Here at the Alliance, the holiday season usually begins a bit early. Every October we welcome the cast and crew of A Christmas Carol back into our rehearsal halls to prepare for our favorite holiday tradition. For many of our friends working on this production, being a part of the show is its own special tradition, spending the season with us year after year.
In the spirit of tradition, we asked the folks of A Christmas Carol to share about some of the backstage traditions that have developed amongst the cast and crew over the years — what they are and what they mean to them.
“A tradition of sorts is our first read through/meet and greet day. I find it electric. Friends from all departments gather in the rehearsal space, some people you saw earlier in the week, others you haven’t seen since December 24th of the previous year. It’s filled with ‘It’s good to see your face’, ‘How are you actually doing?’, ‘Show me pictures of your dog!’ ‘How are you liking the new place?’ ‘Your kids have gotten so big!’ Even though the world can feel so heavy, for some magical reason on an early evening in October, everything feels just right. I [also] really enjoy the first [full] day back. You have jitters of starting to learn this story again and finding newness within it with everyone. I, along with many others, have heard this Charles Dickens classic since I was a little girl. Although a story told many ways, many different times, there is so much to discover. I get so excited at the thought of what we, as a company of artists, will find out about each other, the world, and ourselves through diving back into this piece.”
— Allie Hill (understudy)
“Before I was in the show, I was in the audience. It was my family’s tradition to see A Christmas Carol every year, and it was one of the best parts of the holiday season. The show is still our tradition, but now I am on stage instead of [in] the audience. One of the best traditions [I share with my Alliance Theatre family] is that every year the cast and crew come together to celebrate the season by doing a Secret Santa gift exchange. It’s less about the gifts though and more about coming together. The day is filled with laughter and friendship. All the gifts are very thoughtful and specific to the person receiving the gifts — some of the gifts are even handmade! For many of us, this show has become our Christmas.”
— Caleb Baumann (Matthew Watkins)
“The best memories I have from my time with the A Christmas Carol family are ones that happened behind the scenes! My first year, the other A Christmas Carol kids and I decorated our dressing room with lights and holiday decorations, had pajama day, and decorated gingerbread houses during the break of a two-show day. We also created a really fun video and took silly pictures with our young performer supervisor, Kate! But my favorite tradition was being part of Secret Santa and seeing everyone’s expressions during the reveal party and A Christmas Carol potluck!”
— Adrienne Ocfemia (Melinda Cratchit)
“Usually on the potluck day, not only do we do food and a secret Santa exchange, but the crew chief will let the child actors ride on the lift and make it snow [on stage]. The last day in the rehearsal hall the kids pull up all the [marking] tape from the floor and I give them leftover Halloween candy in direct proportion to the size of the tape ball they bring me. It’s fun and takes them [only] three minutes to do something that would take the Stage Management team at least 20! Leora bought us a Polaroid camera for the first opening and every year I get a new set of film for everybody to take pictures.”
— Liz Campbell (Stage Manager)
“One ritual that, for me, is tied particularly to A Christmas Carol is saying (shouting, really) ‘Upon the ice!’ to fellow cast members as we go to places at the top of the show. As if we are, I don’t know, hockey players perhaps, saying ‘I’ll see you out there on the ice’? I really don’t know when or how it started, but I’ve been saying it since I was first cast in A Christmas Carol as Jacob Marley around 2011 or so. I can hear Chris Kayser (Scrooge) and Bart Hansard (Present/Fezziwig) in my head saying it, and I think those guys are where I learned it. I love rituals in the theater. I feel like they tie me to the past, present, and future of theater in a beautiful way. This ritual ties me to Atlanta actors, friends I’ve worked with, people I love and respect. It’s fun to think that someone in this year’s cast is learning this ritual from me, and they’ll continue to say it down the road like an ancient blessing that travels through generations.”
— Andrew Benator (Ebenezer Scrooge)
A Christmas Carol will run on the Coca-Cola Stage November 9 through December 24, 2024 – learn more.
Who hasn’t sat in a room with a loved one and engaged in some spit balling around a great idea for a small business start up?
The term “small business” is a misnomer, as there is certainly nothing small about its impact. Small businesses fuel economic flexibility, create jobs, foster innovation and fill many needs within our local economies. In a global economy that is dominated by big businesses, it is even more imperative that entrepreneurial initiatives focus on seeds of business ideas that provide services based on real consumer needs, not necessarily profit margins.
And of course, many times these seedlings take off and become the Next Big Idea.
Here in our very own Atlanta, CEO and Founder Pinky Cole started the cheekily named Slutty Vegan as a way to provide healthy vegan food options for the community, and Sara Blakely (founder of Spanx) was looking for the right undergarment to provide a smooth look under pants. Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank dreamed up The Home Depot from a coffee shop in Los Angeles, with the vision that employees would personally walk customers through home repair or improvement. In Australia, Melanie Perkins (co-founder and CEO of the free-to-use online design platform, Canva) and her boyfriend Cliff Obrecht saw classmates struggling with design software at university and dreamed up a more accessible tool.
In the early 2000’s, when many cultural organizations in Atlanta were struggling, longtime arts supporter and financial advisor of the Kendeda Fund, Barry Berlin, approached the Fund’s founder, Diana Blank, about creating a program to strengthen the arts in Atlanta. They invited multiple arts organizations in the city to submit their own big idea that they would execute if finances were not a consideration. Susan Booth pitched the idea of a program that would result in a world premiere by an emerging playwright fresh out of graduate school. From there, the Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Program took flight.
Previous Alliance/Kendeda Competition winners Furlough’s Paradise, DREAM HOU$E, and The Many Wondrous Realities of Jasmine Starr-Kidd. Photos by Greg Mooney.
Over the course of 21 years, this big idea has led to 21 world premieres of new plays and a total of 107 up and coming playwrights gracing our rehearsal halls and stages. What started as an acknowledgment of a need (we must continue to invest not only in the development of emerging playwrights’ work, but also the producing of the work) has become a yearly steadfast commitment to five writers from various MFA playwriting programs across the country. Each year, one play graces the Hertz Stage, and four finalist plays receive rigorous development attention by way of workshops and public readings. What started as a dream became a reality, and this nationally renowned initiative has become a staple in the canon of Alliance Theatre’s new work initiatives.
Here’s to 21 more years of dreaming up the Next Big Idea.
Business Ideas will premiere on the Hertz Stage November 16 through December 15, 2024 – learn more.
Stage Management Fellow Kacie Pimentel, Crew Chief Bryan Perez, Stage Manager Liz Campbell, and Assistant Stage Manager Anna Baranski in 2022. Photo courtesy of Liz Campbell.
Liz Campbell is no stranger to the Alliance Theatre’s production of A Christmas Carol. She has been involved with the production in various roles backstage since 2005, spanning the three different versions of Carol that have been produced in that time.
“I started at the Alliance as a Stage Management apprentice,” Campbell says, “and I did A Christmas Carol for the first time that same year. I did a year as run crew, took two years off, then came back as the assistant stage manager in 2009 and filled that role until 2012. I took over [stage managing] the show in 2013 when Pat [Flora] retired.”
Campbell has worked on all three versions of this story that the Alliance Theatre has produced – the previous David H. Bell adaptation that ran on the Alliance Stage (later The Coca-Cola Stage) for thirty years, the current David H. Bell adaptation that premiered on The Coca-Cola Stage in 2021 and continues its run today, and the live radio play adaptation that performed in a parking lot in Atlanta’s Summerhill community in 2020.
“I’ve been with the show so long, I sometimes feel like the Ghost of Christmas Carols Past,” Campbell says.
Her favorite backstage tradition is Potluck Day, the day when the cast and team backstage gather for a few hours together to share food and exchange Secret Santa gifts.
“It’s the culmination of all the values of the season –” says Campbell – “gift giving, sharing a meal, joy, laughter, and communion.”
Left to Right: Actor Adrienne Ocfemia and Young Performer Supervisor Kate Walsh. Photo courtesy of Liz Campbell. Actor Emberlynn Wood. Photo courtesy of Liz Campbell. Actor Clare Latham. Photo courtesy of Liz Campbell.
When asked why she pursued stage managing as a career, Campbell says, “I love stage managing because it combines the skills and talents that I was lucky enough to be born with, as well as the passions I have (and an overwhelming desire to organize things). Calling a show feels like painting with lights to music; it brings me a joy I can’t describe.”
In addition to many – many – Alliance Theatre productions, Campbell has offered her talents as a stage manager to many theaters and organizations outside of the Alliance, such as The Shining and RENT at The Atlanta Opera; In the Continuum at Synchronicity Theatre; Book of Will and It’s a Wonderful Life at Theatrical Outfit; and The Drowsy Chaperone, Camelot, The World Goes Round, Million Dollar Quartet, Monty Python’s Spamalot, and Ragtime at the Atlanta Lyric Theatre. She has also been the stage manager for the Georgia High School Musical Theatre Awards (or the Shuler Awards) for almost a decade.
However, she says that her career highlight has been watching her daughter grow up “seeing, responding to, and enjoying” the shows she’s worked on.
Her favorite moment in the Alliance’s current production of Carol is when Christmas Present sings “O, Holy Night” at the beginning of Act II. “It stirs my heart and soul so much,” she says, “that sometimes I forget for a moment I’m working and have cues to call!”
Campbell says she keeps coming back to Carol “because I love it. I can’t imagine my holiday season without A Christmas Carol.”
And we can’t imagine A Christmas Carol without her.
A Christmas Carol will run on the Coca-Cola Stage November 9 through December 24, 2024 – learn more.
GIVE THE GIFT OF THEATER
‘Tis the season! With the holidays fast approaching, we have compiled a carefully curated selection of holiday gift suggestions for your family, friends, and loved ones. The list is not an exhaustive list, but some of the best of what we have to offer as potential gift ideas designed to create memories and moments that can last a lifetime.
LET THEM CHOOSE THE SHOW, DATE, AND TIME – GIVE A GIFT CERTIFICATE
Gift certificates are valid for Alliance Theatre productions, classes, and camps. They can be emailed directly to the recipient, or you can have it sent to you to print and present to the recipient. Let your loved one choose the show or activities, dates, and times that works best for them with this flexible, thoughtful gift for the theater-lover in your life.
SHOW TICKETS
Tickets for a show they’re excited about from the 2024-2025 season make the perfect experiential gift! Check out all the award-winning new plays in the second half of the season.
For families with children under 5, consider tickets to the Bernhardt Theatre for the Very Young show, Gimme Please! Tickets are free for children 5 and under and adult tickets are only $15.
MEMBERSHIPS AND SEASON TICKET PACKAGES
Membership does have its privileges! Whether through a 12-month Annual Membership, Classic, or Young Professional Membership, the Alliance Theatre provides a unique opportunity to experience the Alliance’s in-person performances on the Coca-Cola and Hertz Stages.
Choose Your Own Membership, one of the most popular memberships, is the perfect opportunity to mix-and-match your theater going experience. Select three plays in a Choose Your Own membership and take advantage of the best the Alliance has to offer in live entertainment, as well as invitations to special behind-the-scenes events, and discounts on extra tickets, classes, and parking.
Potential membership packages include:
World Premieres
Business Ideas
BUST
The Reservoir
Powerful New Plays
BUST
The Reservoir
Millions
Family-Friendly Package
A Christmas Carol
Doctor De Soto
Millions
Perks of a membership include, but are not limited to:
- Discounts on parking and acting classes.
- Early access to seats and performance dates before they are available to the public.
- Exclusive behind-the-scenes events.
This season features a handful of special productions, including several regional debuts, and another enhanced world premiere production.
CLASSES
Maybe you have a child who commands everyone’s attention when they are in a room, or a family friend who has always wanted to perform but never quite had the courage or confidence. Classes are a great way to encourage and support your loved one as a holiday gift. There are classes for youth and teens, classes for adults, and also Babies: Off Book! for newborns to 24-month-olds.
ALLIANCE THEATRE STORE
Alliance Theatre merchandise makes the perfect gift for the theater-lover in your life – even if it’s you! Now offering the official ornament keepsake for the 2024 production of A Christmas Carol. Or enjoy your favorite hot beverage in an Alliance Theatre Christmas Carol mug. Or wrap up in a cozy Alliance Theatre hoodie!