By Anthony Powell, Director of A Christmas Carol

Anthony Powell, Director

Like many people, I fell in love with A Christmas Carol long before actually getting a chance to read Charles Dickens’ beloved holiday novel. And it wasn’t a stage adaptation that first introduced me to this wonderful story, or even one of the many film versions inspired by the book. Truth be told – it was Mr. Magoo.

For those of us growing up in the 1960s, a certain animated TV special called “Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol” proved irresistible. It had lots of humor, some excellent songs, and featured a Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come so scary that it totally short-circuited our brains with oh-so-enjoyable fright.

A few years later, my family began watching the 1951 British film version of A Christmas Carol together every December. This annual viewing became a tradition at our house and remains one of my fondest holiday memories. I was still too young to fully comprehend the real significance Ebenezer Scrooge’s transformation from “covetous old sinner” to “as good a man as the old city ever knew” in any kind of intellectual way – but Alistair Sim’s sublime performance as Scrooge moved me deeply.

Plus, I continued to revel in the story’s spookier elements. A Christmas Carol is subtitled “A Ghost Story of Christmas,” after all, and the movie’s harrowing depiction of those tormented spirits who appear outside of Scrooge’s window when Jacob Marley comes to call scared the bejabbers out of me.

I finally got around to reading the book during a 1980s holiday break from college and fell in love with the story all over again. But oddly enough for an acting major, I never had the pleasure of seeing A Christmas Carol onstage until moving to Denver later in the decade – and let me tell you, that initial experience of watching a story I knew so well being performed by live actors turned out to be a major surprise. The films and television specials are all delightful in various ways, but there is something quite different – and quite powerful – about joining Scrooge for his life-changing Christmas Eve epiphany in real time. We audience members get to share his ultimate redemption in a very personal way, an experience I continually find exhilarating.

(l-r) Daniel E. James, Winston Anton Sanks, Anthony Powell, Aaryn Smith, Ben Dignan, Hannah Rae Montgomery, and Christine Juguenta. Photo by Dan McNeil

In 1992 I was lucky enough to be cast as Bob Cratchit here at the Denver Center, which ended up being a total blast from start to finish – despite my nagging fear that I seemed a little well-fed for the part. I carried around some extra weight back then, and worried that the audience might think Bob was sneaking food from the larder when the rest of the Cratchit family wasn’t looking. In any case, our director didn’t seem to mind, and the role remains one of my all-time favorites.

In those days we performed a script adapted by Laird Williamson who returned every season to direct the show. I still remember his opening remarks from that long-ago first day of rehearsal. Laird felt a serious responsibility to his source material and was utterly committed to getting things right. He talked about the vital importance of Dickens’ story to our lives right now, how it still calls upon each of us to become our best selves, striving for kindness and generosity in our dealings with other people. He conceived of the play as being almost ritualistic: a funny, poignant, wildly entertaining tale that we return to every year for a potent reminder of what it means to be fully human.

But the icing on this Dickensian cake of mine has definitely been the opportunity to direct A Christmas Carol and re-experience this astonishing story I love so much in an entirely new way. I couldn’t believe my good luck four seasons ago when the assignment first came my way, and each successive year that I get to work on the show only increases this sense of gratitude. Our initial day of rehearsals always feels like coming home for the holidays – reuniting with extended family members from the masterful company of actors, stage managers, designers, technicians, costumers and scenic artisans who bring Charles Dickens’ grand Christmas vision to life onstage at the DCPA every year.

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Of course, this extended family also includes all of you lovely people in the audience – both the folks who are attending our production of A Christmas Carol for the very first time and the many who return year after year to enjoy the lasting beauty of this classic tale all over again. There are so many things I enjoy about directing the show, but one of my greatest pleasures is getting to sit in the theatre during preview performances. I’m watching the actors onstage, naturally, but I’m also watching all of you watch them. Because our annual production of A Christmas Carol isn’t just a play; it’s a community event, a shared memory, a group embrace. We come together once a year to collectively experience Ebenezer Scrooge’s transformative journey out of darkness into the sunlight of the spirit – and in doing so, take joy from Dickens’ hopeful vision of what a life well-lived can truly be.

So thanks to all of you for attending this performance, thanks to Charles Dickens for blessing us with a holiday gift that just keeps on giving, and thanks to Mr. Magoo for first introducing me to A Christmas Carol in just the right way.

The Denver Center for the Performing Arts (DCPA) NewsCenter is the organization’s editorial platform for stories, announcements, interviews, and coverage of theatre and cultural programming in Colorado. We are committed to producing accurate, trustworthy, clearly sourced journalism that reflects our mission and serves our community.