig: 16-25. A giggly girl who is making her first official appearance as a young woman at the Christmas party. She has crushes on whoever might be looking in her direction and is not shy about flirting.

Dick Wilkins:  Another apprentice of Fezziwig’s along with Scrooge.  Scrooge’s first partner, whom he leaves in the dust as he seeks greater and greater profits.

Belle, Ebenezer's young romance:  20s. Scrooge’s fiancée who gets left behind because of his obsession with money. A woman ahead of her time, Belle is fiercely idealistic. There is a sadness about her; she holds people to high standards and, predictably, ends up horribly disappointed with Scrooge.

Spirit of Christmas Present:  20’s-40’s. Infectious spirit and warmth.  Must have a powerful presence, sense of humor, wit, and mischief, and a fabulous laugh to boot. She has an implicit understanding of right and wrong and is not afraid to let Scrooge know it. Maternal and earthy, she is powerful enough to make Scrooge fly, yet gentle enough to guide him at just the right speed towards his transformation.

Mrs. Cratchit: 20’s-30’s. Caring but fiery, she will defend her family at any price.  She is the glue that holds her family together. Nurturing, warm, the salt of the earth.  She criticizes Scrooge more than anyone because of what he is doing to her devoted and downtrodden husband. She tries to hide her sorrow over Tiny Tim’s loss from her other children, but fails. Working class London accent.

Peter Cratchit: 10-14. The second eldest Cratchit child – a very industrious, bright, energetic, positive force in the family. He does all he can to help around the house and makes special efforts to care for little, Tiny Tim.

Martha Cratchit: 9-13. The eldest Cratchit child who works in a textile factory away from home. She misses her family terribly and makes the most of every opportunity to be with her family. She has learned much from her mother about caring for a house and caring for people.

Belinda Cratchit: 6-9. The second youngest Cratchit child who is adorable and sweet and is about to learn how to make the family’s secret recipe for Christmas pudding.

Tiny Tim: 5-7. The youngest Cratchit child, frail, weak, suffers from an illness that causes him to be on crutches. He is eternally hopeful and sees the suffering in others much more than the suffering in himself. Must be less than 50 pounds.

Two Younger Cratchit children

Emma Hollowell: Fred's wife.  20s. Lily: Fred’s wife and an extremely kind and graceful young woman. Lily always sees the best in people. She is tenacious and refuses to give up on Scrooge because she realizes how much family means to her husband.

Topper: Christmas Guest at Fred’s

Flora and Harry: 9-14. Energetic children at Nephew Fred’s Christmas party. They contrast the beggar children and represent the wealthy folk. Must love playing games –

Ignorance & Want (boy and girl, 4-6 years old):  6-10. These are the children that finally force Scrooge to see the error of his ways. They are the poorest of the poor, living on the London streets only with kindness of others.

Spirit of Christmas Yet to Come (G3):  Non-speaking. Dark, foreboding, tall and malevolent.

Mrs Oliver, Charwoman: 20s-60s. She desperately sells the stuff dead people leave behind. She is fiercely competitive, dreadfully funny, and wonderfully scuzzy. No subtlety whatsoever. Cockney.

Old Joe: 40’s-60s. Cockney Pawnshop dealer who trades in stolen goods – mostly from dead people. Witty, dark and devious, Joe is a distant relative of Dickens’ Fagin and has a bawdy sense of humor. He will take no nonsense from anyone, unless he’s dealing it out first. A shrewd negotiator – until a glimpse of cleavage is involved – or when faced with the child-like beauty of a music box.

Mrs. Dilber: 20s-60s.  Scrooge’s dedicated and dithering servant.  Working class British. Quirky and funny – but with great pathos. She has always gotten Christmas Day off but, for some reason, tonight her boss is sterner and crabbier than ever. At the end of the play, the first to witness it, she is profoundly touched by Scrooge’s transformation. A character woman. Comedienne with heart.

The Undertaker (Tackleton): 20’s-60’s. A leering, creepy, grasping, drooling example of the underworld in Victorian England – cockney accent.  Funny if a little gross.

Turkey Boy: 8-11. A petite delivery boy who carries a huge turkey to the Cratchit house upon a transformed Scrooge’s instructions. Must have great comic ability. And be able to carry a heavy turkey.

Ensemble: workers, carolers, townspeople, etc.