Dickens play lightens spirits this Christmas

by Elysia Conner
Tuesday, December 1, 2009 5:15 PM MST

Chris Erickson as the Ghost of Christmas Present occasionally hits Scrooge with a cornucopia. He and his laughing character have a lot in common: Erickson wants people to leave happy, appreciating others.

“That’s what Christmas does to people,” he said. “It brings them to family and gives them an opportunity to celebrate and to feel love and warmth. He represents what Christmas is.”

“I’ve become a bit of the Christmas humbug myself in recent years,” director Tom Empey said. But the fun everyone’s having with Casper College’s latest production, “A Christmas Carol,” has changed his feeling.

It’s “about forgiveness and redemption,” Empey said. “It’s a good time of year to be reminded that there’s hope for all of us.”

He noted that Charles Dickens set the ways we celebrate Christmas today, with traditions like trees not widely practiced in England before.

Carter Smith leads carolers, spreading cheer in the lobby, and is “the musical narrator of the show,” he said. The musical theater major helped choose the songs and where they punctuate scenes.

Like Smith’s other role as Scrooge’s nephew, he loves Christmas. Smith hopes audiences will appreciate the less familiar, older Christmas carols.

One is “Greensleeves,” or “What Child is This?” Set to Christmas lyrics in the 1860’s, the tune itself is one of the oldest in the English language.

Sean Coyle as Bob Cratchit emphasizes the joy he takes in fatherhood rather than as just a familiar, downtrodden character. “It makes it heartbreaking when you know that’s the only thing that brings him joy and now his son is dead,” Coyle said about a bleak glimpse given by the Ghost of Christmas Future.

Niedbalski, as Dickens, narrates

Jason Niedbalski narrates as Charles Dickens, in an accent perfected through research and practice. “The ghost of the ghosts,” Niedbalski said, is like Scrooge in that “I’m just watching my story unfold in front of me.”

Impatient with his family for interrupting his work as he writes “A Christmas Carol” for money they need, he spends hours alone at his desk.

“I have to be the strong one and I can’t break his hopes,” Genneca Froelich said about sadness Mrs. Cratchit shows when no one’s looking. While her husband thinks Tiny Tim grows stronger, “she clings less to hopes and more to realism as the world sometimes teaches people to do.”

Clare Hendricks, 9, portrays two daughters and a sad spirit, Want.

A writer herself with very own regular newsletter, she can spot a great story.

“People have to respect the story of Christmas,” Hendricks said, “and help people who don’t actually have what they have, who are just more unfortunate than them.”

Trevor Trujillo as Ebenezer Scrooge must be “a real jerk,” he said. “But you have to be able to convince people that by the end of the play, you’re not a jerk anymore.”

“I’m hoping that audiences will be able to see it for the story they love,” Trujillo said. “But also, sometimes we forget the message. Especially with the state of the world the way it is now and the state of the economy, I think it’s a very important message.”

Jeff Black as the ghost of Jacob Marley shows Scrooge what will happen if he does not repent. Forced to wander under heavy chains, he is filled with rage and regret for caring only about money instead of the greater good.

Why he returned after death to his business partner is something Black pondered. By saving one soul, Marley can lighten his own burden. Black was surprised to find himself in a much better mood since rehearsals began.

“It’s lightened my spirits,” Black said, “no pun intended.”

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