Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
From WBZ News Radio in Boston. This is New England Weekend.
Each and every week we come together right here, we
talk about all the topics important to you and the
place where you live. It is great to be back
with you again this week. I'm Nicole Davis. It's a
classic cherished by audiences all over the world for generations
on the stage, page, and screen. A Christmas Carol by
(00:28):
Charles Dickens is a staple of holiday celebrations. It honestly
doesn't feel like Christmas without it. At the Hanover Theater
in Worcester, they've taken this classic story of the miserly
Ebenezer Scrooge and now they've reimagined it with a modern
twist while preserving its core message of hope and redemption.
Let's learn all about it now. Associate director Annie Karen's
is here with us. So Annie, it's great to have
(00:49):
you on the show. Let's begin with a bit of
a background on the theater. I'd love to learn more
about the work you do and the history of the
Hanover Theater.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
The theaters a stunning show theater. It was re designed,
reopened in two thousand and eight, but it actually started
as a Badeville House in I believe nineteen eight so
it just have some nice historic vibes to it. In
the seventies eighties it transitioned into a movie theater, and
(01:21):
then it's no longer existed in the nineties, and that
is when folks got together and said, hey, maybe maybe
we can go back to our roots and start having
some wonderful live entertainment come to Wister at a very
high scale, and they redesigned and reopened it that as
a two three hundred seat house and it's been doing
(01:44):
great ever since.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
You put on a lot of performances every year, not
just you know, we're going to talk about a Christmas Carol,
but you put on concerts, You put on all sorts
of stuff there.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Yeah, there's quite quite some variety to the scheduling. I'm
always trying to explain it to folks that it's a
little bit different than your standard regional theater that might
have eight shows in a season that they're advertising. We
have new shows all the time. Just this week we
have three shows that are coming in before our annual
(02:14):
production of a Christmas Carol, which is going to be
taking over the space next week. And we also have
a sister space, the g McDonough Arts Center across the street.
That's a three hundred seat theater, and we're also involved
in the managing and programming of that space, in addition
to an outdoor plaza space that we've recently started programming
(02:34):
The Francis Are Carol.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Plus you have a lot on your hands. I hope
you're sleeping. My goodness, it's all good. But it's just
it's wonderful for the community. But that sounds like a
lot to juggle.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
It is quite a bit to juggle, but you know,
it's exciting. It's an exciting place to work for, and
I think the community is really supportive of it and
excited about everything. The variety of things that are coming
in from our three shows that we have on the
plaza to you know, the really upscale events that we
(03:06):
have going on inside the theater. There's just a lot
of support and a lot of excitement and a lot
of variety to our audience members, which it is great.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
So you mentioned the Christmas Carol and we are of
course getting into that season. You're going to be starting
these performances here soon in a matter of days. One
thing that I've noticed this is a special adaptation of
the show. It features the Mighty Wurlitzer organ. Please tell
me more about the Mighty Wurlitzer. I'm so intrigued.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Yeah, it's a theatrical pipe organ. These types of organs
were used primarily in the nineteen twenties and early nineteen
thirties to accompany silent films, and there were a few
folks that kept the love alive with the pipe organs.
And fortunately we had a curator and donor of an
(03:59):
organ when the theater first opened. His name is Donald SIPPs,
and he had rebuilt a mighty Worlitzer organ from scratch,
taking different parts from different locations, and put this together
in the Handover theater. And I just I can't quite
explain what a wonderful experience it is to come into
(04:24):
a theater like hours and just hear from one instrument
here a full orchestra of sounds, just a full tapestry
of music coming out of one instrument. It's you know,
we say it's it's got all the bells and whistles,
and it truly does.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
And you know it's not just the organ. It's you've
got all these different stunts, and you've got fog, and
you've got all these cool little features. It's this is
so far from a typical stage show of the story
that many of us know pretty well.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Yeah. Absolutely, we have our Jacob Marley flying. We have
what's really cool connecting the Mighty Wurlitzer is that the
Mighty Wurlitzer does a lot of the underscoring for some
of the spookier sounds, So sounds that might typically be
a sound effect, we have a live person making that
(05:15):
sort of you know, low grumble, and there's some of
those future sequences, which just really adds a dynamic that
is it's just, you know, a one of a kind experience.
We also do a lot of the full narration from
the book, so folks who are book lovers and lovers
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of Charles Dickens will really appreciate how much of the
text that's incorporated into this version. Rather than having just
one narrator, we have the full ensemble narrates the show,
so different folks take you along different journeys with that
original Charles Dickens text, which is just so rich and
(05:57):
a really exciting. Part of the rehearsal process is digging
into the text. Go you know, if there's ever a
question about what's my character thinking or you know, what's
this interaction about if we always go back to the
original text. And I love that seventeenth year with the
show with Troy Siebel's adaptation, and it's a joy.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Christmas Carol is a story that we all know, dating
back many, many centuries, but I also appreciate that you've
got a different cultural spin on it over in this production.
Tell us a bit about that.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Yeah, So something that we really wanted to dig into
a bit is that, you know, the idea that London
town in the eighteen fifties was a melting pot that
may not be directly conveyed in Charles Dickens' text, but
that's what the world would have looked like. And so
with that, we took a look at the different representations
(06:50):
of the communities around us, and the director decided to
cast the role of Bob Cratchett as an Indian immigrant.
So the character of the fanly portrayed as a family
that would have been born in South Asia and then
would have immigrated to London at that time. So it
puts a really interesting focus on the relationship between Scrooge
(07:14):
as not just the employer but also as an employer
of a Caucasian background, of likely a Protestant background, and
his relationship with someone with a different cultural background than
his own, and it just really helps us dig into
the relationships a little bit deeper and also helps us
(07:36):
ask questions about community and support and openness to one another.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Well, what's it like for you as the director to
try to develop all those different personalities of these different characters.
Obviously there's quite a few people who are involved in
this production, but for you, that's got to be one
of the more fun parts of being a director.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Of this Totally. I'm going to so the director. So
there's Tory Sebels as our artistic director, and then my
husband and myself are both associate directors of the show.
And we also play mister and Missus Fezziwick in the show.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
So okay, love it.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
So that's a, you know, a fun sort of wrapping
of responsibilities. But yeah, it's it's it's especially exciting with
the children to work with the Cratchup family. We were
working on there their scenes yesterday and just talking to
them about the difference in the time period especially, and
(08:34):
how you know what to focus on in each scene.
Is you know, really our guiding principle. But the kids
really come to life with the different responsibilities they're given
in the show, whether it's you know, selling a turkey
to Scrooge and isn't that a wild thing that he
wants to buy a giant turkey on Christmas Day and
(08:55):
he's you know, giving you extra money to to make
that happen. It's just really fun to wrap everybody's brains
around the storytelling.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Yeah, definitely. So let's talk a little bit about the
performances here. You have a few, there's not too many,
which is a good thing because it means that you
can really put your all into the performances. You're only
running this for about a couple of weeks. Tell us
when the performances start and when they're going to be running,
and how much tickets are that sort of thing.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Yeah, sure, So we are running December fifteenth through December
twenty second, so that's Sunday to Sunday. We do also
have a sensory friendly performance December eighteenth at four pm,
so that's for folks who might have some sensory These
might be on the autism spectrum or benefit from a
(09:47):
more relaxed environment. We're really proud of being able to
offer that. But yes, I would recommend going to our website,
the Handover Theater dot org if you want more information
about tickets. Tickets range from thirty nine dollars to sixty
nine dollars, but there are also group rates and discounts
available on top of that.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Okay, and you want to make sure you get there
early too, because you've got the pre show concert too
featuring that awesome organ We sure too.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
We have an organist, Sean Redro who is offering a
concert before every single performance.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Love that. And if people want to find out more
about the show, about the Hanover Theater social media, we.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Have Instagram, we have Facebook again. Our website is the
Hanover Theater dot org and our box office is eight
seven seven five seven one seven four sixty nine and
we have a wonderful staff that can answer any questions
you have.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Beautiful, Well, this is going to be such an exciting show. Again,
a short time that you can get in there to
see this, but it's going to be worth it over
at the Hanover Theater in Worcester. Annie, thank you so
much for your time and good luck with the performance.
I'm not going to tell you to break a leg
but have a great performance.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Thank you so much, it was a pleasure talking to you.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Have a safe and healthy weekend, stay warm, and join
me again next week for another edition of the show.
I'm Nicole Davis from WBZ News Radio on iHeartRadio.