GFU Theater Department Brings “A Christmas Carol” to Students

Reported by: Jen Wright

Photographed by: Jen Wright

On December 18, George Fox University’s (GFU) first-ever radio drama, a musical production of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” will be available for students to enjoy during the holiday season.

With a cast and crew of students from the Theatre, Vocal and audio design departments, this project has been in preparation since August 31, when auditions began.

From the beginning, director and theatre professor Rhett Leudtke knew this project was going to be different from anything the theatre department had done before. GFU was not allowing theatre students to rehearse in-person or hold live performances, and this meant that theatre majors would miss a year of stage experience, from acting, to production and design, to costume creation and lighting.

All rehearsals were conducted over Zoom, though Leudtke got clearance to have one in-person table reading after the cast was decided.

The recording took place in the recording booths in Ross, with a complicated wiring system so the cast could record separately, together. Leudtke and the sound design manager, theatre professor Bryan Boyd were in the teacher’s lounge, directing recording sessions.

The vocal department was able to take advantage of the wiring setup, said Danielle Warner, associate professor of music and director of choral activities.

“We can’t see each other,” Warner said, “but the rooms are wired in a way that we can hear each other, 10 people at a time, for the first time since March 10.”

“So, we cried pretty hard, the first rehearsal,” Warner continued, “The first time we heard those four voices together…I can’t describe it. [I was] pretty teary, and then the students made fun of me because I got real strict to them after that.”

Warner was excited to give her students this opportunity to participate in performing, since all choir activity had been cancelled due to COVID-19 restrictions from the university.

Warner chose four students, giving priority to seniors, to make up the vocal quartet that can be heard singing carols with the cast throughout the radio drama. Warner expressed regret that the students have not been able to be part of choir performances for the past two semesters, and possibly their last semester in college.

The four singers, including Anna Smoll, Alex Lopez and Elizabeth Hartman had to be able to learn the material within a week, to start recording.

“I know how much they love their craft,” Warner said, “I know how hard they worked, and how hard they work to help the younger students, and their leadership skills…and so to be able to have a special project to do together…it was really special and fun to get to make music with them in a whole new way.”

For the drama cast, getting to hear each other’s voices without an internet delay was also emotional.

“It was magical,” theatre major Madeleine Teel said, “it was cool to hear all the different parts and how we really actually did harmonize and it didn’t sound terrible, which was good, because sometimes, when you’re just singing by yourself in your apartment, it feels like it’s never gonna sound good.”

Because radio dramas rely only on voice to convey the story, and not costumes, sets or facial expressions, the cast was able to gain valuable experience in developing different vocal personas for their roles.

“It was really fun to play with the voice,” theatre major Emma Johnson said, “because I feel that the voice is a very important part of theatre, but a lot of times, it has to share the stage with the body…I played four different characters and each of them had a different voice, and so it was fun to play around with what my voice could do. It also really helped me, as an actor, realize the importance of the voice, and how that can enhance your acting.”

Johnson voiced four roles: Belle, Ebenezer Scrooge’s former fiancée; a narrator, Collecting Man #2 and one of the Cratchit children. She said it was difficult trying to voice a six-year old boy but having other cast members also trying to express children’s voices made it fun.

“Singing like a small child on your own is not a great experience,” Teel said, “but when you’re doing it together, it’s like ‘aw, this is actually sweet, and we do sound like children’ and I can believe in this story, as opposed to when you’re doing it by yourself and you’re like ‘no one is ever going to believe that I am a tiny child’.”

Teel said it was a learning experience for vocal work.

“Usually, when we do character work a part of it is just like, ‘how am I moving?’ and ‘what else am I doing to bring this character to life?’,” Teel said. “As I move forward with stage acting, it’s gonna make me think a little bit more of ‘how does this character talk’.”

Teel also mentioned focusing closely on the different character’s laughs, and how it made her realize how distinct each actor is about their voice.

“Especially now that we’re acting with masks and things, you can convey a lot of emotion through your voice work, so that was a really good experience, to just focus solely on what we’re doing with our voices, and also just the cadence and the tempo we’re speaking with,” Teel said.

The entire cast tried affecting British accents for their roles and drew on various influences for inspiration. Teel grew up listening to British actors in radio dramas and practiced talking with her friends and family in an accent, and Johnson cited her interest in British TV shows like “Downton Abbey.”

“For the most part, I only watch British shows—or European shows—pretty religiously,” Johnson said, “and it’s at the point where, sometimes, I have a hard time telling if it’s a British accent or an American accent.”

Johnson said all her characters have slightly different accents. This is her fourth time acting in a production of “A Christmas Carol,” and so she has had more experience with affecting different types of British accents. Her first experience with the story was a high school pay-to-play acting class production, and then Johnson was invited to join a professional company’s production of the play for two years running, which she got paid to act in.

“When I got in this year, even though I’ve done this story several times, it’s my favorite Christmas story,” Johnson said, “and so I was really excited to explore it in a different medium with radio theater, and taking a story I know super well and play with it as different characters.”

Johnson and her roommate, Lydia Crist, also a cast member, were able to attend Zoom rehearsals together and practice lines and songs together.

“We would play off each other a lot, if we had a scene together,” Johnson said, “and so it made it a lot of fun.”

For Johnson, a large part of the theatre experience is the sense of community she feels, not only onstage, but also during breaks or rehearsals, and having everything take place over Zoom was jolting.

“That’s when all the inside jokes happen, so it’s definitely very weird to just be like, ‘Zoom into rehearsal’, and ‘take a break’,” Johnson said. “It felt not as cohesive.”

Once they were in the recording booths, Johnson said, it was easier to feel as though they were a part of the project together.

“Even though you couldn’t see them,” Johnson said, “you could still hear them, and you knew that they were right next door.”

Acting in a radio drama also gives the cast something to put on their resumes as well; with radio dramas, podcasts and audiobooks being in high demand right now, being able to get experience in making one could prove a valuable asset in the future, said Johnson.

“I think radio drama is something that we’ve kind of lost, to some degree,” Teel said, “but I think it’s coming back a bit, with the advent of podcast shows, so I was really excited for us to give it a try.”

The holidays will look different this year for everyone, as COVID-19 restrictions discourage large gatherings with family and friends. “A Christmas Carol” is the perfect story to listen to this Christmas, said Theatre major Elizabeth Herbert, who voiced several roles, including the Ghost of Christmas Present.

For the auditions, Leudtke asked students to prepare a ghost story, which was an unconventional approach and surprised Herbert.

“[It was] way different than something I’ve done before,” Herbert said, “but it was a really cool experience that I don’t think I would have gotten to do if things hadn’t been the way that they are…silver lining and whatnot.”

According to Teel and Herbert, the radio drama mimics the inherent “darkness” of the original Dickens story, but doesn’t go over-the-top, and delivers an important message for the year 2020.

“Scrooge is a character that a lot of us are,” Herbert said. “Whether or not we recognize it within ourselves, we all have that bitter little voice inside that says ‘me me me, I I I, it’s about me, and it’s about what I want, and what I’m gonna do to get to where I want, and if I have to step on people to get there, it doesn’t matter.

“I think this year, a lot of us have realized that that sort of attitude is not going to get us anywhere, especially with everything that’s happened, with the pandemic, with the Black Lives Matter movement. It’s not about the individual anymore. It’s about lifting up everybody…it has to be about the collective. We have to lift everybody up, because everybody’s voice matters right now.”

The radio drama will be available to listen to Dec. 18-27, and a 48-hour listening period can be purchased online, with students and employees eligible for a free ticket. For more details, including where to access it, contact Rhett Leudtke at rleudtke@georgefox.edu.