By Daniel Hartill,Staff Writer
Lewiston man’s small-cast adaptation

of A Christmas Carol’ spreads far and wide

LEWISTON – There’s a temptation to be cheap when bringing literature’s most famous miser to the stage.

Small theatrical companies can go broke putting Scrooge on the stage, with dozens of actors to pay. There are impoverished Cockneys, Victorian snobs and all those ghosts. Many humbug producers have cut whole casts, putting the crotchety banker on stage in solo shows.

Perhaps that’s why an alternative – created by Lewiston’s Christopher Schario – is becoming a tradition at theaters across the country and beyond.

His idea: hire six actors and a fiddler to do the whole thing.

In early 1995, Schario submitted his adaptation of “A Christmas Carol” to Dramatists Play Service Inc., a New York publisher and licenser of plays. That Thanksgiving, the company bought it.

Schario’s adaptation has since been performed all over: from the Beaufort Little Theatre in Beaufort, S.C., to the Second Youth Family Theatre in Austin, Texas, and the Community Light Opera And Theatre Association in Ridgecrest, Calif.

Groups in Alaska, Hawaii and England have all performed Schario’s “Carol.”

It’s easy to see why, said Paul Meacham, artistic director of the Tri-State Actors Theater in Sussex, N.J.

Last year, he portrayed Scrooge in the rural theater’s one-man show. This year, he wanted a bigger production, though not the cast of 35 or more used in most productions.

“There’s no way you can afford to do it,” said Paul Meacham, whose theater seats only 99 people. “With this adaptation, we could hire the best six actors we could find.”

Meacham likes the fact that Schario has preserved Dickens’ own words.

“Chris has captured that language,” Meacham said of Schario, whom he has never met. “I feel like I know him. His version takes us it into the land of magic.”

Waves of relief’

When Schario debuted his adaptation in 1993 at the Public Theatre, the problem was money.

“We just did not have the resources to put on a typical Christmas show,”said Schario, the theater’s artistic director.

The downtown playhouse was in its third year and money was tight.

“We had no idea if it would work or not,” he said.

The group built a spartan set, hired a fiddler to play the music and five people to play all of the parts. Only the actor playing Scrooge escaped the dramatic multi-tasking. Stage hands performed the sound effects within sight of the audience and even the stage manager had a couple of lines.

For the first paid performance, Schario held his breath. The audience got it, though.

“There were waves of relief,” Schario said. The jokes worked. And when the ghosts entered, rattling chains or mutely guiding Scrooge for a peek at a bleak future, people were scared.

“It’s a more intimate experience,” said Schario, who believes the spare staging and small cast helps boil down a story that in many adaptations seems to grow.

“We keep it clear,” he said. “It’s about the redemption of the human soul.”

It’s the same show he has directed 10 times before. Every time, actors must adjust to lighting changes. It takes a while.

During a recent rehearsal, actor Jonathan Fielding played the Ghost of Christmas Present, narrated and made the thunder roll during a rain scene.

When he returned to center stage, portraying Tiny Tim’s older brother, Peter, he was out of breath.

“How old am I?” asked the 20-something actor, reeling from the abrupt shift from omniscient narrator to poor London boy.

“You’re 12,” Schario said.

“I knew that,” Fielding said.

For info box:

What: “A Christmas Carol” and “A Homespun Holiday”

When: 7 p.m. Dec. 9 and 10; 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. Dec. 11

Where: The Public Theatre, 31 Maple St., Lewiston

Admission: $16 for adults; $14 for seniors and students; $10 for children under 12

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