by Noella Noelophile®
This weekend, the Long Beach Shakespeare Company has a Christmas gift for you.
And it’s the best kind. A gift made with love, and a passion for creating it.
The gift? Their three performances, this Friday, Saturday and Sunday, of “A Christmas Carol Radio Style”. They’ll offer Friday and Saturday evening performances, as well as a Sunday matinee.
Inspired by an annual tradition started by Orson Welles and Lionel Barrymore in 1939, this unique presentation of Dickens’ Christmas classic has cast members, onstage and on mic, as they bring Old Scrooge and his world to life in a live audio performance.
AND–if you’re isolating, you get to listen via live-stream, free! Here’s the link.
The experience sounds absolutely magical.
“It’s always amazing how our actors can do multiple characters, each with a distinctive voice, and our live sound effects on the foley table are a character in themselves,” emails producer and theater manager Dana Leach.
“We only have 5 rehearsals for any of our radio shows (which is similar to how it was done in the 30s and 40s),” Dana explains.
So, how did this unique show come about? Before we get to the story of LBSC’s “A Christmas Carol Radio Style”, here is a request for you.
If you’re in a position to do so, could you consider supporting all-volunteer Long Beach Shakespeare Company? The entire cast and crew donate their time, for this and their other shows throughout the year. Here’s a link to their upcoming events, which include both radio shows and stage performances.
And you have a choice of either donating funds or time. There are a number of positions (onsite only at this time) for which LBSC is looking for volunteers.
Now–the story behind the show.
Dana says that LBSC’s Artistic Director, the late Helen Borgers, started “A Christmas Carol Radio Style” as a tradition, twelve years ago. Helen, who passed away in 2017, had worked with the company since its inception, according to LBSC’s website.
Over the years, Helen developed the 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization from its origins as “Bard in the Yard” to a year-round operation. The company’s goal: to promote literacy by entertaining, and inspiring, audiences through the classics.
Accordingly, Long Beach Shakespeare Company performed in numerous venues, including schools, parks and libraries throughout Southern and Central California. They partnered with numerous organizations, including Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, and mentored young actors from local schools and universities by allowing them to train side-by-side with industry professionals.
And in 2002, the company opened its own resident theater, in Bixby Knolls.
Dana, who came on board in 2012, has a background in both professional and educational theater, as well as video and television production. Currently, she teaches drama and video production at Lakewood Christian Schools. The video program which she implemented has won multiple awards over the past twelve years, according to Dana’s LinkedIn profile.
“I fell in love with old-time radio. I actually started to do it with my Middle School drama students, and they loved the radio format,” Dana says, in her e-mail.
You may fall in love with it, as well! Here’s the link to LBSC’s “Radio Theater Archives”, where you can hear classics including “Swiss Family Robinson” and “Sherlock Holmes and the Scandal in Bohemia”, as well as past radio-theatre performances of “A Christmas Carol”.
While the pandemic necessitated a change in Long Beach Shakespeare Company’s plans for 2020. they were the first theater in LB to open for in-person performances indoors, in August of 2021.
“We have (a) great air filtration system, (our) actors are all vaccinated and…they remain 7 feet from the closest patron” Dana says.
“Our crew and front-of-house volunteers are all vaccinated and remain masked.
“We also require all of our patrons to remain masked and there is no eating or drinking in the venue, to help keep the masks on.”
And finally, Dana adds, theater capacity has been reduced, to allow for social distancing.
“We are a small venue, and have limited our seating to 30 instead of our standard 46,” she explains.
The quantity of audience members may be lower. But I predict that the performance quality will be off-the-charts fantastic.