Tiny Tim still doesn’t die in this version of “A Christmas Carol,” but three of them have been cast which raises certain questions.
A different one is at the Cratchit family table each day of the week Ebenezer Scrooge visits, yet nobody seems to notice the disparity. Perhaps that’s because other “alternate identities” are also present, as one aspect of Theater Alaska’s largest production ever is some of the roles were double- or triple-casted, said Flordelino Lagundino, the theater’s producing artistic director.
“We wanted to have a large group so that more kids could be a part of it,” he said before Sunday’s performance at McPhetres Hall. Different performers thus perform on different days the play is staged.
More than 30 actors are part of the stage play adaption of Charles Dickens’ holiday tale, which is being performed Wednesdays through Sundays until Dec. 22. Tickets for all shows are pay-as-you-want at McPhetres Hall, aside from a couple of free upcoming shows at alternative locations including Juneau Pioneer Home and the Mendenhall Valley Public Library.
Main cast members of Theater Alaska’s “A Christmas Carol” perform a song during a staging of the play Sunday at McPhetres Hall. (Flordelino Lagundino / Theater Alaska)
Versions of “A Christmas Carol” have been performed in Juneau, including a Tlingit version at Perseverance Theatre written by Vera Starbard who was named this year’s Alaska State Writer Laureate. Lagundino said Theater Alaska is trying to establish an ongoing annual tradition with the play where people can grow into different roles, similar to what Juneau Dance Theatre has done with “The Nutcracker” over the past 20 years.
“What’s nice about that is kids are able to do the show when they’re five years old and then six years old they have different parts throughout their lifetime,” he said. “When they’re in high school they have other parts and we give them more responsibility. That’s kind of the thing that we’re trying to do with this. Give people and kids an opportunity to learn, and have community members be able to do one role one year and maybe another role another year. We can do that in a show that can bring the whole community together.”
This year’s play by Theater Alaska is an adaption by Arlitia Jones and Michael Evan Haney that follows Dickens’ original language and narrative closely, Lagundino said. But he said the theater altered the setting from London during the 1800s to the Douglas mining community of the early 1900s.
“It’s like how we were in Douglas, Alaska, on the day off from people working at the mine,” he said.
In the theater program’s director’s note, Lagundino states the concept is based on how people would have staged a production of the play at that time.
“We thought of how a frontier production team would have to scrounge around the town to cobble together the objects to tell the story,” he wrote. “They would use whatever they have available to them: sheets from multiple houses and bunkhouses, tables and chairs from an office and someone’s dining room table, ledgers from the mine office building, a lantern from a miner. They pull and borrow from their neighbors in town. They sew new clothes and order things from the general store that they need months in advance. They use sacks and trees and pine cones. They are improvisational and scrappy and count on the imaginations of the audience to fill the gaps.”
The role of Scrooge — and there’s only one in the cast — is being performed by Tom Robenolt, who’s got a long resume as an actor and in theater management. Lagundino said while Robenolt is younger than the stereotype of Scrooge, his hair is sufficiently gray to pass for the role and, more importantly, he’s got the variation of character traits necessary for a lead character who goes through a massive transformation.
“He’s a really wonderful Scrooge because he’s able to bring a lot of the love to the part, the pain that Scrooge feels because of the losses that he had in his life,” Lagundino said. “I think what’s really interesting about Scrooge and what this production is — each ghost shows parts of his life where he can make different choices from his present and from his past. And so what’s really great about Tom is he is really good at grappling with those choices.”
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.
Know and Go
What: “A Christmas Carol” by Theater Alaska
When: Wednesdays through Sundays until Dec. 22
Where: McPhetres Hall, 415 4th St., at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 12-14, 19 and 21, and 3 p.m. Dec. 15 and 22; Juneau Pioneer Home, 4675 Glacier Highway, at 6 p.m. Dec. 18; Mendenhall Valley Public Library, 3025 Diamond Pk. Lp., at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 20.
Tickets: Pay-as you-want at McPhetres Hall, free at other venues.
Website: https://www.theateralaska.org/a-christmas-carol-2024.
