COLUMBUS, Ohio — A beloved holiday classic returns to the Ohio Theatre stage as the Columbus Association for the Performing Arts (CAPA) and Short North Stage partner for an all-new adaptation of "A Christmas Carol."
"I think there are certain things that make you feel in the holiday spirit," said Edward Carignan, artistic director for the Short North Stage as well as the director of this new play. "At Christmastime, you really can't beat 'A Christmas Carol.' It's a great story about a man's redemption."
For years, seeing "A Christmas Carol" at the Ohio Theatre in downtown Columbus has been a staple of the holiday season. But, when theaters worldwide shut down due to COVID-19, the touring production that had made its home annually in the Ohio wasn't able to survive the pandemic.
CAPA made the decision to reach out to the professionals at Short North Stage to help bring back the holiday tradition.
"What Short North Stage does really well in Columbus is producing large-scale musicals and plays, and what CAPA does is own these beautiful theaters; they do great back-of-house work," said Carignan of the collaboration. "They're a wonderful partner for us because we both do very different things."
"We're creating a local production which is really exciting to be able to use creative talent, artists right here in our own community to make a great Christmas Carol show," said Chad Whittington, president and CEO of CAPA.
For the new adaptation, Carignan called upon Thom Christopher Warren to deliver not only a fast-paced script from which to work, but to also embody the well-known curmudgeon at the center of the story, Ebenezar Scrooge.
"When we came up with the idea to collaborate and do this production, the possibility of starring in it was something that I was very interested in; it was something that I was very excited about," explained Warren who embraced the double-duty role of playwright and actor, though he hopes that this version of Scrooge will live on to be embodied by a wide variety of actors in the coming years.
While finding the character's voice through his own lens, Warren wanted to make a more-human Scrooge with clear motivations.
Warren explained, "People who have never seen or read an incarnation of the show know Ebenezar Scrooge as this thing that exists in the zeitgeist - a 'Scrooge' - and I want him to exist beyond that trope."
CAPA and Short North Stage's coproduction of "A Christmas Carol" runs Nov. 24 through the 26 at the Ohio Theatre in downtown Columbus. You can find showtimes and ticket information at the CAPA website: https://www.capa.com/.
For more information on Short North Stage, just visit https://www.shortnorthstage.org/