Immersive “Christmas Carol” program to benefit the Haven at Skanda
Practically everyone knows the story of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” but what if Scrooge were a five-foot puppet, the setting was inside a historic mansion and the audience walked freely within the production around the house, engaging in and experiencing the story as they go?
This is the creative idea behind the upcoming “A Christmas Carol: Retold,” by Breadcrumbs Productions in collaboration with Open Hand Theater, which will be performed Dec. 1 at “Hillcrest” Jephson Estate in Cazenovia as a fundraiser for The Haven at Skanda.
“The idea will be as if a party is raging at a mansion and a four-person traveling troupe arrived to tell the story. They begin in one area then split up, and the audience can follow anyone — the audience needs to make a choice, who to follow and where to go; they will be able to take ownership over the story itself,” said Tanner Efinger, founder of Breadcrumbs and one of the performers in the show.
Efinger, who has worked in theater in New York, Los Angeles and London, England, said the idea behind this show — and all of Breadcrumbs’ productions — is non-traditional theater, sometimes called “immersive” theater.
“You’re not sitting in a static setting and seeing a show you have seen 100 times. Instead, it will be engaging — we ask you to explore a bit deeper into the narrative, into the spectacle,” Efinger said. “It’s going to be exciting and different; I think people are really going to enjoy it.”
According to the promotional materials for the show, audiences will “follow Scrooge through the halls of an historic mansion as you unravel this yuletide tale of greed, guilt and forgiveness. Learn once more what Christmas is all about as you take Tiny Tim’s hand, dance with Fezziwigs, and engage with Spirits of the past, present and future.”
The show’s tagline is “We all know the story – but does the story know us?” What this means, according to Efinger, is that the story of “A Christmas Carol” is so accessible because we find pieces of ourselves in the characters, we are aware of these characters, “and now it’s time for these characters to be aware of us and put a mirror between us and them. We want people to leave not thinking just that Christmas is great, but thinking, ‘Who am I in relation to Christmas?’” he said.
“A Christmas Carol: Retold,” is written by Marisa Valent with excerpts from Charles Dickens and Christina Rosetti, and performed by Maya Dwyer, Tanner Efinger, Peter Fekete and Lana Stafford.
The performance will be from 7 to 9 p.m. Fri, Dec. 1, at “Hillcrest” Jephson Estate, 4571 Ridge Road, Cazenovia. Tickets are $25 plus fees and tax. Light refreshments will be served. This performance benefits The Haven at Skanda.
In addition to the Hillcrest performance, Breadcrumbs Productions is also performing “A Christmas Carol: Retold” eight more times in December in historic mansions in Oneida, Geneva, Cortland and Syracuse.
For more information, visit their website at breadcrumbsproductions.com/a-christmas-carol.
