Monday, December 2, 1996
THEATER:
Patrick Stewart brings his version of the classic to Los
AngelesBy Simon Dunstan
Daily Bruin Contributor
The holidays are just around the corner, and what would the
season be without "A Christmas Carol"? But one of this year’s most
celebrated versions is a bit unusual.
This new adaptation of Charles Dickens’ classic, which opens
Tuesday at the James A. Doolittle Theatre, is performed by none
other than Enterprise captain Patrick Stewart. His extensive
background in theater has enabled him to single-handedly take on 40
characters with the greatest of ease.
Patrick Stewart’s return to the live theater has been an
extremely successful one. Stewart performed "A Christmas Carol"for
four consecutive sold-out holiday seasons. He took the production
to Broadway in 1991, 1992 and 1994, and to London’s Old Vic Theatre
in 1993, where it won an Olivier Award for Best Entertainment.
Stewart explains how he got the production on its feet and why
he wanted to return back to the stage.
"I created the show here in the autumn of 1988. It was the
beginning of the second season of ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation.’
I had to come to terms with the reality that the series was not
going to go away," Stewart recalls. "It meant that I had to be in
Los Angeles for 10 months of the year for a six-year contract. This
made me very concerned because I was wondering what was going to
become of my theater career. I didn’t want to become one of those
actors who leaves the theater for a great tan in Hollywood. What a
waste, what a shame."
His very first draft of "A Christmas Carol" went on to become a
performance for a UCLA Dickens scholar and was then performed at
UCLA’s Wadsworth Theater.
"I put together about a half-dozen different shows and one of
them was ‘A Christmas Carol.’ I tried it out firstly with a friend
of mine from UCLA who happens to be a Dickens scholar. After
working with the adaptation for about 5 to 6 weeks, I sent it to
him for his approval. He gave it his blessing and said it was the
closest adaptation he had ever read.
"He arranged a first reading in Santa Monica at a sitting room.
From there we decided to have our first performance at the
Wadsworth Theater. This was the adaptation’s first performance in
front of an audience. From there we did it for two seasons and only
decided to take it further after receiving a very good review from
the music editor of Variety. This review was the basis of our
motivation to get it to a wider audience."
Stewart took his new adaptation of the Dickens classic to New
York to see if he could get it on Broadway. But he met with a lot
of closed doors.
"When I first tried to get it to Broadway, they all passed on
the project and said, ‘Who is this English guy doing some
television show and wants to do "A Christmas Carol" all on his own?
You have got to be out of your mind.’ And they all passed," Stewart
says.
Little did any of those producers know that Stewart’s adaptation
would go on to become a huge success on Broadway.
But it took a lot of work to achieve that success. Performing "A
Christmas Carol" solo was extremely challenging for Stewart. In his
adaptation, he has to go through many different emotions with each
of the characters in a matter of seconds. One minute he is Ebenezer
Scrooge, then suddenly he has to change into Tiny Tim. Stewart
talks about the emotional roller coaster he goes on while
performing on the stage.
"There is an emotional line that runs through the whole event
the moment I walk on stage. That emotion is quite intense, quite
fierce. Scrooge takes the emotional level to the darkest moment you
can achieve. Using this emotional line you build up this bobby of
intensity to do with Scrooge’s emotion, then use it to bounce
backwards and forwards from the different emotional levels that
need to be achieved.
"The part where Scrooge’s nephew invites him to come for
Christmas dinner  you can see that there are two extreme
experiences. You use one as a sort of a launch pad for the next
one. So the more cheerful that Scrooge’s nephew becomes, the more
intensely miserable Scrooge becomes. You can use the emotions as a
kind of springboard. It gets hard when it comes to nine characters
at the family’s Christmas party and I have to stay in touch with
all of them. This requires some very fancy footwork," Stewart says,
but the seasoned actor is happy to take the challenge if it means
being back on the live stage.
"Theater is my life and I cannot do without it."
THEATER: "A Christmas Carol," starring Patrick Stewart, opens
Tuesday, Dec. 3 at the James A. Doolittle Theatre and runs through
Dec. 22. For more information, call (213) 972-0700.
James A. Doolittle Theatre
Patrick Stewart stars in Charles Dickens’ "A Christmas Carol,"
running Dec. 3-22 at the James A. Doolittle Theatre.