Annapolis Shakespeare tries something different
For this holiday season, company does own version of ‘A Christmas Carol’
In recent years the Annapolis Shakespeare Company’s choice for a holiday offering was the nostalgic “It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play.”
For 2017, artistic director Sally Boyett decided on a change, and the result is the company’s production of “A Christmas Carol,” on stage through Dec. 31.
Adaptations are not new to the company. In August, the troupe produced the world premiere of “Alice and the Book of Wonderland,” adapted by Boyett and resident director Donald Hicken.
“We had so much fun with ‘Alice’ that Sally thought we should try to do ‘A Christmas Carol,’?” Hicken says. “Our adaptation is quite faithful to Charles Dickens.”
The many characters in the book are played by an ensemble of 14. And, as was the case with the company’s “Alice” production, projections, some on a large screen upstage, will be employed to generate atmosphere.
Yet for all the stagecraft involved in this production, the words are most important to Hicken.
“I hope we got all the textures of the book,” he said. “Its message of compassion and generosity was important to Charles Dickens, especially at Christmas. But he really wanted that message to be carried through all year.”
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