From: "Robert Rogers" <robertrogers-AT-robertrogerspuppets.com> To: <puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org> Date: Sun, 6 Sep 2009 08:10:10 -0400 Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] Questions about "A Christmas Carol" Having produced a version of "A Christmas Carol," and played Scrooge for several years, I can tell you that the most important moment in the story occurs when he wakes up from his ordeal with the spirits. I credit the great actor Patrick Stewart for pointing this out - there's an interview of him explaining this on video somewhere. The problem is that most people play Scrooge as a just a mean old cheap heartless guy. But the truth is, he's a man in pain, who's learned to deal with it by pushing aside his own emotions, and his various emotional relationships. Read the book and maybe you'll get a sense of this. Therefore, when he wakes up and discovers that he's not dead, he goes through a cathartic change. Yes, even in a show for children, can this be dramatized. He shouldn't just wake up and jump into some merry dance. He's got to first expell all his unhappiness and let himself breathe in new life. As Mr. Stewart explained, it's been so long that Ebeneezer Scrooge laughed, let alone smiled, that it's actually hard for him to do. So first, he actually cries, and then the cries turn to laughter. Then he gets silly. I took this direction and the conscious understanding of Scrooge's pain, and you know what? Even though I was playing Scrooge with a marionette, when I came to that final transformation, I actually choked up & tears welled up in my eyes. There are so many adaptations of "A Christmas Carol." So many emphasize one quality at the expense of the others. (My favorite is the Mr. Magoo version.) But there's nothing like studying the original by Dickens himself. Second to that would be Stewart's one person performance of the book - not the cheap tv movie that he starred in. Robert Rogers _______________________________________________ List address: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org Admin interface: http://lists.puptcrit.org/mailman/listinfo/puptcrit Archives: http://www.driftline.org
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