A Christmas Carol Play Guide - Actors Theatre of Louisville

About theA Christmascarol PLAY GUIDEThis play guide is a resource designed toenhance your theatre experience. Its goalis twofold: to nurture the teaching andlearning of theatre arts and to encourageessential questions that lead to enduringunderstandings of the play’s meaning andrelevance. Inside you will find:• Contextual and historical informationincluding a list of characters, plotsynopsis and information about theplaywright.• Evocative, thought provoking articleson topics surrounding the play, which aremeant to incite conversation and analysis.• Bridgework activitiesconnecting themes and ideas from theplay to your curriculum.• Oral discussion and writing promptsencouraging your students to drawconnections between the play and theirown lives. These prompts can easily beadapted to fit most writing objectives.Table of contents3 A Christmas Carol Synopsis, Characters, Setting4 About the Author: Charles Dickens5 Carol in Context: The Industrial Revolution6 How Carol Changed Christmas7 Conducting the Carol: An Interview with David Keeton8 How Carol Echoes Beyond Victorian England9 What a Scrooge!10 Discussion Questions, Bridgework11 Writing Portfolio12 Other Reading and Works CitedWe encourage you to adapt and extendthe material in any way that bestfits the needs of your community oflearners. Please feel free to make copiesof this guide, or you may download itfrom our website: ActorsTheatre.org/education_guides.htm. We hope thismaterial, combined with our pre-showworkshop, will give you the tools tomake your time at Actors Theatre avaluable learning experience.A Christmas Carol student matineesand study guides address specificeduCAtional objectives:Actors Theatre EducationSteven Rahe, Director of EducationJacob Stoebel, Associate Director of EducationJulie Mercurio, Education FellowJane B. Jones, Education Intern/Teaching ArtistChristina Lepri, Education Intern/Teaching ArtistLiz Fentress, Teaching ArtistJessica Leader, Teaching ArtistKeith McGill, Teaching ArtistStudy guide compiled by Alex Connolly, Tara Duffy,Adrien-Alice Hansel, Julie McCormick, Steven Rahe,Jacob Stoebel, Amy Wegener.Cover photo by Alan Simons.Graphic design by Elissa Shortridge.• Students will identify or describe theuse of elements of drama in dramaticworks.2• Students will identify or explain howdrama/theatre fulfills a variety ofpurposes.• Students will identify a variety ofcreative dramatics.The Kentucky Arts Council, thestate arts agency, supports ActorsTheatre of Louisville with state taxdollars and federal funding from theNational Endowment for the Arts.The Crawford Charitable Foundationsupports Actors Theatre of Louisville’s 2010-2011 education programs.

Scrooge and others in the 2009 production at Actors Theatre. Photo by Alan Simons.SynopsisEbenezer Scrooge is a mean, oldbusinessman who thinks that Christmasis a frivolous holiday, just an excusefor people not to work. Despite hisvast fortune, Scrooge hoards money,refusing to give to charity because hebelieves that the poor are just lazy anddeserve no such help. He doesn’t evenpay his hardworking and loyal clerk,Bob Cratchit, a fair wage that wouldallow him to get his sick son, TinyTim, proper medical attention! DespiteScrooge’s heartlessness, his nephew andonly living relative, Fred, still wants tospend Christmas with his uncle, butthe miser rejects him. On ChristmasEve, he is visited by the ghost of hisformer business partner, Jacob Marley,who is now paying dearly for how helived his life—the same way Scrooge isliving his life now! Marley tells him thatthree spirits—the Ghosts of ChristmasPast, Present, and Yet to Come—willvisit him that night. These phantomswill show old Scrooge how he becameso hard-hearted, what he’s lost out onbecause of it, and what will happen if hekeeps going down this path.- Tara DuffyCast ofCharactersEbenezer Scrooge— A wealthybut miserly businessman who has nosympathy for the poor nor any Christmascheer. He is transformed when visited bythree ghosts on Christmas Eve.Tiny Tim—Bob Cratchit’s youngestson, who is very sick but remains merry andgrateful during the holiday.Bob Cratchit— Scrooge’soverworked and underpaid clerk who isstruggling to support his wife and sixchildren but remains loyal to his cruel boss.Jacob Marley— Scrooge’s businesspartner who died seven years ago. His ghostwalks the earth in chains as a punishmentfor the cruel and greedy way he lived.Ghost of Christmas Past—This spirit shows Scrooge the events in hispast that have made him into the man heis today.GhoST of ChriSTmasPrESEnt— This spirit shows Scroogewhat he has ignored or cut himself off fromin the present.GhoST of ChriSTmasyET to Come – This spirit showsScrooge the likely consequences of hischoices.Fan—Scrooge’s kind-hearted sisterwho cared about her brother but diedyoung.Fred—Scrooge’s nephew and onlyliving relative. Like his mother, Fan, heis a cheerful person, and wants to spendChristmas with his uncle.Fezziwig—The owner of thewarehouse business where Scrooge wasan apprentice as a young man, this jollyman threw lively Christmas parties yearsago and was a kind employer to Scrooge.Belle—Young Scrooge’s fiancée who isalienated by his obsession with money.SeTTingPlace London, from the slums tomiddle-class homes to wealthy mansions.TIME The Victorian era.3

About the Author: Charles DickensRead more about how the British novelistderived much of the inspiration for the settingand characters of A Christmas Carol from hisown life.Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was no stranger to the kind ofpoverty that is graphically depicted in A Christmas Carol. Born inPortsmouth—a city on England’s south coast—in 1812, Dickensenjoyed a comfortable childhood typical of an English middleclassfamily of the era. John Dickens, his father, worked as aclerk for the Navy Pay Office, allowing Charles to go to privateschool for a few years. He spent much of his free time readingnovels like Robinson Crusoe and Tom Jones, which taught himto carefully observe the people and events surrounding him. Sowhen his father, unable to pay all the family’s bills, ended up indebtor’s prison, the seriousness of the event was not lost on thetwelve year old Charles. His father wouldn’t be released from thejail until the debt was paid, so as the oldest son, Charles beganworking ten-hour days at a shoe polish factory, pasting labels tocontainers. Dickens described the factory as “a crazy, tumbledownold house… literally overrun with rats.” The stories he laterwrote sought to enlighten readers about the conditions in whichthe poor had to live and work.By a stroke of luck, John Dickens received an inheritance andpaid his debt to get out of prison. Charles returned to school butit wasn’t long before the family’s shaky finances forced him backto work, this time as a junior clerk at a law firm. In his spare timehe learned a type of shorthand used by journalists, and left thelaw offices in order to become a freelance reporter. His time as ajournalist further exposed Dickens to the disparity between theclasses, an issue that would frequently appear in his novels.A portrait of the youngCharles DickensDickens eventually became the editor of a literary magazine andpublished many of his novels in monthly installments. He wouldlater compile all the sections and publish a book. This format—known as serialization—is like modern television storytelling,where every week the audience finds out a little more about thelarger story.Dickens was one of the most popular writers of the 19th century,both in his native England and abroad. His other famous worksinclude Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, A Tale of Two Cities andGreat Expectations. He visited America twice—the first time wasin 1842, just before the publication of A Christmas Carol. In thetravelogue he published, American Notes for General Circulation,he criticized the sanitary conditions in American cities, provingthat urban blight seen in his novels was not just confined toLondon.During his second visit to America in November 1867 Dickensbecame ill, possibly suffering from a stroke. He returned home togive farewell readings from his most beloved stories for the nexttwo years, as his health continued to worsen. Dickens died in1870 at age 58.-Tara DuffyAn artist’s depiction ofDickens’ childhood work4

A CHRISTMAS CARol in Context:The Industrial RevolutionCharles Dickens wrote AChristmas Carol duringthe Industrial Revolution, aperiod marked by the rapiddevelopment of industrythat took place in Englandin the late 18th and early19th centuries.New machines, power sources, andmethods of production led to the creationof urban industrial centers and a wholenew way of life. New machines such as thespinning jenny and power loom producedcloth in a fraction of the time it took tomake it by hand. The Industrial Revolutionalso led to a shift in the methods ofproduction. Instead of highly skilledcraftsmen working on a product from startto finish, factories started dividing thework up into smaller tasks that would becompleted by many people on an assemblyline. In the past, one person might havetaken weeks to make a shirt—spinning thecotton into thread, weaving it on a loom,cutting it, and then sewing it by hand.Think about how much work that wouldbe! With the help of assembly lines andnew machines, however, a large team ofunskilled laborers could make dozens oreven hundreds of shirts in one day. Thislowered the cost of everyday items andmeant that people could use their time forother things, like education or leisure.These new developments encouragedurbanization. By 1850, more than half ofthe population lived in cities and workedin industry. Britain was becoming therichest country in the world, though withthis great wealth came a widening in thegap between the social classes. The richbecame richer, while the working classeswere left behind. Children as young as fivewere commonly put to work to help supporttheir families, often in very dangerousfactory jobs. At the time that Dickens waswriting A Christmas Carol, though newlaws were just beginning to protect workers,conditions were still very inhumane.A Christmas Carol also draws on some ofDickens’ own life experiences. We see thesame desperate circumstances that Dickenssaw in the shoe polish factory when Scroogevisits the slums with the ghost of ChristmasFuture, or when he sees the Cratchit familywith the Ghost of Christmas Present. LikeCharles Dickens, the young EbenezerScrooge also found himself suddenly forcedto work to survive. The constant fear ofpoverty drives Scrooge to earn more andmore money, even if it means losing love,friendship, and compassion along the way.Dickens saw generosity as a way to combatthe isolation and cruelty that was a part oflife in industrial London, and it is learningthis lesson that helps Scrooge to have amerry Christmas after all.- Julie McCormickAn engraving of the urban overcrowding in London5

How CARol Changed ChristmasPeople started celebrating Christmas as we knowit right around the time that Charles Dickenswrote A Christmas Carol.1,600 years ago, in the time of the Roman Empire, manycivilizations celebrated Dies Natalis Solis Invicti (or, the “Birth ofthe Unconquered Sun”) at the end of December, by feasting andlistening to music. In the Middle Ages, people kept this traditionby having large dinners, caroling, and watching nativity plays.Puritans turned Christmas into a solemn religious occasion whenthey ruled Britain in the 17th Century, but it became the festive,cheery holiday it once was by the time Dickens had been born.The Industrial Revolution also had a big impact on Christmas. Itled to the emergence of an urban middle class and made family lifemore important. Now that people had more money and leisuretime, they could spend it on gifts for family and friends. Themeaning of Christmas was starting to change, to become not onlya time of fun, but also a time of love and generosity towards others.A Christmas Carol gives us a perfect example of this new holidayspirit through Scrooge’s transformation from miserly humbug togenerous friend. People immediately loved the Carol story andstarted retelling it and acting it out, passing on this new idea ofChristmas from one generation to the next. So in many ways,Charles Dickens is responsible for Christmas as we know it!-Julie McCormickCartoonist Thomas Nast’s depiction of Santa Claus in the late19th century has become the iconic image of the jolly old man.Other Christmas traditionsthat started at this time:• Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s husband, brought theChristmas tree tradition to England with him from Germany.• Though people had been singing carols for hundreds of years,some of our most favorite, like “Good King Wenceslas,” werewritten at this time.Victorian holiday extravagance depicted in this celebrating illustration.6

Conducting the Carol:An InterviewAn Interview with David KeetonMusic plays a vital role inholiday traditions and ActorsTheatre’s production of FifthThird Bank’s A ChristmasCarol. David Keeton, theMusic Director, answered ourquestions about what exactlyhis job entails, its challenges,and the significance of music inthe play.What does a Music Director do?Keeton is in charge of all aspects of themusic in the production which includesabout 15 different songs. “First, I work withthe director to find where in the productionmusic should be,” Keeton explains. Oncethe musical moments are identified, thenit’s time to decide how that music willsound. While many of the songs you willhear in the play are Christmas classics,Keeton has made all the arrangements forthe instruments in the show. Some scenesneed underscoring, soft background musicunderneath the dialogue, while other sceneshave the ensemble singing, sometimeseven a cappella (without any instrumentalaccompaniment)! In fact, all the musiciansand singers in the show are members of theacting ensemble. However, Keeton stressesthat this show is not like a musical because“we are not singing the story itself,” butrather “we are stopping the action andsinging a song, so it’s more presentational.”Overcoming Obstacles and Staying In SyncThe ensemble singing a carol in the 2009 production. Photo by Alan Simons.Keeton says his biggest challenge in the show is “training all of the singers to sing togetherwithout a conductor while they are performing onstage.” Unlike a choir, the ensembleonstage is not grouped by the vocal parts of soprano, alto, tenor or baritone. Rather, theyhave to stay together while still acting in character. Also, singing together can be hardbecause the sound bounces off of surfaces. If you are 50 feet away from somebody there isa slight delay between when that person starts singing and when you hear it. Also, if thereis a set piece between you and that person, you aren’t actually hearing the first sound—youare hearing an echo off the audience. So Keeton acts as a choir director at rehearsals weeksbefore the show to make sure everyone is strong in their parts.Keeton also works with the sound designer to help overcome these obstacles. Keeton assignsmicrophones to a few singers and then “pipes that into monitors that are within the set.”That way, ensemble members can “cue off of those voices,” even if the person is far away. “Ithelps everyone stay in sync without using a conductor,” Keeton says.The Music’s RoleKeeton admits he has seen plenty of productions of A ChristmasCarol at other theatres that do not have one song in them. “Still, Ithink [music] adds something special,” he says. He emphasizes thateven though these carols don’t tell the story, they still serve a veryimportant purpose by enhancing the emotional journey. Keetonbelieves the most important part of his job is to help tell the story bymatching the music to the emotional moment. Music plays a big rolenot only in A Christmas Carol but in the holiday season in general.These carols have been sung for generations, so they bring up happymemories. Keeton says his own introduction to music was throughhis mother singing in the church choir around Christmas. Morethan happy nostalgia, music can help express the emotions of joyand hope that many people experience during this time of year, ideasthat are central to Scrooge’s transformation in A Christmas Carol.- Tara DuffyAn early example of carolers in 18427

CARol Beyond Victorian EnglandScrooge’s journey relates more to our modernworld than you might think.Though A Christmas Carol was written in 1843, the story hasnevertheless resonated with every generation since its publication.Everyone knows this story—it’s something we share, that unites us,that we can talk about. What will A Christmas Carol mean to us in2010?We actually have a surprising amount in common with Dickens’original 1840s audience: we are in the midst of the worst recessionin 50 years where unemployment rates, pay cuts, personal debtand homelessness are higher than ever. Like the 19th centuryLondon in A Christmas Carol, 21st century America faces starkclass stratifications—the rich are getting even richer, and the poorare getting much, much poorer. In 2008, 13.2% of the Americanpopulation lived below the poverty line. The poverty line, orpoverty threshold, refers to the minimum income that accordingto the Federal government a household can receive and maintainan adequate standard of living; the poverty threshold for a familyof four in 2008 was $22,025. Women and children suffer themost—the average woman only earns 77% of what the average manearns doing the same job, and an alarming number of children facepoverty every day. One-fifth or 20% of children in the U.S. livebelow the poverty line.This man giving ahungry child fooddocuments the spiritof giving to the lessfortunate in theVictorian era.We see Ebenezer Scrooge every day on the news, in the faces ofcorrupt corporate officials and dishonest politicians. Yet despite theincreasingly desperate situation in contemporary America, classcontinues to be a taboo subject. Talking about A Christmas Carolbecomes a way to start these conversations; it’s a tool with whichto evaluate our own experiences and understand the world aroundus. What would we do in the places of these characters? Would wehoard our money like Scrooge or Marley? Would we be cheerfulin the face of despair like Tiny Tim, or the Cratchits? Dickens’story makes us ask ourselves what our values are and what is mostimportant to us.Every generation needs to redefine the meaning of Christmas foritself. In recent years, the holiday has become a major economicevent. Putting up extravagant decorations and exchanging costlygifts has become the norm for the season, but with the currentrecession, these things become more difficult to do. Now thatgiving expensive gifts or taking vacations somewhere warm are lessavailable options, families have been coming up with more creativeways to celebrate the holidays like giving thoughtful, homemadepresents, volunteering or making donations to charity.- Julie McCormickVolunteers for Dare to Care in Louisville gather food for needyfamilies throughout the year, not just during the holidays.8

Cross-Curricular ConnectionsLiteratureThe appearance of a ghost is a popular device in novels and playsto propel the action forward. Research other instances in literaturewhen ghosts move the plot ahead. Create a timeline that featuresother stories with ghosts. Do all these ghosts look alike? Do theyappear in a similar manner? Do all the phantasms have a positiveimpact on the main character?HistoryA Christmas Carol helped to define Christmas as we know it today.Research what events and changes were going on in VictorianEngland that contributed to this new sense of the holiday. Create aposter with the images and information you find.MusicThe production of A Christmas Carol at Actors Theatre featuresmany holiday songs that emphasize the emotional moments in theplay. But the lyrics don’t necessarily tell the plot, so it’s more like amovie soundtrack than a musical. Think about a period in your lifewhen you went through a big change. Write down five emotionsyou experienced during this time. Then think of five songs youlike that express these emotions. Be sure to consider things likethe tempo or the genre of music. Create a poster where you brieflyexplain your experience, the five emotions you felt during thatjourney, and the accompanying songs.A mother and her children performing a Christmas carolWriting PortfolioPersonalIn A Christmas Carol, Scrooge’s encounterswith the three spirits change his opinionsabout how he should treat fellow humanbeings. Write about someone who haschanged your mind about how you shouldtreat other people. What did this person door say to change your point of view? Howdid your thinking and/or behavior changeas a result of this experience?LiteraryAlthough Charles Dickens wrote fictionalnovels, he based many of the circumstanceson the struggles of the poor that hewitnessed in London. Write a short story orpoem in which the characters are affectedby a social issue that is important to you.TransactiveWrite a review of the performance of AChristmas Carol that you saw at ActorsTheatre of Louisville. Describe what it waslike to watch the play, but be sure to writemore than just the plot of the play. Thinkabout how the play tells the story. Makethe experience come alive for the reader byusing lots of sensory details when writingabout several of the play’s elements, likethe costumes, lights, props, music, how theactors said their lines, and how the directorrealized the vision of the play. Let theaudience decide for themselves if the play isworth seeing.11

If you liked A CHRISTMAS CARol...BooksA Christmas Carol by Charles DickensOliver Twist by Charles DickensGreat Expectations by Charles DickensFilmIt’s A Wonderful Life (1946) dir. Frank CapraThe Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) dir. Brian HensonThe Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) dir. Henry SelickScrooged (1988) dir. Richard DonnerPlaysA Christmas Story by Philip Grecian, based on the motion pictureA Christmas Story ©1983 Turner Entertainment Co., distributedby Warner Bros., written by Jean Shepherd, Leigh Brown and BobClark and on the book In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash byJean Shepherd—at Actors Theatre this season!“Let’s party like it’s 1843!” Elvy Yost, John Gregorio, andNathan Keepers in the 2009 production at Actors Theatre.Photo by Alan Simons.Works CitedDavis, Paul. The Lives and Times of Ebenezer Scrooge. New Haven: Yale University Press,1990. Print.---. “Retelling A Christmas Carol.” American Scholar 59.1 (1990): 109. HumanitiesInternational Compete. EBSCO. Web. 24 June 2010.Forster, John. Life of Charles Dickens. NY, Scribner: 1907. Print.“Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2008.” U.S. CensusBureau. U.S. Census Bureau. 10 Sept. 2009. Web. 24 June 2010.Keeton, David. Personal Interview. 30 June 2010.Minzesheimer, Bob. “Dickens’ classic ‘Christmas Carol’ still sings to us.” USA Today. 22Dec 2008. Web. 24 June 2010.Rowell, Geoffrey. “Dickens and the construction of Christmas.” History Today. London:Dec 1993. Vol. 43 p. 17. Web. 24 June 2010.Weeks, Jerome. “Turning Marley’s Face into a Doorknob is Just Problem Number One forCarol Adaptors.” American Theatre. December 2000. Print.