Mrs. Bob Cratchit's Wild Christmas Binge
by Christopher Durang

Show dates: December 13-16, 2007
Preview Party: December 12
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Director Billy Worbyos
Stage Manager Brenda Poteet
Music Director Dr. Tammy Grant
Backstage Crew/Minions of the Night Jessie Wright/Courtney Beasenburg
Costumes Becky Fly
Broadway Costumes
Lights/Sound Terry Bivens
Set Design Billy Worboys
Props
Makeup/Hair

Cast:

The Ghost of Christmas Past/Present/Future Cynthia Manuel
Ebenezer Scrooge Sam Mauck
Mrs. Bob Cratchit Anna Réne Morris
Bob Cratchit Jeremy Young
Tiny Tim / Fezziwig Daugher 1 Kyle Williams
Little Nell Cratchit Avery Cunningham
Cratchit child/Zuzu Caroline Seeley

Gentlemen 1 collecting for Christmas
Bartender
George Bailey
Edvar
The Beadle
Mr. Fezziwig
David Hooper

Young Jacob Marley J.D. Thompson
Young Ebenezer Garrett Henson

Mrs. Fezziwig
Mrs. Beadle
Serena the Maid
Christina Torres

Nice Mrs. Bob Cratchit Amy Hanes
Hedvig Kelly Williams
Clarence the Angel/ Jacob Marley Ghost Tommy Rhoads
Monica the Angel Jessie Wright

Synopsis:
In this departure from Dickens, young Scrooge’s exclamations of “Bah, humbug!” are an undiagnosed “kind of seasonal Tourette’s Syndrome,” and The Ghost of Christmas Past is played by a sassy African-American woman with enough attitude to portray all three spirits (which she does). She tries to show Scrooge his past, present and future in order to change him, but her magic keeps malfunctioning in Durang’s version of the beloved holiday classic, and they consistently find themselves transported to the wrong time and place. She tries to take Scrooge back to see his old employers, the Fezziwigs—“always an audience favorite”—but instead she and Scrooge keep appearing in the present at the Cratchit’s pathetic home. Mrs. Bob Cratchit, a minor character in the Dickens, takes center stage here. No longer loving and long suffering, Mrs. Bob is in a rage: She’s sick of Tiny Tim (the goody-goody crippled child), she hates her twenty other children (most of them confined to the root cellar), including Little Nell, and she wants to get drunk and jump off London Bridge. As the Ghost loses more control, the plot morphs into parodies of Oliver Twist, “The Gift of the Magi” and It’s a Wonderful Life. And to make matters worse, Scrooge and Mrs. Bob seem to be kindred souls falling in love. With a dénouement that is two parts Touched by an Angel and one part The Queen of Mean, Scrooge’s tale of redemption and gentle grace is placed squarely on its head.