Performer, reformer: Dickens still the star in ‘A Merry Little Christmas Carol’

NORFOLK — Those of us who encounter Charles Dickens already dead and deified at the hands of English teachers might be amazed to learn what a rock star he was in his day (1812-1870).

A scene from Virginia Stage Company's "A Merry Little Christmas Carol." Left to right, actors Mesgana Jackson, Meredith Noël, Adalee Alt and Sarah Manton. (Matthew Omilianowski)

The consummate popular artist, he sold copies of his 15 masterpiece novels at the rate of a Victorian David Baldacci. On his two American tours, he hobnobbed with superstars such as Edgar Allan Poe and Mark Twain, even venturing to Richmond, pre-Civil War, to see slavery firsthand. (According to David Perdue’s website, The Charles Dickens Page, Dickens, a staunch abolitionist, was horrified.) He was besieged by fans as voracious for tickets to his readings as Swifties are to see their Taylor. Among his fan favorites was ”A Christmas Carol,” a cash cow for him at readings, home and abroad.

The title of Mark Shanahan’s stage adaptation of Dickens’ classic 1843 novella, now at Virginia Stage Company, also alludes to the 1944 song made famous by Judy Garland in “Meet Me in St. Louis.” Shanahan’s reference to the sentimental “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” is one of the only faux pas in this otherwise sure-footed show. The adapter’s choice of title (in which the VSC likely had no role, though it did select this adaptation) is unfortunate because the words “merry” and “little” together diminish and even infantilize the classic’s content and repute. Fortunately, the show itself, however, does neither; on the contrary, this production, featuring five fine Equity actors, reveals and fulfills Dickens’ fight for social justice and the VSC’s ethos on achieving the same.

Actors Mesgana Jackson, left, and Beatty Barnes in "A Merry Little Christmas Carol" at the Wells Theatre. (Matthew Omilianowski)

How does this adaptation differ from Dickens’ traditional “A Christmas Carol”? Well, in Bob Cratchit’s words, it’s a “wonderful pudding.” It’s been trimmed a good bit in both senses of the word “trim.” It’s been invigorated with incidental carols, though they are secondary in importance to plot and performance. And Shanahan’s adaptation has some leavening: contemporary break-the-fourth-wall patter with the audience, tactfully hushed in the most dramatic parts. Rest assured that the Ghost of Christmas Future will still scare the dickens out of you, aided by spooky lighting and Steven Allegretto’s impressive sound effects, including “chimes at midnight” sounding from the rear of the house.

Jeni Schaefer’s costumes (with the exception of Bob Cratchit’s office jacket?) are Victorian. (Recall that the Wells was built only 11 years after Queen Victoria’s demise!) Dahlia Al-Habieli’s serviceable uniset is surprisingly nautical in feeling (wheelhouse to conceal the piano, ship’s wheel, etc.) but begins to make sense when one considers the Wells’ proximity to old Norfolk’s waterfront plus a brief section of the play’s being set at sea.

But everyone goes to see Scrooge, and Beatty Barnes Jr., reprising his role from last year’s production, never disappoints.

Barnes draws on his talent as a stand-up comedian to execute Dickens’ puns, augmented or emphasized by adapter Shanahan (e.g., “no time like the present” said to the Ghost of Christmas Present). But even more important than comic chops is Barnes’ ability to pace his transformation from a man who despises the poor, turning down charity-seeking philanthropists by saying “Are there no prisons?” and “Are there no workhouses?” into a man who can promise to “honour Christmas in (his) heart, and try to keep it all the year.” The transformation begins as soon as his encounter with Marley, but it must not be rushed — comprising, as it does, the very backbone and arc of the story.

Actors in "A Merry Little Christmas Carol" at the Wells Theatre in Norfolk: Left to right, Beatty Barnes, Adalee Alt and Sarah Manton. (Matthew Omilianowski)

By Dr. Page Laws

Page Laws is dean emerita of the Nusbaum Honors College at Norfolk State University. prlaws@aya.yale.edu

A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS CAROL is Back!

Giving Tuesday 2022 | Support Artist Workers Who Make the Jewell of Hampton Roads Theatre Shine!

Every year, during the season of giving, non-profits and arts organizations from across the globe participate in Giving Tuesday. This nationally recognized campaign asks those who support the arts and non-profit organization to consider, during this time of giving and cheer, to consider supporting your favorite local organizations with any amount you can.

Keep an eye on our social media, website, and more as our artists from across the country share why Virginia Stage Company is an arts organization worthy of your love and support and what about their experiences makes VSC feel like home.

Hear from the Artists Your Gift Directly Impacts

Jeffrey A Haddock is a teaching artist at Virginia Stage and was recently seen as Bilbo in our production of The Hobbit (2022). His work with Governor’s School Students, Young Artists, and on stage is supported by the meals and transportation assistance we provide to the young artists he teaches.

Bart Mather is a New York based artist who rocked our stage in his dazzling performance in the ensemble of Fun Home and Secret Garden. Thanks to the generous support of donors like yourselves, actors like Bart get to join our community and bring their talent, views, and energies to our family here at VSC.

Leila Stephanie is a teaching artist with Virginia Stage Company and most recently performed in the premier of The Earth Remembers as Mama E. She is a wonderful spirit, whose work with students from grades K-12 is impactful and a true joy to watch. It’s thanks to the funds that get students to our student matinees that Leila is able to help open young minds and hearts to the magic of theatre for every show.

How Far Does Your Gift Go?

This year, we ask you to think about every facet of theatre that your contribution supports. From the actors on stage, to the arts administrators and scene shop workers who build some of the most inspiring and unforgettable sets Hampton Roads ever sees. Every screw, every plank, every hour of rehearsal is curated by home grown artists and arts workers…nothing shipped in, nothing outsourced, all of the work crafted by hand by Hampton Roads community members who love to bring you life-changing theatre every day.

We ask this year, as you look at our ambitious goal, you will consider how far a dollar goes to support all of the things our hands can’t bring you…travel costs, meals, busses for students, all of these things need your support to happen. This support goes tremendously far in making sure Virginia Stage Company, your Jewel of Downtown Norfolk, can continue to be a lead player in the arts scene of Hampton Roads.

Make a difference to the Arts in Hampton Roads. Help Reach Our Goal. Support VSC.

Virginia Stage Company presents ‘Wiesenthal,’ inside the world of a Nazi hunter

NORFOLK — Against the backdrop of rising antisemitic violence and rhetoric, the Virginia Stage Company and the Holocaust Commission of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater will present the play “Wiesenthal” Tuesday.

“Wiesenthal” is a one-man show about Simon Wiesenthal, a Holocaust survivor who became a Nazi hunter after World War II and brought more than 1,000 escaped criminals to justice. “Wiesenthal” was written by and stars Tom Dugan, who said he wants people to know the man often called the “Jewish James Bond.”

Because educating young people is a focus of the Holocaust Commission, student groups will see it free on Wednesday.

Elena Barr Baum, director of the UJFT Holocaust Commission, said that it is as important a time as ever to remember the lessons found in “Wiesenthal.”

“The Holocaust Commission is not political,” Baum said. “But we have to understand why the Holocaust happened and be aware of the conditions that were right in Germany in the 1920s and ‘30s that made these things, these horrible things, happen.”

Last week, the FBI warned of a “broad threat” to New Jersey synagogues and located a man who the agency stated exhibited “an extreme amount of hate against the Jewish community.” Around the same time, NBA star Kyrie Irving made national headlines for not making an immediate apology for posting a link on his social media to a documentary that contained anti-Jewish sentiments.

“This should not be happening in a democracy,” Baum said.

“Wiesenthal” is one of six one-person, historical plays Dugan has written including “Shades of Gray” which spotlighted Robert E. Lee, “Frederick Douglass In The Shadow of Slavery,” and his most recent, “Tell Him It’s Jackie,” focusing on Jackie Kennedy.

Dugan has historians vet his scripts for historical accuracy.

“But each of my plays has been written and produced to be entertainment,” he said, “and my way of saying it is: If you’re not careful, you might learn something.”

Dugan isn’t Jewish, but his wife and two children are. Dugan was raised in an Irish Catholic family and his inspiration for “Wiesenthal” stemmed from his father’s experiences as being in an American military unit that liberated a concentration camp.

But “when I first started even thinking about writing about the Holocaust,” Dugan said, “I said to myself who wants to sit and listen to sad stories for 90 minutes.”

Then, he discovered that Wiesenthal was a pre-war amateur stand-up comedian.

It gave Dugan material to present more than Wiesenthal’s horrors.

“What is most surprising about the play to most audiences is how much they laugh,” Dugan said.

According to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Wiesenthal was born in what is now Ukraine on Dec. 31, 1908. He graduated in 1932 from the Technical University of Prague after being rejected from a school closer to home because he was Jewish.

During the war, he and his wife were shipped to a series of forced labor and death camps before being liberated. While Wiesenthal and his wife survived, 89 of their relatives did not, including Wiesenthal’s mother.

“When history looks back,” Wiesenthal once said, “I want people to know the Nazis weren’t able to kill millions of people and get away with it.”

Wiesenthal later hosted students in an office he kept in Vienna. Dugan’s play is set in an office. Dugan, as Wiesenthal, speaks to the audience as if they were the last group he ever spoke to in the twilight of his life. Wiesenthal died in 2005.

“I’m not jumping into different characters, but he’s a good storyteller,” Dugan said. “So along the way, you’ll get to know his wife, and you’ll get to know certain war criminals based on the way that Simon tells the story.”

Colin Warren-Hicks, 919-818-8138, colin.warrenhicks@virginiamedia.com

Spotlight News: On a Stage in Downtown Norfolk Lives a Hobbit...

(left to right): Alana Dodds Sharp, Ryan Clemens, Thomas Hall, Jeffrey A. Haddock, and Anna Sosa

Words by BA Ciccolella. Images by Sam Flint.

Full Disclosure: I’ve been wanting to see this show since I found out that my college did it years before I attended. Their dragon puppet lived under the stage in costume storage, and I wanted to play with it SO BAD. So in a way, this review was something like 20 years in the making, and in another way, the cast had 20 years of fan-girl build-up in my mind to overcome.

That being said: Go see The Hobbit. Seriously, just, stop what you are doing, pause reading this, buy a ticket, and come back. It’s running through November 6th, you still have time. This one-act play (no intermission) by the Virginia Stage Company, presented in collaboration with the Governor’s School for the Arts, is just the thing to take your mind off of all the crap happening in the world today, and let you relax and enjoy a group of story-tellers, an epic world, and the tale of one relatively small person who just wants to be back home in his own bed.

Speaking of Mr. Bilbo Baggings, Jeffrey Haddock does a brilliant job bringing him to life at the Wells Theatre in a manner that both respects the complexity of Bilbo’s character while still being appropriate to the Hobbit as a children’s story. Alana Dodds Sharp plays an impressive Gandalf, and seamlessly transitions into other characters, even when the transition is played for a laugh.

(left to right) Jeffrey A. Haddock and Alana Dodds Sharp

Ryan Clemens is entertaining as always with his variety of characters, and brings a steadying but humorous voice of reason to Thomas Hall’s more emotional character, Thorin. Mr. Hall’s Thorin really made me appreciate more of the nuances of that particular character- this was probably the first time in being told/ reading the story that I truly appreciated the trauma that Thorin and his crew went through when Smaug attacked the Lonely Mountain, and how that affected him for the rest of his life.

A special shout out also must go to Anna Sosa, who, amongst her other characters, makes the character of Gollum both easily familiar to the audience, and also genuinely her own in this performance.

The ensemble does brilliant work of making a full world of Tolkien’s characters, and if you’ve read Tolkien (or listened to myself or Stephen Colbert talk for more than 5 minutes), you are well aware of just how big a world that can be. Every single one of the Governor’s School students on that stage more than holds their own with the adult union actors.

Jeni Schaefer’s costume design brilliantly transitions actors between different characters and monsters so seamlessly, it’s actually easy as an audience member to forget that the cast is relatively small compared to the list of characters. Between her work, and Tumôhq Abney’s props, though there are not even 15 people in the cast, the audience has no problem believing that 13 dwarves and a wizard have invaded Bilbo’s home at the beginning of the show, and that they are running into individual trolls, spiders, elves, goblins, wolves, and even a dragon.

Technically, the show is very well done, with Josafath Reynoso’s abstract set consisting of a few staircases, drops, and platforms transforming into every location in Tolkein’s Middle Earth (or at least most of the ones Bilbo sees on his first ever adventure- for those “super-nerds”, there are some scenes in the book which are cut for time). A large glowing circle at the back wall helps to indicate when Bilbo is wearing his famous ring. The production is set up as a group (or potentially two groups coming together), who are telling a story with the thing that they have found in this space, so many found-item props, (pool noodles, trash bags, head-lamps, crates, etc.) turn into the various monsters and other challenges that Bilbo and the dwarves tackle along the way.

(left to right): Jayden Adams-Ruiz, Anna Sosa, Katherine Cottrell, Thomas Hall, and Gunar Pencis

Christina Watanabe’s lighting design works to seamlessly to bring the different environments of Middle Earth to the stage, while also expanding and shrinking the space as needed to provide just the right amount of danger when monsters appear, and the exact relief needed to relax everyone back into a sense of security when Bilbo and the dwarves escape unharmed.

The “unsung” hero of this performance, however, was Steven Allegretto’s sound design, with brilliant but subtle environmental backgrounds that brought us directly into each of the locations, as well as vocal modulation assistance for the actors to play with to really bring home certain monsters. Jamison Foreman’s original music helped place us squarely in a Middle Earth where even super-fans of Tolkien and perhaps more “famous” adaptations of his work will be comfortable.

It’s very obvious that everyone onstage at The Hobbit is having a great time telling this story. Director Billy Bustamante has done a great job of putting together a version of our favorite bed-time story that both entertains, allows us to laugh and cry with the characters, and teaches us the lessons meant to be learned from this epic hero’s journey. In the words of Thorin Oakenshield, “If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world. But, sad or merry, The Hobbit will only be playing at the Well’s Theater until Sunday, November 6. So go see it, before it must leave us. Farewell.” …Or something like that- I may not have written down the whole quote correctly. 😉

The Hobbit is running through November 6 at the Wells Theatre in Downtown Norfolk. Tickets can be purchased here.

Mistletoe Market!

Virginia Stage Company is proud to partner with local artists, artisans, and crafters for its second Seasonal Mistletoe Market to be held during Norfolk’s Grand Illumination Parade! If you’re looking for a warm and wonderful place, full of holiday cheer and historical theatre history to enjoy while observing the Grand Norfolk Parade then look no further! 

The bar will be open with warm drinks such as coffee and hot chocolate as well as our regular beverages and snacks for parade attendees while they wait for the Parade to pass by on Granby Street. Enjoy the opportunity to get your photo with Santa as his ‘Ho Ho Ho’s grace our historical theater lobby. Coloring sheets and take-home ornament crafts for the little ones, and one of the most beautiful marketplaces you’ll ever see! Nothing says Holidays from the Heart like homemade and well-crafted art pieces from Hampton Roads locals…and these artists will have their wares on sale for all guests!

Holiday favorite The Doorway Singers will be caroling down Tazewell and Granby, making their way to and from the Wells.

Doors will open to the public at 4pm, photos with Santa will be available until 6pm just before the parade starts and our doors will remain open throughout the parade and downtown holiday festivities. No tickets required for entry, just swing by and take photos in our historic Wells Theatre, enjoy our arts and crafts, partake in the Mistletoe Market and who knows; maybe if you’re lucky you’ll catch a glimpse of one of our most Infamous Holiday Spirits…The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come!

Vendors Include…

• The VSC Costumers’ Collection

• VSC’s Ryan Clemens (instagram), Puns and Miniature Art

• VSC’s Crystal Tuxhorn (instagram), photography prints & miscellany

• Critical Hit Creations (website) (fb) (instagram), custom dice and 3D printing

• Setzer Collections (etsy) (fb) (instagram), handmade bows and accessories

• Nickolai Walko (website) (instagram), Hand-Cut Mixed Media Artwork

• pgdCeramics (etsy) (instagram), Ceramic Pottery

• LA NEIGE (website), One-of-a-kind coastal themed décor

• Maison Soleil (website) (fb) (instagram), stylish artisan-made products

• Noonday Collection (website) (instagram), jewelry & accessories made around the globe

• Spring Scott, crochet creations

Virginia Pilot Review | Theatrical ‘Hobbit’ brings Middle-earth to Virginia Stage Company with imaginative stagecraft

By Page Laws

Forget the “one ring to rule them all.” At the Wells, at least until this show ends on Nov. 6, theatricality rules.

And what, pray tell, do we mean by “theatricality”?

No inkling of an answer?

(Please imagine “pray tell” and “inkling” in the voice of the South African-born Oxford don John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, 1892-1973, who published “The Hobbit” in 1937 and the “Ring” trilogy in 1954-55, and with C.S. Lewis belonged to a men’s literary group called the Inklings.)

We mean some low-tech, highly imaginative stagecraft and agile acting. “Theatricality” is the elusive answer to every fantasy fiction fan’s question: “How do they plan to pull that off on a stage?”

For an audience accustomed to Peter Jackson’s cinematic, computer-generated miracles, how will the Virginia Stage Company manage to conjure Gollum (played by half-masked Anna Sosa nicely hissing, “My Preciousss!”)? How will VSC create visible/invisible hobbits, dwarves, elves, goblins, wolflike wargs, giant spiders and a dragon, without simply projecting a CG film on the theater’s back wall?

Director Billy Bustamante recognized the problem early on and went for an unexpected answer. He punted the fantasy football by saying, as noted in the playbill, “My duty was not to fulfill expectations but to challenge them.” He’d been handed, pre-pandemic, a serviceable stage adaptation by Greg Banks — one of a dozen dramatic and/or musical efforts to capture Tolkien for the stage (not to mention the scores of adaptations for radio, ballet, opera, TV, gameboards, computer games, Lego sets, etc.). Banks uses tried-and-true story theater techniques: One main narrator, in Bilbo Baggins (youthful but assured Jeffrey A. Haddock), occasionally addresses the audience but steps right back into the current temporal flow, sometimes all within one line.

Bilbo shares plot-precipitating duties with the forward-and-backward-seeing wizard Gandalf (the perspicacious Alana Dodds Sharp), plus nine other double- or triple-cast dwarves, trolls, elves, goblins and even humans — some played by Equity pros (Ryan Clemens as Balin, for example) but others by stalwart young actors from the Governor’s School for the Arts, which is “right next door” to the Wells, as Producing Artistic Director Tom Quaintance mentions in his curtain speech. (Note: GSA is on a talent tear. A different, equally gifted batch of GSA students just starred in “Grease” for Virginia Musical Theatre at the Sandler, in Virginia Beach.)

The plot Gandalf semi-engineers is a simple series of perils: One reluctant hobbit and 13 dwarves overcome trolls, goblins, spiders, wood elves, underground imprisonment, and one big fat dragon, with the goal of winning a lost kingdom and vast treasure of silver and gold. But there’s nothing simple about the Tolkienian ethics being hammered out on this forge. More on that to come.

And so, director Bustamante went for a stripped-down, unmasked theater-walls set (bare except for a giant circle, remarkably reminiscent of the one just used, albeit differently, at Virginia Opera’s “The Valkyrie.” Coincidentally, Tolkien despised Wagner.) Onstage, Josafath Reynoso left us a stripped-down remnant of his very own staircase from the VSC’s most recent production, “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” with lots of nice hiding shadows beneath it and space for wooden boxes and benches for later use in Bilbo’s house party, to serve as ponies and such.

For cool lighting, especially those shadows and a swell invisibility effect, credit Christina Watanabe, and for cool sound effects (especially Gollum’s voice) thank Steven Allegretto.

And while we’re still at it, how does one do low-tech, theatricality-inducing costuming? Jeni Schaefer went for a well-worn L.L. Bean timeless/timely outdoor look, accented with a hooded cape, if you’re a hobbit, and touches of bare arms and leather for a dwarf king such as Thorin (the talented and tall-for-a-dwarf Thomas Hall).

Thorin becomes a key role when it comes to Tolkienian ethics — the aspect of this production of most interest to adults who may have outgrown an interest in monsters. Both Bilbo and Thorin are on a quest to learn trust in themselves and in others. As Gandalf advises her struggling students, “You don’t need magic. You have each other. That’s more important than magic.”

Bilbo, of course, is ever the reluctant hero, who longs throughout for his armchair and hot cocoa. He perks up, however, once out in the world and given his “bad boy” sobriquet of “bandit.” (We suspect he always had a touch of larceny in him.) Thorin begins his learning quest with intentions of sharing his treasure with all his allies but finds himself consumed by mistrust and greed that lead, as they often do, to death and destruction: here, the Battle of the Five Armies. And for what? Gold, pride, paranoia?

Critic Jes Battis suggests that Tolkien knowingly mixes his genres — epic, romance, pastoral and fantasy — while also using his different species metaphorically. The hobbits represent “colonial subjects” invariably misjudged by others despite being our “primary lens” for seeing Middle-earth. The elves represent “written culture”; the dwarves are “industrialists”; and here in “The Hobbit” the rarely appearing humans of Lake-town are “failed interlocutors.” Thorin admittedly doesn’t give them much of a chance to succeed in that role.

Thorin’s fate and the “socialist” solution to wealth distribution are something expert Tolkienians already know about, and theatergoers should have the chance to see for themselves. That doesn’t relieve us of the nagging sense that some species (say, goblins, trolls, wargs) are definitely less worthy of life than others. Save the wargs?

Until then, let the questions flow ...

“Does the VSC’s hobbit have oversized bare feet (like his Harfoot cousins on TV’s ‘Rings of Power’)?”

Since you mentioned TV, you’ll have to buy a ticket to answer that one.

“But how do they create a giant spider and a lethal flying dragon for theater?”

Would you believe it’s all done with bendable foam rods and trash bags? Plastic sheets are used a good deal as well. (A move to cloth might better suit the aesthetes and environmentalists among us.) Watch for the eagle rescue by air. That and the giant spider are my particular favorites.

One principle — theatricality — to rule them all.