This season marks the 10-year anniversary of the Goodman Theatre's shift from its long-gone venue at the Art Institute of Chicago to its expanded home smack dab in the middle of Chicago's Loop Theatre District. It's also the 33rd year that the Tony Award-winning Chicago flagship has dispensed Dickensian insight and cheer through its annual holiday production of A Christmas Carol.
Along for a good portion of that Christmas Carol ride is out actor/director William Brown, who has 18 years of experience with the show in a variety of capacities. Brown first played supporting roles ( like the nephew Fred ) more than 20 years ago, later graduating for four consecutive years starting in 2001 to the mean miser himself, Ebenezer Scrooge. ( Brown's partner, actor Steven Hinger, has also acted the role of Fred in the Goodman production ) .
This year marks Brown's fifth consecutive Goodman Christmas Carol outing as director, and he's relishing the chance to return to it yet again.
"Anybody who has ever acted in [ A Christmas Carol ] or worked backstage or directed it recognizes that besides the fact that it's a ripping good tale, it's an event," Brown said via a telephone interview during a technical rehearsal break. " [ A Christmas Carol ] is so frequently the first play that children are brought to. It's an event because people come back year after year because they make it a part of their Christmas celebrations."
Due to these traditions, Brown feels that he and his company have a special responsibility to move audiences and make them think about Charles Dickens' original 1843 novella that trumpeted universal messages of charity and the ability to change oneself and other people's lives for the better.
Brown is grateful to have several cast members and musicians who are returning from last year ( particularly the Bob and Mrs. Cratchit couple of Ron Rains and Christine Sherrill, since they have previous experience of acting onstage with different child actors who will make up the Cratchit clan ) . But Brown is also enthusiastic to have a new Ebenezer Scrooge played by John Judd ( Orson's Shadow, Shining City ) , who is tackling the role for the first time.
Judd assumes the role following out actor Larry Yando's three-year Goodman Scrooge stint. Yando is unavailable this year since he's in Washington, D.C., playing Dr. Pangloss in The Shakespeare Theatre's transfer of director Mary Zimmerman's recent Goodman Theatre adaptation of Leonard Bernstein's comic operetta Candide.
As a former Scrooge himself, Brown knows the many challenges of tackling the titan role. It's very physically demanding since Scrooge rarely leaves the stage ( and the Goodman Christmas Carol performance week often features nine performances over the usual eight ) .
Brown said playing Scrooge is also a major cultural responsibility in Chicago.
"It's such a big role and it has this place in the city that you don't lightly say, 'Yes' or 'No' to it," he said, noting that the show rests on the actor's shoulders to genuinely show Scrooge's transformation from a money-grubbing miser to a good-hearted gentleman.
"The role is Shakespearean in size, in scope, in psychological acuteness," Brown said. "The great roles allow for reinvention, reinterpretation, so it's kind of exciting to go from the Larry Yando Scrooge to the John Judd Scrooge."
This the first time Brown has worked with Judd, and Brown is appreciative of the "toughness" and "well-worn humanity" that he brings to his Scrooge.
"To see this man moved by his own past, frightened of his future and fall in love again with beautiful Belle—it's quite an experience," Brown said.
And though Brown is eager to share with other actors some of the psychological and emotional approaches he took himself while playing Scrooge, he wants his successors to come up with their own conception on the character.
"It's quite an experience to go through living with that role inside the production, right at the center of it for four years, and then step outside of it and help somebody else go in there," Brown said. "I actually think I'm more pleased when they discard my ideas, because then I'm surprised."
The Goodman Theatre's A Christmas Carol continues through Friday, Dec. 31 ( with a varying schedule of performances ) , at 170 N. Dearborn. Tickets range from $25 to $80. Call 312-443-3800 or visit www.goodmantheatre.org .
Chicago transfer
If you missed out on seeing Academy Award-nominated actor Michael Shannon in the world premiere of Craig Wright's comedy Mistakes Were Made at Chicago's A Red Orchid Theatre, then you can catch the show in the Big Apple now through Sunday, Jan. 2.
Just like director David Cromer's hit production of Thornton Wilder's Our Town that originated in Chicago with The Hypocrites, the Barrow Street Theatre in New York's Greenwich Village is hosting another critically acclaimed Chicago theater transfer. For more information ( and to read a slew of positive critical blurbs ) , visit www.barrowstreettheatre.com .
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