At the Skithouse: June 2013

And now we arrive at A COUNTRY CHRISTMAS CAROL. The show was at Centerstage North (where I'd done TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, BABY, and where I went on to do THE FANTASTICKS in February 2011). It ran in December 2010. I had committed to doing another Christmas show. Then I got an email out of the blue from Sarah, who had directed me in BABY, and was directing ACCC. She asked me if I'd landed a holiday gig yet, because she had a role for me in ACCC. She told me about the rehearsal and performance schedule, and I told her that I can do all performances, but rehearsals would be hairy for me until Ramona QuimBee performances were done. I said "are you ok with these conflicts?" She said "yes to everything, as long as you can do the show during the whole run, I can work around literally anything during rehearsals." I then told her that I was already committed to doing another show, but I'd rather do her show because I liked the rehearsal/performance schedule better. (If I'd stuck with Show #1, I'd have been unable to go to Blue Ridge with my family over Thanksgiving weekend.)

Without disclosing all the details of the negotiation, I'll just say that with every curve ball I threw at Sarah, she came back at me with a counter-curve which one-upped everything I said and made it better for me to do her show. So I cut my ties with Show #1 (rehearsals hadn't even started yet and I hadn't signed anything yet), and joined A COUNTRY CHRISTMAS CAROL without looking back.

The show is exactly what it sounds like - a countrified Xmas Carol. It's set in Marley County, Texas. Eb Scrooge is a mean old geezer. Very rich and stingy. He works his most devoted employee (a single mother named Bobbie Jo) to the bone, and when his drunk nephew Dwight stops by every Christmas Eve to wish him a Merry Christmas and invite him over, he refuses. You can figure out the rest. I didn't mention it's a musical.

I thought the script sucked, most of the songs sucked, and (with no disrespect intended toward anybody - people did the best they could with the resources they had) some of the production values sucked. I'm thinking in particular of some of the performers who wore a huge headset/microphone (the kind usually reserved for stage manangers) and passed it off as a "body mic."

I was telling my wife that it was going to be a so-bad-it's-good show, like The Room. As a show, it wasn't one of my favorites, but the people in the cast were all lovely people, and I got so much bang for my buck doing this show. I played Dwight (the "Fred" counterpart) and Young Eb. I missed most of the rehearsals, got to come in late, kiss a good-looking Australian girl, play arguably the 2 best roles in the show, and got one of the best reviews of my career. It certainly wasn't the worst holiday show I participated in. It's not one I list on any bios or resumes, but for a couple of reasons, it's a "slightly guilty pleasure" show of mine. Here are some pictures.

A collage somebody in the cast made:

A group picture. I was in the middle of getting dressed for the Dwight character and had to come out for this group pic. This was at the beginning of the first of a 2-show day, where I'd just come from working a 6am shift at the restaurant. I really was as tired as I look here.