If it’s Christmas or almost Christmas then Charleston Stage must have a show or TWO ready for the holiday season. This is a really exciting year for me because I am directing The Best Christmas Pageant Ever and acting in A Christmas Carol. I have directed both of these shows multiple times and am always amazed at how different each production can be.
In Carol, I play Mrs. Tabor (Scrooges’ maid) and the Ghost of Christmas Past. After watching from the audience for so many years it is a great change to be right in the middle of the action. I am really enjoying working with so many actors who I have directed in the past. Half my cast of 39 Steps (Brian Porter and Beth Curley) are on stage with me and are using yet another accent. Marley is played by Gabe Wright who I met when I cast him in our season opener Hairspray. Watching him transform from the always energized dancer to Ol’ dead Marley has been just one of the surprises in store for me. There are 20 young actors who I have taught in our TheatreSchool classes, some for many years, including my daughter Prentice who plays Belle. And just to prove, yet again ,that theatre is a very small world, Chris Edwards, who appears as my fellow servant and Ghost of Christmas Present, and I met performing in Christmas Carol in Tampa Fl. in 1991. To keep me on my toes our director and playwright, Julian Wiles, has re-written a lot of my dialogue so I have lots of new things to add. I think he may have done that to keep me busy so I didn’t try to help him direct. It worked, most of the time…
Come celebrate the season with us and see the beautiful Dock Street Theatre decked out for the holidays.
