ALLEN UNDEM

ALLEN UNDEM / ENTERPRISE
Saturday, December 7, 2002

Park Rapids Enterprise, Saturday, December 7, 2002:

Dress rehearsals have begun for the Long Lake Theater's rendition of Charles Dickens' venerable Christmas tale, "A Christmas Carol." Lone Wolf Players will be performing Wednesday through Sunday at the theater in Hubbard (732-0099 for reservations). An emotional scene in the play involves actors (from left) Kathy Wanvig, Lynne Presson, Mary Harrison, Herman Brocopp (as Scrooge), Kay Rossbach as Tiny Tim and Jerry Fuller playing several roles.

My Opinion
Allen Undem/ Park Rapids Enterprise, December 10, 2002

Hubbard, next is Frazee, then Broadway?
      I was offered a Christmas treat the other day. One day last week Mark Colbenson of the Long Lake Theater in Hubbard invited me to watch a dress rehearsal of "A Christmas Carol," which opens tonight and runs through Sunday, plus an "on the road" show to be performed sometime in Frazee.

      I love that story/play. I remember reading Dickens' original version at least twice, first as an English assignment the second just for fun. And I've seen the play on stage (and on television, for that matter) any number of times, including once at the Guthrie in Minneapolis where it was accompanied by amazing ghostly special effects.
      Every performance of "A Christmas Carol" I've seen leaves me with some special nuance or memory. Perhaps that is the goal of theater, to add something new or something different to set a show apart from the million others who have staged the same story.
      What was new and fresh for me was the acting of a couple of friends who carried major roles.
      If you know Herman Brocopp, you would never imagine him cast as Scrooge. The scowling, forceful "Bah, humbug!" and his essential meanness mixed with greed and general malevolence would never describe the actor.
      But, of course, it is just a role and Brocopp plays it well and, even if you don't know him, with immense humor and pathos.
      Jerry Fuller appears on stage throughout the performance playing a half-dozen roles. One shouldn't consider the actors during a play as anything but the characters they represent. But, for anyone who knows Fuller (and that's just about everybody), you don't see Bob Cratchett on the stage, but Jerry Fuller.
      And, lo and behold, he's very good (and sometimes very funny) at this new avocation.
      Charles Dickens, in my mind one of the best wordsmiths of the English language, was never given to writing short sentences or short paragraphs or even short stories.
      In "A Christmas Carol" he did not change his style of language usage. Many speeches in the play are long and difficult - a real challenge for those seven amateur actors, each with the courage to do a heap of memorizing then attempt to recite their lines in public.
      Scrooge, especially, who is part of nearly every scene had a gargantuan volume of lines to learn.
      Adding to the problem, for Fuller and several women in the cast, was that they play multiple roles, all with additional speeches, both long and short.
      The script stays close to the original with director Colbenson having added a few new and humorous lines to lend local color. To mention them now would spoil the fun.
      In addition to Brocopp and Fuller, the cast include Kay Rossbach (12-year-old narrator and Tiny Tim), Menahga, Lynne Presson, Menahga, Kathy Wanvig, Huntersville, Mary Harrison, Sebeka and Laura Haugland, 13, who provides appropriate fiddle music throughout the show.
      The play is a delight. Colbenson has stuck to Dickens' original story and has done so effectively. If tickets remain, don't miss it. Call the box office at 732-0099.

ALLEN UNDEM is the Opinion Page editor for the Enterprise.