When the board of the First Stage Theatre Company (the local children’s theatre) decided to stage “A Christmas Story” in 2001, I knew this was the perfect show to tackle as my first directing job. For one thing, I loved the source material - the original film based on Jean Shepherd’s stories about his efforts as a kid to get a Red Ryder BB Gun.
I’m the only person I know who saw that film at the theater when it was released (although I’ll admit it was just luck - at that time I saw virtually every movie that came out). I loved it - it was funny, nostalgic and pretty much nailed the whole feeling of what Christmas is like for a kid.
In casting, I decided early on to cheat a bit and cast adults in at least three roles - as the Father (always referred to as the Old Man), the Mother and the Narrator. There were two reasons for that - believability (it’s not always easy to pass teens off as adults) and because I wanted some veteran actors to help guide the young performers. Only a handful of adults showed up to the auditions, and casting the show was a no-brainer.
For the Old Man, it had to be C.E. Wilson. He had lots of experience in comic roles, so I knew he’d get the maximum laughs out of the part - and even though he’s really an incredibly nice guy, I knew he’d also be able to sell the Old Man as a grouch. As expected, he was wonderful in the part. If they ever decide to reshoot the film, they’d be smart to use C.E. - he owns the role.
For the Narrator, I tapped my pal Clint McElroy. Filling in for humorist Jean Shepherd (who narrated the film) is no small task. Not many actors could convey the emotion and humor of the part just with their voice - but I knew Clint could do it, and I was right - he was terrific.
The role of the Mom was tough, because there were several good candidates - but I settled on a woman I had seen on stage doing great work in Easter shows at her church. Leslie McElroy (Clint’s wife) was perfect in the part. As a Mom (both on stage and in real life) she could go from stern discipline to loving concern, from outrage at the Old Man’s antics to gentle manipulation, all without batting an eye. Like C.E., she owned the part.
I ended up using two other adults in the show - Tom Hastie made a great Santa (hey, the real Santa was busy at the time) and a guy named Bobby Williamson filled out the other adult parts and almost stole the show with his turn as a cowboy - he took it as far over the top as I’ve ever seen an actor go (in a comedy, this is a good thing), and the crowds loved it.
All we needed now was a bunch of kids and a place to stage the show.
Next: Staging the show.
No comments:
Post a Comment