Assessment of the play, a christmas carol held at the hale center theater orem

A Christmas Carol

I went and saw A Christmas Carol at Hale Center Theater in Orem. I really liked the costumes of the show. They were very fitting of the time-period the show was set in. They were wearing old English styling with big hoop skirts and very formal attire. I did not like the set in the show too much because it is weird to have a set for a theater in the round. There were too many things that had to come off and go back on each scene just for the set, not just the props. The set was much too over complicated for my liking, although they did do the scene changes fast so that helped with things.

I think that some, but not all the leads did really well. The protagonist is actually the protagonists to me, because it seemed like the three ghosts were the protagonists. They were trying to give Ebenezer Scrooge some Christmas spirit. Ebenezer Scrooge seemed to be the antagonist in my opinion because he was refusing to accept the spirit. I really did not like how Scrooge was portrayed at the end. He was too happy much too fast to really make since. One moment he was still troubled of what he had seen and the next he was out to make it the best Christmas ever. He rushed his emotions more than he should have. I also did not like the Ghost of Christmas Future. He was just a tall, dark figure that just pointed to where to look. He didn’t accomplish much for me. On the other hand, the Ghosts of Christmas Past and Present were very well portrayed.

I think that the blocking was a bit pointless in some parts of the piece. At times, the scene seemed to be directed to a certain section of the audience, not the whole audience. It is somewhat understandable in doing it in the round, but still you should not focus on one section during one of the scene you should move around and try to show it to all sections. I also didn’t like the carolers when they came out to sing. They would break up in pairs and sing to a section until the song was over then go off stage. I would have liked it better if they moved around more as they sang.

I think that the theme of the piece is that you should use your talents and riches to bless the lives of others around you. Scrooge had to learn this the hard way by seeing different peoples’ lives during Christmas. When it was all over and done with, he finally came to his senses and started to help people out. He went up to the little beggar girl and gave her money and donated to the two men. He started helping people instead of keeping everything to himself.

I think that the strongest character and actor was probably young Scrooge. He had to show different times of Scrooges life from being at different ages. He had to be this age this scene and then older the very next scene. He also had to be much more emotionally attached to his character in my opinion because of the things that happened in Scrooge’s life. His emotions rather flowed in a continuous stream from each age shown but he had to act each age different age as soon as he needed to.

I really liked the show because of how well the characters were. Each actor or actress played his or her part really well and I was pleased with that. I did not like some of the things that were done but I understand the reason behind why they were done. Other than, some of the things that work for normal stages do not work for a stage in the round. The things that I really did not like were just directorial issues other than that the production quality was great.

I do not think that I fully received the message, but it did not go right over my head. I did not really get it because I have a harder time to relate to Scrooge because I am not in his type of situation. I am no stubborn and keep my wealth to myself. I already help people in need the best that I am able to. I do not have much so I do as much as I can with it. I did learn to try to help people in need more than I do, because sometimes I just get lazy and do not want to help people out. That is just because I am lazy not because I am over selfish.