Tartans, pine needles and bows have filled three decades in the memories of families who make A Christmas Carol part of their annual holiday tradition. Prominent in those memories is the sight and sound of the young children who have stepped onstage as Tiny Tim in the Denver Center Theatre Company production. As the company celebrates the 30th anniversary of Dickens’ timeless classic, we thought we’d check in with some former Tiny Tims as well as this year’s 7-year-old performer, Benjamin Martinez, to hear how it feels to enter a large, primarily adult production as a child.

Benjamin Martinez

2024: Benjamin Martinez

Tiny Tim will be 7-year-old Benjamin Martinez’s second role onstage. His debut came last year, as a first-grader in Stone Soup at Warder Elementary in Arvada. Memorizing those lines wasn’t difficult, he says: “My teacher was holding up the lines I was supposed to say.”

His father had seen the notice for Tiny Tim auditions. “His response when we told him that he was cast, it was probably the happiest I’ve ever seen him,” David Martinez says.

To prepare, the family watched The Muppet Christmas Carol. “I just hope that he enjoys himself and tries something new,” David says. “It’s something that he’ll be able to say when he’s an old man that he was Tiny Tim.”

2009-2013: Charlie Korman

Charlie Korman holds the distinction of being the longest-running Tiny Tim in the show’s history. He was only age 5, and the youngest child auditioning at the time – a moment recorded for history by the Denver Center in a video still on YouTube: “Introducing Charlie Korman – The Next Tiny Tim.”

Fifteen years later, Korman has acted on the TV shows “Barry,” “Hacks,” and “The Conners.” Last month, he returned to Denver to introduce his feature film debut at the Mizel Arts and Culture Center, where he began his acting career at the Wolf Theatre Academy.

Charlie Korman and Jeff Cribbs in A Christmas Carol

“My parents signed me and my siblings up for summer theater camps to get us out of the house, and I quickly fell in love,” says Korman, now a student at the University of Southern California. “The casting directors called my older brother and asked if he was interested in auditioning for Tiny Tim. While he wasn’t interested, I overheard the phone call and asked if I could audition instead. They were hesitant to let a 5-year-old audition, but I eventually won the role!”

Korman’s memories of being a child in a professional production include playing hide and seek with other child actors backstage. After his time as Tiny Tim, he went on to play Young Scrooge for three more years in A Christmas Carol and acted in 13 other Denver Center shows.

“My experience with A Christmas Carol impacts almost every aspect of my life today,” he says.

1999: Donovan Trent Fountain

Donovan Trent Fountain and Mark Rubald in A Christmas Carol

Donovan Trent Fountain, who played Tiny Tim in 1999, was in kindergarten when his music teacher suggested that he and his sister audition for A Christmas Carol. He distinctly recalls the play aspect of life backstage.

“Brian Shea, who has done a lot of great work for the DCPA, used to toss me in the costume bin and roll me around the dressing rooms after shows,” he says. “I also remember some of the late members of the production like Laird Williamson and Harvey Blanks. Both of those guys made lifelong impressions on this community and on me as well.”

Today, Fountain is a kindergarten teacher at the Lotus School for Excellence in Aurora. He says A Christmas Carol was “incredibly formative for my choice of career.

“One of the reasons I wanted to become a teacher was boredom in the classroom. I used to miss school to go to rehearsals and fittings and such, so I was pretty disinterested when I was in school,” he says. “Over time, I just wanted to be the kind of teacher who excited kids about attending school and engaging in learning.”

2 Adaptations, 24 Tiny Tims & 30 Productions

Since opening on New Year’s Eve 1979, the Denver Center Theatre Company has mounted two adaptations of A Christmas Carol: the first by Laird Williamson and Dennis Powers (1990-2004) and the second by Richard Hellesen (2005-current). Twenty-four young actors have appeared in 30 productions:

Jonathan Winstead (1990)
Alex Wyatt (1991)
Ben Kimball (1992)
Colin Smith (1993)
Brendan Horton (1994)
Luke Eberl (1995)
Cameron Teitelman (1996)
Bobby Frause (1997)
Winston Sanks (1998)
Donovan Trent Fountain (1999)
David Strouse (2001)
Ben Larned (2002-2003)
Harry Feder Pruett (2004)
Harrison Steele (2005)
Ian Farmer (2006)
Alec Farmer (2008)
Charlie Korman (2009-2013)
Elias Harger (2014)
Augie Reichert (2015-2016)
Peyton Goossen (2017)
Lucas Turner (2018)
Logan Turner (2021-2022)
Hope Clarkston (2023)
Benjamin Martinez (2024)

DETAILS
A Christmas Carol
Nov 24-Dec 29, 2024 • Wolf Theatre
Tickets